ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines 100 key points that will improve the reader's practice of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). REBT was founded in 1955 by Albert Ellis, an American clinical psychologist who had become increasingly disaffected with psychoanalysis in which he trained in the late 1940s. In 1961, he changed its name to Rational-Emotive Therapy to show critics that it did not neglect emotions, and over 30 years later Ellis renamed the approach yet again, calling it Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy to show critics that it did not neglect behaviour. Rational beliefs, which are deemed to be at the core of psychological health, are flexible and non-extreme, consistent with reality, logical and self- and relationship-enhancing. Irrational beliefs, which are deemed to be at the core of psychological disturbance, are rigid and extreme, inconsistent with reality, illogical and self- and relationship-defeating.
