ABSTRACT
As Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) has a specific perspective on emotional disturbance and what to do about it which its practitioners offer to teach clients, a number of people ask whether REBT therapists try to brainwash their clients. REBT therapists tell their clients what to think without due regard to their current views and press them hard to believe the REBT "line". REBT holds that one of the hallmarks of mental health is the ability to think for oneself and to be sceptical of new ideas. It regards gullibility, suggestibility and thinking uncritically as breeding grounds for emotional disturbance. Good REBT therapists encourage their clients to voice their doubts, reservations and objections about REBT and take these seriously. This is almost the antithesis of brainwashing. Just because REBT therapists teach REBT principles to their clients, it does not follow that they are attempting to brainwash their clients or impose their views on them.
