ABSTRACT
Although I can easily explain most of the process of reality therapy, it is difficult to describe how to create the therapeutic relationship that is necessary for its success. To do this well is an art gained only through constantly evaluating the progress of each client. This art, however, will not be acquired unless the therapist makes the effort to learn the control theory that is the foundation for all we do. The impetus for developing reality therapy was my dissatisfaction with what I was taught during my psychiatric residency at the Veterans Administration, West Los Angeles, and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1954 to 1957. Some specific points with which I disagreed were that:
Clients suffer from mental illnesses. Their only choice is to be the way they are, which means that they are not responsible for their present behavior.
The source of their present problem is almost always in the past and only can be corrected by working in the past.
It is important not to become friends with clients, but to remain aloof, uninvolved, and “objective.”
The therapist should never advise clients, but, instead, work to create an environment in which clients eventually figure out what to do no matter how long this takes.
Other people and events are responsible for clients’ behavior. Parents who did not raise their children “perfectly” are mainly responsible for their children’s problems, even when the children become adults.
Therapy is a long, drawn-out process that must involve unconscious motivation or it will not succeed.
There are unconscious forces, such as the “id,” that are so strong, mysterious, and deep that almost no one with problems can deal with them successfully without the assistance of an expert therapist.
Self-destructive behaviors, such as alcoholism, compulsive gambling, and promiscuity, are components of mental diseases over which the sufferer has no control.
We can learn more about psychological problems by studying people suffering from these problems than by studying effective people who have been exposed to the same difficult situations, but who do not have these same problems.
