A Review

Of

Albert Ellis

By

Marky Mark

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Dr. Leon James, Instructor

Self-help books are useful in many ways. It provides an individual to assess their emotions and behaviors and find a method for which to feel better resulting to getting better. This is what Albert Ellis had in mind when he wrote this book. Feeling better is important in getting better. One functions poorly when he or she feels bad. Feeling better is the first step in making you get better but this is not the whole story.

There are many ways in which an individual can feel better. Meditation is one that was mentioned in this book. There are hundreds of ways for a person to feel better, but Albert Ellis argues this method of distraction does not make you get better. He believes these methods of distraction ranging from mediations, exercises, and others are just temporary therapy that will eventually wear itself out.

Humans live in a society where culture plays an important role in a person's view of the world. Culture also influences how a person reacts to certain stimulus. This is the reason why it would be difficult to acquire USA, because one has been programmed to think, feel, and act.

Unconditional other-acceptance implies that you accept others for your own interests and that your well being is associated with your group's well-being.

You can achieve UOA by not evaluating people's good or bad actions as their total selves. Ellis argues that you should rather look at these actions as part of them.

These beliefs are the values you hold which creates problems. These are the shoulds and musts to gain approval of others.

This idea of control over your thinking and feeling is important in today's society. We live in a society that is far from perfect. The world's population is increasing at an alarming pace. For many people, this environment gives the impression that they have no control of the things that are happening.

Having the idea that you have control of your thinking and feeling helps give people some stability.

Ellis talks about the many methods that people do to distract themselves of their self-disturbing. Methods such as Yoga exercises, hobbies, and games helps people feel good about themselves. Ellis argues that this is only temporary. This type of method might work, but Ellis argues that these will not make you get better.

One of the many problems discussed in his book is peoples' need for perfectionism. Ellis stated that your demands for perfection would eventually lead to failure. He believes that people should try for your best and not be the best. Ellis gave the advice that people should use perfecting goals as a process and not as an end result.

Eastern philosophies believe that the body and mind work together. In order for you to be healthy, you must also have a health mind. Ellis philosophized that his methods will help you lead a happier life.

This book is one of the many self-help books designed to help those who need a little encouragement to break away from their self-disturbing ways and find a healthier living. We live in a stressful world. The demands of family and other responsibilities that one has can leave an individual overwhelmed, which can lead to stress. With the help of these methods, Ellis believes that people will be aware that these self-disturbing behaviors can be controlled and overcome by the individual.

The use of support group is one of the methods mentioned in this text. These types of groups, individuals can find people who are experiencing similar symptoms and they are likely will listen and talk to you and help you get through the adversities you are experiencing.

Exercises to relieve stress and help improve heath are part of self-help books. In this book, Ellis has provided readers some of these exercises designed to improve emotional heath. REBT self-help form is one of those self-help methods. This form as many parts designed to identify self-disturbing behaviors and find solutions to these problems.

The first part is identifying the situation that is disturbing you. It can be internal or external, present, past, or future. The second part is anticipating the consequences. You are required to identify negative emotions and self-defeating behaviors.

The third parts are identifying irrational beliefs, which are the dogmatic demands such as the musts, oughts. It can be also the LFT and rating oneself. Finally, you are to identify new negative emotions and create a new constructive behavior. The idea behind this thinking is to allow the individual experiencing these disturbing emotions to see that these things are not that terrible. Instead, Ellis wants to train the mind to get away from the dogmatic attitudes that people developed throughout their lives.

This method is useful because it allow the individual to see what exactly is making the person feel negative. By identifying these behaviors and feelings, you are in a sense making a plan to reverse or lessen self-disturbing behaviors.

It is difficult to distinguish what type of individuals who should read this book. I believe that everyone should read it because those who feel that they are emotional healthy might not be healthy at all. Perhaps this book is focused on people who are emotionally distress and need guide to find him or herself. Those who are on the edge of the emotionally unstable spectrum are the ones who should not read this book because of the fact that Ellis stated it would be difficult to acquire the better thinking and feeling.

I learned a lot of things about myself and the way people interpret feelings. I never imaged that one can separate your feelings from your thinking. I always though they go together. I do believe this book can help individuals who need help. I found this book interesting because it has so much information about emotions and critical thinking.

I may however question whether Ellis wrote this book for a specific type of audience. In this book, he discusses how you should question the way you interpret your feelings. Ellis stated that sometimes, the actions and interpretations you decide might not be yours but a collection or influence of your society.

I do not recall him discussing about the influence of culture. Will these methods of changing your thinking and reinterpret your feelings work in the East? I believe that his methods will not work in the east because of different mentality towards feelings and thinking.

The strengths of this book in my opinion is acknowledging that what people do might not work for long time. Methods such as exercising and meditations are ways to get away from your adversities. These are just short-term solutions to long term problems. I like the idea of exploring possibilities that works best for you to reach the goal of happier you.

There is a section that I found interesting. The breathing exercise was interesting to me because I never have though about it. It discusses about being a belly breather and a chest breather. I found it interesting that being a belly breather is good thing.

The science of psychology is a broad one. In deciding where this book fit, I would assume it would be in the realms of behavioral psychology. Throughout the text, you see many situations in which the examples in this book could have been avoided by simply thinking in a constructive manner.

Ellis reminds these individuals of their powers to thinking in a rational way.