THE ROAD TO TOLERANCE --- THE PHILOSOPHY OF RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY by Albert Ellis. Prometheus Books, 2004
BOOK REVIEW (adapted from Amazon.com on Internet)
The ebullient "cognitive therapy" pioneer Albert Ellis died July 24, 2007. He wrote more than 75 books, most of which advocate his brand of psychotherapy called "Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy." This book presents his characteristically forthright engagement with definitions of spirituality and his honest, lively reappraisal of his own thought. He recommends his ideas as a general guide to life.
Writing in the no-nonsense style that characterizes his public speaking, the book opens with an overview of how his therapeutic principles evolved. He criticizes Freudian therapy as ineffectual and opposes Jung's mysticism. He believes in helping clients banish "self-defeating" thoughts, including "negative nonsense" in order to take control of their lives.
Ellis claims to have discovered his main idea — that people largely upset themselves with these negative thoughts — in classical and Asian philosophy.
Assuming religious belief to be the most prevalent popular philosophy, he discusses — with the cautiousness of a self-declared atheist — some of the benefits of religious belief but warns against fundamentalism. He also doubts religion's capacity for improving human thought processes even while he demonstrates how it might be possible to salvage religion's humanistic and caring aspects for the purposes of therapy.
And he takes on — not for the first time — Ayn Rand's Objectivism. Ellis uses some entertainingly gossipy anecdotes culled from personal encounters with her.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (p9)
PREFACE (11-15)
1) Philosophic foundations of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy = "REBT" (p17-89)
2) Core philosophies that people use to disturb themselves and that they can radically change (p91-97)
3) Attempts to take a middle road between empirical science and spiritual and religious philosophies (p99-)
WHY DO MANY PEOPLE IGNORE SCIENTIFIC EMPIRICISM AND
HOLD ON TO RELIGIOUS, SPIRITUAL, AND SOME SUPERNATURAL BELIEFS? (p100)
Five answers (p100-104)
4) Does "faith" actually help believers in religious and spiritual philosophies improve their mental health? (p105-110)
5) Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy with people who believe in religion (p111-124)
6) The dangers of extreme, absolutistic, and fanatic religious and spiritual philosophies (p125-133)
7) My prejudices about encouraging religious philosophies and practices (p135-143)
8) Zen Buddhism and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (p145-168)
9) The social philosophy of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (p169-180)
10) The political and economic philosophy of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (p181-193)
11) A consideration of "rational" and "irrational" spirituality (p195-207)
12) CONCLUSI0N (p209-212)
I can always accept "myself, my being," while remaining intolerant of some of my "behaviors:"
[1] Unconditional Other-Acceptance: It means that you do not tolerate the antisocial and sabotaging actions of other people. Also, you try to help them change. But you always accept them their personhood, and you never damn their "total selves."
[2] Unconditional Life-Acceptance: It means that you deplore adversities and injustices and do your best to rectify them. But when you can't change inevitable misinformation, you un-upsetably accept them and do not enrage, panic, or depress yourself about them.
APPENDIX A --- "Intellectual Fascism" (p213-227)
APPENDIX B --- REBT diminishes much of the human ego (p229-247)
SELECTED REFERENCES (p249-256)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (p257-258)
INDEX (p259-271)
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