I sometimes refer to REBT as a system of ideas for human flourishing. Ellis developed REBT as a psychotherapy and refined it throughout his 60-year career working with numerous individuals. He was not an academic, but a tireless real-world clinician who had an estimated 180,000 hours of direct contact with clients, helping them solve their problems and experience more happiness and meaning in life.
REBT has important and perhaps lesser-known ideas that make it a philosophy of life, or a life orientation (Ellis, 1994). I actively teach these ideas as a way of helping people become more fully functioning individuals who cultivate their potential and live their lives to the fullest. Here are some of those lesser-known ideas of REBT, which, if consistently followed, can help you self-actualize and move beyond overcoming emotional disturbance and into a happier and more rewarding existence:
- Nonconformity and individuality: REBT has long endorsed sensible nonconformity and individuality in matters of sex, love, marriage, vocation, recreation, and other significant aspects of life.
- Unconditional Self-Acceptance: Perhaps the foundation of emotional well-being is unconditional self-acceptance, accompanied by accountability for the consequences of one’s decisions and actions. REBT is the only psychotherapy that actively teaches unconditional self-acceptance over the misguided notion of self-esteem.
- Acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty: REBT challenges the notion of absolute truth and instead encourages accepting that this is a world of probability, where certainty is an unattainable abstraction.
- Tolerance: REBT goes beyond encouraging individuals to tolerate themselves with their strengths and weaknesses, but to extend that tolerance to their fellow fallible humans and to life itself. REBT points out that utopias and perfect solutions do not exist. Instead, what does exist are tradeoffs and imperfect solutions. Tolerance of others and life allows one to live well in a highly imperfect, unfair, and challenging world with error-prone humans who will sometimes obstruct each other due to their emotional disturbance, ignorance, or limited intelligence. REBT holds all people accountable for their actions, but discourages abstract, mythological, and harm-producing ideas such as the existence of inherently evil people, as well as the existence of superhumans and saints.
- Acceptance of human animality: REBT acknowledges our animal nature and discourages people from awfulizing or embarrassing themselves about their bodily products, odors, or functions. REBT also acknowledges the finiteness of our lives, as well as our proneness to illness and death. To flourish, a human had better come to terms with the fact that they and their loved ones will age, become ill, and eventually die.
- Commitment and intrinsic enjoyment: REBT encourages a healthy sense of humor and teaches that people function best when they enjoy pursuits as ends or pleasures in themselves, rather than merely as a means to an end (e.g., working for the sake of money). Our commitment to people, things, and ideas is a path to emotional health and maximal happiness and meaning in life. People discover these vitally absorbing interests through experimentation and trial-and-error learning. REBT also encourages people to find the happy balance between taking themselves and life too seriously or not seriously enough.
- Creativity and originality: REBT encourages people to overcome their fear of failure and to accept themselves unconditionally, which, along with their individual interests, enables them to lead fuller lives when they have at least one creative interest. REBT sees people as natural problem-solvers, scientists, and creative beings.
- Social interest and ethical trust: REBT encourages humans to have an interest in others and their social group. REBT favors win-win solutions as realistic and sustainable alternatives to short-term win-lose solutions and the exploitation of others.
- Enlightened self-interest: REBT also encourages people to be true to themselves, put themselves first, a few selected others a close second, and all others not too far behind.
- Self-direction and self-reliance: REBT encourages people to set their own path in life and take responsibility for pursuing their self-selected goals and purposes. Although accepting support from others is welcomed, REBT encourages self-support over relying on others for support.
- Flexibility and scientific outlook: REBT encourages the use of logic and the scientific method. The empirical outlook of REBT mitigates the human tendency to be disturbed by rigid and anti-scientific ideas. REBT encourages people to adopt a position of flexibility as new empirical data refutes previously held hypotheses.
- Semantic precision: REBT emphasizes the precise use of language, as thought is heavily reliant on language, and overgeneralizations and abstractions often lead to emotional disturbance. In contrast, language consistent with empiricism tends to produce more adaptive negative emotions and behaviors in response to adversity.
- Risk-taking and experimenting: REBT encourages people to take calculated risks, not foolhardy ones, and experiment with new ways of living to discover and lead a more fulfilling existence.
- Long-range hedonism: REBT encourages sensible self-discipline, an anti-procrastination, action-oriented stance. REBT teaches that life is an opportunity to enjoy oneself rather than prove one’s worth as a human being. Therefore, REBT involves regularly investing in work and effort to maximize pleasure and minimize pain over the long run.
Ellis’s REBT is both a psychotherapy and a well-constructed system of ideas for evolving into a more fully functioning, self-actualizing individual. These ideas, when followed, can help individuals not only overcome emotional disturbance but also flourish in an imperfect, unfair, complex, and unpredictable world. When people discipline their minds to adopt the flexible and non-extreme attitudes endorsed by REBT and implement the above ideas, they will likely experience greater joy and fulfillment in the one life they will ever have. Keep at it!
Reference
Ellis, A. (1994). Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. New York: Birch Lane Press.