Title: The Irrational Ideas of Albert Ellis - Exploring your mind
Headings: The Irrational Ideas of Albert Ellis
The Irrational Ideas of Albert Ellis
Irrational ideas
But not everything is irrational…

Content: Albert Ellis was one of the founders of cognitive psychology. He started to develop his therapy in 1962 and gave it the name “rational emotive behavior therapy” (REBT). Ellis believes that a large number of psychological problems are due to patterns of irrational thought. Ellis focuses his theory on the idea that “ People are not changed by facts, but by what they think about the facts ,” in the words of the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus. Thus we can say that the “REBT” part of the following hypothesis: It is not events (A) that create emotional states (C), but the way in which they are interpreted (B). Therefore, if we are capable of changing our mental schemata, that is, our patterns of thinking, we will be capable of creating emotional states that are less painful, more positive, and consistent with reality. Irrational ideas
So, Ellis listed a series of irrational beliefs and grouped them into 11 basic irrational ideas that we could summarize as follows: “I need love and approval from those around me” or “I have to be loved and have the approval of everyone important who is around me.” “To be valuable, I have to achieve everything that I set out to do” or “if I am a valuable person, I always have to be competent, sufficient, and capable of achieving everything that I set out to do.”