The ABCDE technique consists of five elements.

1. Misfortune or activating event

Consider an event that caused you negative or painful emotions. You must remember the moment that happened after the unpleasant event and before, how you reacted with emotions such as worry, sadness or anger. It is this very moment that needs to be noticed consciously. It will help you restructure your thinking so that unpleasant emotions do not penetrate inside you.

Example: a friend asks you to borrow money again or again did not keep his promise.

2. Beliefs

We all explain to ourselves what this or that event means to us. For a moment, avoid judgments like “good” or “bad” and simply accept the situation as it is. We are often exposed to irrational beliefs that lead to inappropriate emotions. They always arise when we lack evidence or when we overgeneralize a cause or problem.

Example: “Well, nothing worked out for me. I never succeed."

3. Consequences

Consequences are always more than just the results of an event. They can take behavioral and emotional forms. We often observe a situation from the outside, noticing how a person attacks us with a scream or raises his voice. What else needs to be considered are internal factors: the other person's anxiety or sadness.

Example: regret, disappointment in the person you are dealing with or disappointment in you.

4. Challenging

We have reached the practical part of the technique. This step involves consciously challenging and interrupting a negative belief system through thoughtful reflection and questioning. First, you must bring your subconscious beliefs to the surface, and then enter the debate phase. Ask yourself six questions:

These questions facilitate the process of separating critical from dysfunctional thinking. It is important to ask ourselves these questions whenever we have reacted incorrectly and to understand how certain beliefs harm us. Eliminate reactionary thoughts and learn to think productively.

For example:

• I also asked my friend for money before / I also break my word, besides, this act does not mean that he does not respect me - he just has a lot of problems in his family.
• I'll lend him the money anyway, so why worry about it? My thinking is negative, I need to think about the good parts of my friend.
• Many great people have suffered hundreds of failures before achieving success. Just because it didn’t work out for me now doesn’t mean it will always be like this. You need to master your skills, work on your mistakes and increase your chances of achieving your goal.
• My negative emotions harm my friendships and relationships with other people. You should increase your emotional intelligence and learn to manage your emotions.

5. Results

Note for yourself all the positive results of this technique. When you clarify situations, don't involve negative emotions, and monitor your beliefs, you can develop the ability to create alternative line of thinking, which is based on plausible and reasonable beliefs.

Techniques for working with thoughts

Give this exercise the maximum amount of time - from 1 to 3 hours. You can finish it in 10 minutes, but you will benefit greatly from it if you take a piece of paper and a pen, concentrate and start thinking.

Complete the following sentences:

• Thoughts I want to get rid of: __
• Feelings I want to get rid of: __
• Feelings I want to get rid of: __
• Memories I want to get rid of: __

List all thoughts, feelings, sensations and memories. You may think that ten items is enough, but be patient and create a list of one hundred items for each parameter.

Complete this exercise with the following techniques:

Distractions: List everything you have ever done to distract yourself from unpleasant thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories. You may be surprised to discover that you have been unknowingly using effective techniques. It's time to remember them and apply them consciously.

Dodges: List the activities, people, interests, events and places you should avoid to overcome negative thinking. After that, make a list of the same elements that you need to engage your consciousness with more often.

Thought patterns: List all the unsuccessful strategies you have used to get rid of painful sensations. For example:

• Anxiety
• Think about the past
• Cultivate empty fantasies about the future without doing anything about it
• Imagine revenge scenarios
• Scroll through the thought: “This is not fair...”
• Scroll through the thought: “If only...”
• Blame yourself
• Blame others
• Blame fate and an unfair world

Substitutes: List all the physical substitutes you resort to during unpleasant moments in life. For example, food, booze, cigarettes, drugs, medications. Remember that these strategies only work in the short term and do not solve the problem in any way.

Now that you've made a few lists, analyze them and ask yourself:

1. Did it help me get rid of unpleasant thoughts and emotions? If not, what can be done to get rid of them in the long term?
2. Has my life become rich, full and meaningful? If not, what needs to be done for this?
3. What do you need to invest time, money, energy and resources into to change the way you think?

Optimistic intervention technique

It will take you six days to apply this technique, but you can do it in a few hours. In this case, the main condition will be regular review of the technique and periodic repetition of exercises. It is similar to positive visualization, but has some differences.

Day 1

Give yourself plenty of time and think about your most ideal family life (say, in the next 10 years). Imagine everything as beautiful as you can imagine. For example, you have an understanding spouse next to you, and you have an excellent relationship with your children. Moreover, you probably live close to your parents, friends and relatives, so you can devote enough time to them.

Write down everything that comes to your mind about this. Use the following instructions:

1. Be as creative as you wish.
2. Use the writing style that is most comfortable for you.
3. Don't worry about grammatical errors.
4. Add as much detail as possible.

Day 2

Take time and think about your ideal job or career in the future. Don't rush to answer because we rarely think about this. For example, you think that creating an innovative company or working as a designer with complete freedom of action would be ideal for you. Don't limit your imagination, even if you don't currently have the necessary skills to get this position.

Use the same instructions.

Day 3

Take time and think about your mental and physical health in the future. Imagine that you have achieved everything you wanted.

How do you see your mental capabilities? Are you creative or logical? How are you doing with your critical thinking?

Think about your body. How often do you exercise and what shape are you in? What food do you eat?

Use the same instructions.

Day 4

Use the same instructions.

Day 5

Take some time to think about your most exciting hobbies or interests in the future. What will it be? Perhaps it's horse riding or crafts? If this is travel, what countries will you visit and what emotions does it evoke in you? If reading, how many books have you already read, what knowledge have you acquired, and how do you feel thanks to it?

Use the same instructions.

Day 6

Take some time to think about your ideal social life in the future. Imagine that you have quiet and pleasant neighbors, loyal and reliable friends, and you yourself can easily find a common language with any person. You can easily start a conversation with a stranger and arouse his sympathy, you know how to influence people and feel confident in society. How do you feel? Imagine your ideal image in every detail.

Use the same instructions.

• Introduction.
• Theoretical background.
• Example from practice.
• The role of evaluative perception (irrational and rational).
• Diagram A-B-C.
• Psychological counseling based on RET.
• Psychological health concept.

One of the important areas of humanistic psychotherapy or psychological assistance is rational-emotive psychotherapy (RET) by Albert Ellis (1913-2007).

The system was developed by the author in the 50-60s. years of the 20th century as a mixture of a variety of therapeutic techniques. Ellis himself successfully used cognitive, emotional, behavioral techniques, as well as elements of psychoanalysis, in his psychological work.

The application of these methods was based on the principles of humanistic psychology, as well as on one of the cornerstones of Rogers' client-centered therapy - an unconditional positive attitude towards the client.
However, despite the obvious belonging of Ellis’s method to the humanistic direction and the use of elements of psychological practices from other schools, his methods of working with clients were very original and differed significantly from both traditional behaviorism and psychoanalysis, and from humanistic ones.

Basic concepts of RET.

The approach was based on Ellis’s idea that the source of people’s psychological problems are the so-called irrational beliefs (ideas, beliefs, assumptions), which are in conflict with real experience and are not subject to experimental confirmation due to their fallacy.
The source of such beliefs was the personal history of a person, namely, the previous events of his life, when, due to various circumstances, the individual took on faith various facts, the reliability of which was not verified by him personally in practice and recognized as reality.

As a result of the unconscious acceptance of such ideas, a person’s behavior began to be largely determined by these irrational beliefs, which led to a psychological problem in the form of an inherently destructive and traumatic emotional reaction to certain life events.
The problem was not only that such a reaction gave rise to long-term negative emotional consequences, but also that these emotions in no way helped to get out of the situation, but only aggravated it. Acting together with irrational beliefs, they formed a kind of vicious circle, when false attitudes gave rise to a destructive emotional state, which, in turn, supported these beliefs, and so on.

Here are a few typical irrational ideas that influence the assessment of a real situation - an event.

1. I must to be loved, and my correct behavior, good ideas and personal characteristics should be approved by people who are significant to me, hence the idea of ​​judging myself and other people for wrong behavior.
2. The value of me and other people is largely determined by how successful my life is, and the criteria for this success are achievements in various activities, competence, adequacy of behavior, so I, like everyone else, obliged reach perfection in the eyes of others and your own.
3. Bad people must be punished.
4. When something does not go according to our expectations, it is terrible and catastrophic. I always must be I am absolutely sure that positive events will happen, but negative ones will not.
5. All psychological problems are caused by external circumstances.
6. Life difficulties and problems should be avoided rather than dealing with them.

All of the above attitudes stem from the naive idealistic conviction that the world should be exactly like this as we imagine it. The paradox is that although these values, when considered from the point of view of almost any common sense, do not stand up to criticism, they nevertheless have a powerful influence on how a person reacts to a typical life situation. Thus, these ideas are actually religious dogmas, which, as a rule, are not subject to discussion and are taken for granted.

Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) by A. Ellis

Continuing the conversation about cognitive psychology and psychotherapy, it should also be noted the developments of another of its representatives - Albert Ellis. Like Beck, Ellis attached great importance to the cognitive sphere of man, which was completely ignored by the then popular behavioral approach to therapy.

In 1955, Albert Ellis proposed a new type of therapy, which he called rational therapy. He wanted to emphasize that the basis of our psychological problems is not so much specific events as our irrational attitudes, irrational beliefs that prevent us from accepting life as it is. In 1961, having improved and supplemented his therapy, Ellis gave it a new name - rational emotional therapy, abbreviated RET. It is still used under this name, although Ellis himself renamed it again in 1993 rational emotive behavior therapy, or REBT, thereby emphasizing the importance of attention to the real behavior of the client, which allows it to be classified as both behavioral and cognitive psychotherapy. The new name never caught on, and despite the fact that the latest version of therapy is now being used in work, it is called by its former name - RET.

If behavioral therapy seeks to change behavior by transforming external conditions, then RET sees its task in changing emotions, and then behavior, through transforming thoughts. The essence of the RET concept can be reflected in the diagram: A-B-C, where A - activation event - exciting (activating) event; B - belief system - belief system; C - emotional consequence - emotional consequences. An emotion seems to immediately follow the activating event, but Ellis believed that a person's thoughts and beliefs necessarily lie between them. Anxiety and other negative emotions are initiated by irrational cognitions. Ellis believed that such irrational thoughts and beliefs must be examined and exposed by rational thinking. This will help you overcome them and the negative feelings they provoke.

Ellis identified two types of cognitions: descriptive and evaluative. Descriptive (or describing) - represent relatively objective information about reality, evaluative - express a person’s attitude towards what is perceived. The latter are associated with varying degrees of rigidity: evaluative cognitions can be close to reality and very far from it. Ellis called the latter irrational judgments, which include errors such as incorrect conclusions, absolutization, exaggeration, simplification, etc.

One of the goals of Ellis therapy is to separate the negative feelings, emotions and beliefs that are periodically present in any person into rational and irrational. In other words, there are events that inherently should cause sadness, sadness, and some dissatisfaction; this is a normal reaction of a healthy person. But sometimes experiences arise on the basis of irrational beliefs, for example, when a person suffers because, having set himself unrealistic goals, he cannot achieve them, or because he cannot accept reality as it is, he suffers from the fact that nothing impossible to change. Feelings with such a basis do not help solve problems. It should be noted that Ellis did not use the concept of “irrational” in the sense of pathology. He called rational that which helps a person achieve the goals that he really needs, and irrational - everything that prevents this, and it is precisely certain beliefs - “cognitions” that interfere.

Ellis primarily considered absolutist cognitions to be irrational beliefs. These are various musts - categorical and inflexible, when a person perceives the world through the concepts of “must”, “necessary”. For some, this “should - shouldn’t” extends to themselves and their immediate circle of friends, for others - and to the distant one, for others - it generally reaches the existential level, that everything in the world is not so and should be different. Ellis believed that the most important point in gaining mental health is the refusal of absolutization - “should” must be replaced with “it would be necessary,” “it would be nice,” “I would like.” That is, to soften the rigidity of demands on oneself, others, and the surrounding reality, which drive a person into intolerable internal discomfort and create the same unbearable discomfort for others. Instead of being pleasant, a person sticks out his hard corners in all directions and then is surprised that no one approaches him. This is because you can get cut off and hit on these corners.

Irrational ideas lead to negative emotions (depression, anxiety, anger, guilt), which seriously interfere with the achievement of goals. They underlie dysfunctional behavior such as avoidance of decisions, the habit of procrastination, alcoholism, etc. At the same time, cognitions create programs of self-fulfilling prophecies due to constant exercise and reinforcement, i.e., a vicious circle arises - a negative judgment causes a negative emotion, which confirms a negative judgment, such as “everything is bad.”

Ellis paid great attention to the first (initial) acquaintance of the psychotherapist with the patient.

Here is a sample instruction from a RET psychotherapist:

“The therapy we begin is aimed at teaching you to manage your emotions and get rid of negative experiences. In the first stages of work, you will be given the opportunity to understand the ways in which you have created your negative feelings. You can also change these ways and thereby experience other, positive emotions. All this will require you to be active in your work both here and at home, since therapy involves doing homework, listening to audio recordings, and reading specialized literature. I am not a magician or wizard who will instantly save you from your problems. I can be a guide who will help you walk the road to your desired goal” (Fedorov A.P., 2002).

It must be said that Ellis did not share the opinion of representatives of Rogerian humanistic therapy about the decisive role of empathic support without the active intervention of the therapist. Ellis agreed that the client must be accepted as he is, but believed that this, however, should not exclude the appropriate activity of the psychotherapist, who can, if necessary, criticize the patient and expose his erroneous judgments. Ellis believed that uncritical, benevolent acceptance of the patient perpetuated his problems, as often happens in the family. And he especially actively recommended attacking the self-tyranny of obligation, when the patient drives himself into stress and anxiety with inflated demands on himself and others.

Based on extensive practical experience, Ellis differentiated approaches to different types of patients. Thus, he recommends avoiding an overly friendly, emotionally charged style of interaction with “hysterical” patients; an overly intellectual style with “obsessive-compulsive” patients; an overly directive style with people whose sense of autonomy is easily shaken; overly active style with patients who too quickly become passive.

Let's consider the stages of emotional-rational therapy.

First, you need to identify and verbalize (clearly express in words) irrational beliefs. In this case, special attention is paid to absolutist cognitions, which are manifested in the patient’s use of the words “must,” “must,” and “necessary.” This so-called tyranny of obligation becomes the main object of therapeutic work. The therapist must show the client how this belief system weighs on him.

Once core irrational beliefs have been clarified, the work of restructuring these cognitions at three levels begins: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral.

At the cognitive level, the main task of the therapist is to force the patient to abandon perfectionism (inflated demands for perfection), showing him that this will already make his life simpler and more joyful.

Socratic dialogue and cognitive dispute are used here (step-by-step bringing the client’s beliefs to the discovery of their incorrectness and harmfulness).

To influence the emotional damage, the drama of preferences and oughts is played out to distinguish between these two phenomena - “it would be better” and “should” with the help of role-playing games. Persuasion is carried out at the emotional level.

To enhance the emotional background, the therapist can, for example, invite members of the therapeutic group to tell one of its participants what they think about him, or encourage participants to admit their shortcomings, “shameful” feelings (envy, hostility, etc.). To do this, patients will have to show courage and make an effort on themselves, but as a result they will see that the group does not judge them, accepts them as they are, and the participants will be able to experience a sense of mutual trust and intimacy. To enhance this effect, Ellis used techniques that brought sensual pleasure: a friendly hug, stroking, expressing kind words that patients had not previously dared to do.

At the behavioral level, work is aimed not only at eliminating symptoms, but also at changing cognitions. For example, perfectionistic tendencies can be reduced by the following therapist tasks:

• ? overcome shyness and make a date;
• ? deliberately fail when speaking in front of an audience (therapeutic group);
• ? imagine yourself enduring a situation of failure;
• ? imagine yourself in difficult circumstances and accept them;
• ? allow yourself a pleasant activity only after completing an unpleasant but necessary task;
• ? start doing something right away, without putting it off until later, while enduring the discomfort of fighting the habit;
• ? take on an unpleasant task for the sake of deferred goals;
• ? from time to time behave as an already rational person (so that the patient can understand that change is possible).

Albert Ellis sought to bring emotional and rational perception to the same level, that is, to show a person his true needs, and not those real needs that possess the patient, false or unrealistic, overestimated or underestimated needs. The work of a psychotherapist should consist largely of revising the client’s goals and desires, assessing them - is this really what he needs, or does it just seem to him that maybe these are far-fetched, not true needs, and they are the ones that drain energy from achieving what is really truly needed?

Ellis believed that For psychological well-being, a person needs to have important life goals and actively strive to achieve them. Therefore, one of the therapist’s tasks in cognitive counseling is to analyze what goals his client sets and what he does to achieve them. After all, goals can be the most “rational” ones, but at the same time a person doesn’t really do anything to achieve them, he only thinks about it, but puts everything off until later. So, for example, a person decided to find a job, but every day he finds reasons to postpone the search, being distracted by all sorts of other things not related to the goal. Start, act, and along the way something will be added that will strengthen your position! Because deferred actions, if we recognize their necessity, give rise to neuroses, and those, in turn, are aggravated by further inaction. Therefore, if a person really understands that he needs to act, he should begin to act without fear of failure. There is a very good proverb: “Not every action brings success, but there is no success without action.” We must understand that not every step promises us success, but if we do nothing at all, then there will be no success. This is a very therapeutic proverb and can be used to counter a client's resistance. “Well, I acted and acted - and nothing happened.” And you immediately remember: “Not every action brings success, but there is no success without action.” You may not have achieved victory this time, but without making an attempt, there would be no chance of achieving it at all.

It is very important that the goals are adequate, not overestimated, otherwise you will never achieve them, but will only be disappointed and always remain in frustration, nervous tension, and not underestimated, since they will not allow a person to achieve personal growth, reveal his potential, which will also make a person unhappy. Abraham Maslow said: “I warn you that if you refuse to realize your abilities, you will be a deeply unhappy person.” Just like everything in nature - any blade of grass, any animal - so a person is programmed for maximum self-realization, and when not due to some circumstances, but on his own, a person moves away from development into passivity, laziness or some false goals, then this over time causes frustration, dissatisfaction, tension and emotional and sometimes even somatic disturbances.

Since a person lives in society, sometimes the achievement of his personal goals may not be consistent with the goals and desires of other people, which leads to conflicts both with others and with himself. He often has to solve a dilemma: give up his desires or act against the desires of others. This point is also the subject of the work of a psychological consultant or therapist, who must look at where the client’s desires and aspirations conflict with the desires and aspirations of other people, and help him find a reasonable compromise. If a person constantly “pulls the blanket over himself,” his relationships with the people around him will deteriorate, become fragile and insincere, and if, on the contrary, he constantly gives in to others, then his own desires will suffer and his self-realization will not occur, which will also make the person will feel unhappy. This means that it is necessary to be diplomatic and show that “I’m ready to give in, but I’m counting on certain concessions from you, let’s try to be more mutually accommodating!” In many cases, the psychologist will discover that there are no real contradictions as such, there is simply a different assessment of contradictory events, which is based on different psychological attitudes. And it may turn out that to resolve the conflict, it will be enough to look at the situation differently, and then it will become clear that satisfying your desire will actually not hurt anyone. To do this, it is necessary to investigate what beliefs underlie actions - rational, allowing one to achieve a goal, or irrational, preventing this.

Ellis's approach can also be called hedonistic. We know that there is such a direction in philosophy - hedonism. Its founder was Aristippus, who lived in Ancient Greece. According to this movement, the purpose of human life is to obtain pleasure. And, apparently, nature itself has laid down in man certain indicators of what he should strive for. Bad, as a rule, is unpleasant, painful; and good things bring pleasure. And one should be less led by social prejudices and trust more in the voice of nature, because she could not turn the good and pleasant into sinful and bad. It must be said that Ellis put a slightly different meaning into this term, hedonism. He spoke about the so-called delayed hedonism. What is it? Ellis believed that a person should have certain delayed gratifications for which he is now willing to endure some discomfort. For example, you understand that you will enjoy receiving a diploma and further good employment. But for this, now you need to study and sometimes do certain work, pass tests and exams, which are now right in your throat. Knowing that your true efforts will pay off in the long run helps you to force yourself to study conscientiously (to bother yourself with an activity). An athlete trains, tortures himself, so that later he can win and receive awards and glory, because he understands that without effort he will not achieve what he wants.

Many neurotic individuals do not know how to live in delayed hedonism. They prefer instant hedonism and follow the principle “if I can’t get something right away, then I won’t try,” that is, they cannot set themselves up for the fact that effort now will lead to success in the future. This is one of the most important tasks in raising children - to teach them from childhood to work for delayed gratification: if you finish a quarter well, you will get a bicycle, etc. Children must learn to force themselves to endure difficulties, and not just like that, but for the sake of obtaining pleasure in the future. Friedrich Engels said: “Man must live for the joys of tomorrow.” A person should have as many different delayed joys as possible, associated, for example, with a pleasant meeting, achievement, success or some other pleasure in the future, the anticipation of which brightens up our life today.

Ellis identified several criteria for psychological health:

• ? respecting one's own interests;
• ? social interest;
• ? self-government, readiness for reasonable cooperation;
• ? high tolerance to states of frustration;
• ? flexibility, lack of rigidity towards oneself and others;
• ? acceptance of uncertainty;
• ? dedication to creative pursuits;
• ? scientific thinking;
• ? self-acceptance;
• ? riskiness;
• ? delayed hedonism.

Let's try to explain these concepts.

Ellis believed that one of the signs of a person’s mental norm is his healthy selfishness. What did he mean by this concept? First of all, a person should not forget about his interests. Ellis considered complete submission of oneself to the desires of others to be an unhealthy phenomenon, as well as the opposite situation. That is, it must be a reasonable consideration of one’s own and others’ interests, but with priority given to one’s own.

In this regard, the position of the so-called altars, whose role is often played by parents who sacrifice themselves and their interests to the interests of their children, is unhealthy and creates ill health in others. It seems to them that by doing this they are doing better for their children, but in reality they are spoiling them, making them unable to achieve their goals on their own.

Sometimes this happens to mothers, and more often to single mothers who give up any pleasure for the sake of their child. And what example do such parents set for their children? If a mother really wants the best for her daughter, for example, then instead of depriving herself of everything, she should show her that, despite the difficulty of the situation, the woman copes, does not lose heart, takes care of herself, she is attractive to men, and is able to rejoice and think about your own interests. The daughter should see in front of her an example of what she should be. Otherwise, she will grow up selfish or as “flawed” as her mother, believing from childhood that loving another means completely abandoning her own desires. That is, healthy egoism is a necessary condition for the well-being of not only the person himself, but also his loved ones, for whom he is ready to sacrifice himself.

The ability to observe one’s own interests is complemented by another important characteristic of the norm - the ability to take into account and social interest. That is, the fact that a person lives as a complete egoist, thinking only about his needs, Ellis recognized as abnormal. He believed that healthy views are expressed in the ability to take into account not only one’s own interests, but to be attentive to the needs of others, as well as to be capable of cooperation and cooperation.

The next standard criterion is self-government This is, on the one hand, the willingness to solve one’s problems independently, without shifting them onto the shoulders of others and bearing responsibility for the results obtained, and on the other hand, the ability, if necessary, to accept help, enter into cooperation and cooperation. Here it is important to emphasize the fact that a person, always relying primarily on himself, does not refuse reasonable help and is capable of being useful on occasion; this is a manifestation of healthy beliefs.

Another characteristic of the norm sounds like high1 high tolerance to frustration. Let us remember that tolerance means tolerance, the ability to endure, and frustration is defined as strong emotional dissatisfaction. The essence of the characteristic is that a person with healthy cognitions is able to experience and overcome life’s difficulties without slipping into deep depression. Life is impossible without failures, troubles and difficulties, and it is natural to feel upset when they happen, but this should not unsettle a person, force him to give up on things and give up. And it is precisely the presence of tolerance to frustration that helps a person resist ongoing troubles.

Psychological health is also determined by the ability to express flexibility, rigidity(rigidity, as is known, is insufficient flexibility) towards yourself and others. Flexibility can be described as a person's ability to change his thoughts and actions when necessary in accordance with new circumstances, thereby adapting to an ever-changing environment. The world does not stand still, and to be successful, a person must change with it. But here we are mainly talking about the flexibility of cognition. Each person has his own principles; these are fairly stable human beliefs that create a system of views on the world. Some of them must remain unchanged, but some must change sometimes. Excessive rigidity of beliefs can hinder a person’s development and prevent his or her normal functioning in general. The most important point of Ellis's rational-emotive therapy is the identification of rigidly fixed beliefs, which, due to their rigidity, cause the patient a lot of trouble. It happens like this: a person, following his principles, not wanting to change them, complicates the life of himself and others, runs into various points that with rational therapy turn out to be unimportant, and it is also discovered that one can look at these things differently. For example, I may not like the behavior of a person, not because it is objectively bad, but because I personally don’t like it, but I take it and give it objectivity. I am beginning to believe that this is not my subjectivity, but an important principle that must be respected. This, naturally, will begin to prevent me from communicating normally with others, and with myself.

Now let's look at the characteristic acceptance of uncertainty. We know that exact definitions exist only in the abstract science of mathematics. In life there is always some element of uncertainty, tolerance. There is no such thing as 100% gold - it is 99-odd, the highest standard. Therefore, nothing in life happens one hundred percent, but not for neurotics - they are not tolerant of uncertainty, everything should be this way, only this way, and no other way! People with such beliefs drive themselves into the framework of their ideas. And since others cannot be driven there, they worry that they are not understood, that they are not loved, that everything is done to spite them. And therefore they feel very unhappy. Therefore, accepting the fact that there is some uncertainty in everything, recognizing that not everything is not always as we would like, is important for reducing internal tension.

The next standard criterion is dedication to creative pursuits- determines the presence of creativity in a person’s life. It appears in the desire to learn and try something new, to be interested in various things, art or science, to have hobbies, hobbies, and not out of necessity, but from the inner needs of a person. That is, this is the desire to enrich and saturate your life, and not reduce it to the automatism of everyday affairs.

Scientific thinking. What does scientific thinking mean? George Kelly said that every person acts like a scientist in his life, but only at the everyday level. What does a scientist do? Puts forward a hypothesis, conducts an experiment, obtains results that confirm or refute the main provisions. If the hypothesis is not confirmed, then the scientist revises it and tries to do something differently. Essentially, this is what happens in our lives. Before we do something, we first assume what will come of it, we expect to get a certain result. And then we carry out an action, an experiment and check - did it turn out what I expected or not? If the hypothesis is not confirmed, then you need to think about what to do next, what should be changed in the initial positions. What happens to a neurotic personality? The hypothesis does not change, although it has not been confirmed many times and is not confirmed further, bringing great discomfort and torment to a person. But, despite this, a neurotic cannot change the hypothesis, his attitude towards himself, or people, or a certain matter, and so on, because he cannot understand that the problem lies precisely in himself, that it needs to be corrected, since the results of his actions are deplorable. Therefore, one of the therapist’s tasks is to analyze the client’s hypotheses for their rationality.

Self-acceptance. This is the ability to accept yourself as you are, with all the pros and cons. We do not always perceive ourselves adequately, i.e. We overestimate some of our abilities, and underestimate others. When a person evaluates himself inadequately, he can be upset all the time, because others evaluate him differently than he evaluates himself, and the person can always think: “They don’t understand me.” Or he thinks: “I’m not presenting myself this way,” and, afraid of being unsuccessful, begins to do something completely out of character for him. This is a mistake. Because a natural person is always perceived better than an artificial one, because no one likes falsehood. And we always think that we need to pretend to be something, then I will look better, then they will perceive me better. This is an illusion and torture. Yesenin wrote: “Happiness is dexterity of mind and hands. All awkward souls are always known for being unfortunate, but you cannot understand how much torment broken, deceitful gestures bring.” When a person begins to play a role that is not his own, even a seemingly beautiful one, he experiences discomfort, because the chosen role is not actually consistent with his inner world. And therefore a person may worry that others will notice this discrepancy. That is, the most effective thing will be to accept yourself as you are, and then a person will not need to pretend to be something. Don't be afraid of the word "flaw." Or label it as reserves, that is, where you think you have a gap in something, think: “I have a reserve for improvement.”

Riskiness. This is the ability to take reasonable risks in certain situations. The British have a proverb: “Nothing venture nothing have”, which translates as: “Risk nothing - have nothing.” It perfectly characterizes this criterion of psychological health. To express the essence - taking risks, you can achieve success. It is important to understand here that it is impossible to remain passive in life; it requires movement, action, and sometimes risk. Sometimes, in order to achieve development, it is necessary to take risks: change jobs or place of residence, start a family, etc. Otherwise, a person’s life will turn into a stagnant swamp, stagnation. It is necessary not to be afraid of new things - ideas, acquaintances, activities, circumstances, etc. Taking risks is necessary to move forward. Our life is a risk.

And the last criterion of the norm - delayed hedonism. We discussed it in detail above, describing the features of Ellis's approach. The essence of this phenomenon lies in the ability to live with deferred joy, to consciously endure difficulties in the name of achieving success in the future.

So, we have considered all the criteria for psychological norm, now I would like you to work on the following points.

Take another look at the listed criteria of psychological health, analyze how pronounced each of them is in you, and also rate it on a 10-point scale (10 is the most expressed, respectively 1 is the least expressed). At the same time, I suggest that you do not follow your first feeling when assigning grades, but think carefully (remember examples from your own life), or better yet, ask someone who knows you how well this score really corresponds to the expression of one or another standard criterion.

Self-knowledge is a most interesting and fascinating process that has no limits to improvement. Therefore, try to evaluate your reserves for growth, use the word “reserves” and not “shortcomings”. Because it is better to focus your attention on reserves than on shortcomings, because the more resources you discover, the more it will inspire you. Moreover, you will see that many parameters are interrelated with each other. And if you want to develop one of them, the others will automatically develop as well. When you or your client justify your assessments, try to understand what beliefs you (or he) are guided by and whether these beliefs are rational, i.e. really helping him to realize himself, or are they still irrational.

Summarizing the tasks and essence of the RET procedure, we can say: in order to achieve a change in worldview, patients are recommended to:

• 1. Understand that their psychological problems arose not so much from external conditions and events, but from their attitude towards them.
• 2. Believe that they are capable of solving their problems themselves.
• 3. Realize that their problems are caused mainly by irrational absolutist beliefs.
• 4. Understand your irrational cognitions and make sure that your problems can be looked at rationally.
• 5. Expose your irrational views using logic and common sense, and by experimentally acting against them.
• 6. Through repeated repetitions, using cognitive, emotional and behavioral methods, bring new, rational beliefs to their complete internal acceptance.
• 7. Constantly continue the process of positive restructuring of beliefs, replacing irrational cognitions with rational ones.

Workshop

• 1. Try to find irrational beliefs in yourself (or your client) and justify why you consider them such.
• 2. Debunk them with logic and common sense (you can use humor).
• 3. Formulate alternative rational cognitions based on the identified problems.
• 4. Analyze your (or your client's) beliefs in terms of Ellis' psychological health criteria, how much you implement them, what reserves you have and how you are going to replenish them.

Self-test questions

• 1. Why did Ellis name his rational-emotive therapy that way?
• 2. Decipher the circuit A-B-C.
• 3. How do rational and irrational cognitions differ?
• 4. What are absolutist cognitions and why are they harmful?
• 5. Describe the main stages of RET.
• 6. List the criteria for psychological health according to Ellis.
• 7. What is delayed hedonism?

Formulated a number of provisions that are actively used in practical correctional psychology. One of these principles, often quoted by Ellis, is the saying: “It is not things that disturb men, but the way they see them” (Epictetus).

Based on emphatically scientific approaches in the structure of individual consciousness, A. Ellis strives to free the client from the bonds and blinders of stereotypes and clichés, to provide a freer and more open-minded view of the world. In the concept of A. Ellis, a person is interpreted as self-evaluating, self-supporting and self-speaking.

A. Ellis believes that every person is born with a certain potential, and this potential has two sides: rational and irrational; constructive and destructive, etc. According to A. Ellis, psychological problems appear when a person tries to follow simple preferences (desires of love, approval, support) and mistakenly believes that these simple preferences are the absolute measure of his success in life. In addition, man is a creature extremely susceptible to various influences at all levels - from. Therefore, A. Ellis is not inclined to reduce all the changing complexity of human nature to one thing.

RET identifies three leading psychological aspects of human functioning: thoughts (cognitions), feelings and behavior. A. Ellis identified two types of cognitions: descriptive and evaluative.

Descriptive cognitions contain information about reality, about what a person has perceived in the world; this is “pure” information about reality. Evaluative cognitions reflect a person’s attitude towards this reality. Descriptive cognitions are necessarily connected with evaluative connections of varying degrees of rigidity.
Biased events themselves evoke positive or negative emotions in us, and our internal perception of these events is their assessment. We feel what we think about what we perceive. are the result of cognitive impairments (such as overgeneralization, false conclusions, and rigid attitudes).

The source of psychological disorders is a system of individual irrational ideas about the world, learned, as a rule, in childhood from significant adults. A. Ellis called these violations irrational attitudes. From the point of view of A. Ellis, these are rigid connections between descriptive and evaluative cognitions such as prescriptions, demands, mandatory orders that have no exceptions, and they are absolutist in nature. Therefore, irrational attitudes do not correspond to reality both in strength and in quality of this prescription. If irrational attitudes are not realized, they lead to long-lasting emotions that are inadequate to the situation and complicate the individual’s activities. The core of emotional disorders, according to Ellis, is self-blame.

An important concept in RET is the concept of “trap”, i.e. all those cognitive formations that create unreasonable neurotic anxiety. A normally functioning person has a rational system of evaluative cognitions, which is a system of flexible connections between descriptive and evaluative cognitions. It is probabilistic in nature, expresses rather a wish, a preference for a certain development of events, and therefore leads to moderate emotions, although sometimes they can be intense, but do not capture the individual for a long time and therefore do not block his activities or interfere with the achievement of goals.

The emergence of psychological problems in a client is associated with the functioning of a system of irrational attitudes.

Ellis's concept states that although it is pleasant to be loved in an atmosphere of acceptance, a person should feel vulnerable enough in such an atmosphere and not feel uncomfortable in the absence of an atmosphere of love and complete acceptance.

A. Ellis suggested that positive emotions (such as feelings of love or delight) are often associated with or the result of an internal belief expressed in the form of the phrase: “This is good for me.” Negative emotions (such as anger or depression) are associated with the belief expressed by the phrase: “This is bad for me.” He believed that the emotional response to a situation reflects the “label” that is given to it (for example, it is dangerous or pleasant), even when the “label” is not true. To achieve happiness, it is necessary to rationally formulate goals and choose adequate means.

Ellis developed a kind of “neurotic code”, i.e. a complex of erroneous judgments, the desire to fulfill which leads to psychological problems:
1. There is a strong need to be loved or approved by every person in a significant environment.
2. Everyone must be competent in all areas of knowledge.
3. Most people are mean, corrupt and despicable.
4. A disaster will occur if events take a different path than the person programmed.
5. Human misfortunes are caused by external forces and people have little control over them.
6. If there is a danger, then you should not overcome it.
7. It is easier to avoid certain life difficulties than to face them and bear responsibility for them.
8. In this world, the weak always depends on the strong.
9. A person’s past history should influence his immediate behavior “now.”
10. You shouldn't worry about other people's problems.
11. It is necessary to solve all problems correctly, clearly and perfectly, and if this is not the case, then a disaster will occur.
12. If someone does not control their emotions, then it is impossible to help them.

A. Ellis proposed his personality structure, which he named after the first letters of the Latin alphabet “ABC theory”: A - activating event; B the client's opinion about the event; C - emotional or behavioral consequences of the event; D - subsequent reaction to the event as a result of mental processing; E - final value conclusion (constructive or destructive).

This conceptual scheme has found wide application in practical correctional psychology, since it allows the client himself to conduct effective self-observation and self-analysis in the form of diary entries.
Analysis of the client's behavior or self-analysis according to the scheme "event - perception of the event - reaction - reflection - conclusion" has a high productivity and a learning effect.

The "ABC diagram" is used to help a client in a problematic situation move from irrational attitudes to rational ones. The work is being built in several stages.

The first stage is clarification, clarification of the parameters of the event (A), including the parameters that most emotionally affected the client and caused him to have inadequate reactions.
A = (A0 + Ac) => B,
where A0 is an objective event (described by a group of observers);
Ac - subjectively perceived event (described by the client);
B is the client’s assessment system, which determines which parameters of an objective event will be perceived and will be significant.

At this stage, a personal assessment of the event occurs. Clarification allows the client to differentiate between events that can and cannot be changed. At the same time, the goal of correction is not to encourage the client to avoid a collision with an event, not to change it (for example, moving to a new job in the presence of an insoluble conflict with the boss), but to become aware of the system of evaluative cognitions that make it difficult to resolve this conflict, rebuild this system and only after This means making a decision to change the situation. Otherwise, the client remains potentially vulnerable in similar situations.
The second stage is the identification of the emotional and behavioral consequences of the perceived event (C). The purpose of this stage is to identify the entire range of emotional reactions to an event (since not all emotions are easily differentiated by a person, and some are suppressed and not realized due to the inclusion of rationalization and others).

Awareness and verbalization of experienced emotions may be difficult for some clients: for some - due to vocabulary deficits, for others - due to behavioral deficits (the absence in the arsenal of behavioral stereotypes usually associated with moderate expression of emotions. Such clients react with polar emotions, or strong love, or complete rejection.

Analysis of the words used by the client helps identify irrational attitudes. Usually, irrational attitudes are associated with words that reflect the extreme degree of emotional involvement of the client (nightmarish, terrible, amazing, unbearable, etc.), having the nature of a mandatory prescription (necessary, must, must, obliged, etc.), as well as global assessments of a person or object or events.
A. Ellis identified the four most common groups of irrational attitudes that create problems:
1. Catastrophic installations.
2. Installations of mandatory obligation.
3. Installations for the mandatory fulfillment of one’s needs.
4. Global assessment settings.

The goal of the stage is achieved when irrational attitudes are identified in the problem area (there may be several of them), the nature of the connections between them is shown (parallel, articulatory, hierarchical dependence), making the multicomponent reaction of the individual in a problem situation understandable.
It is also necessary to identify the client’s rational attitudes, since they constitute a positive part of the relationship, which can be expanded in the future.

The third stage is the reconstruction of irrational attitudes. Reconstruction should begin when the client easily identifies irrational attitudes in a problem situation. It can occur: at the cognitive level, the level, the level of behavior - direct action.

Reconstruction at the cognitive level includes the client’s proof of the truth of the attitude and the need to maintain it in a given situation. In the process of this type of evidence, the client sees even more clearly the negative consequences of maintaining this attitude. The use of auxiliary modeling (how others would solve this problem, what attitudes they would have) makes it possible to form new rational attitudes at the cognitive level.

When reconstructing at the level of imagination, both negative and positive imagination are used. The client is asked to mentally immerse himself in a traumatic situation. With a negative imagination, he must experience the previous emotion as fully as possible, and then try to reduce its level and realize through what new attitudes he managed to achieve this. This immersion in a traumatic situation is repeated many times. The training can be considered effectively completed if the client has reduced the intensity of the emotions experienced using several options. With positive imagination, the client immediately imagines a problematic situation with a positively colored emotion.

Reconstruction through direct action is a confirmation of the success of modifications of attitudes carried out at the cognitive level and in the imagination. Direct actions are implemented according to the type of flood techniques, paradoxical intention, and modeling techniques.

The fourth stage is consolidation with the help of homework performed by the client independently. They can also be carried out at the cognitive level, in the imagination or at the level of direct action.

RET is primarily indicated for clients who are capable of introspection, reflection, and analysis of their thoughts.
Correction goals. The main goal is to assist in revising the system of beliefs, norms and ideas. A private goal is liberation from the idea of ​​self-blame.

In addition, A. Ellis formulated a number of desirable qualities, the achievement of which by the client can be a specific goal of psychocorrectional work: social interest, self-interest, self-government, tolerance, flexibility, acceptance of uncertainty, scientific thinking, self-acceptance, ability to take risks, realism.

Psychologist's position. The position of a psychologist working in line with this concept is, of course, directive. He explains and convinces. He is an authority who refutes erroneous judgments, pointing out their inaccuracy, arbitrariness, etc. He appeals to science, to the ability to think and, as Ellis puts it, does not engage in absolution, after which the client may feel better, but it is not known whether he actually feels better.

Requirements and expectations from the client. The client is assigned the role of a learner, and accordingly his success is interpreted depending on his motivation and identification with the role of the learner.
The client is expected to go through three levels of insight:
1. Superficial - awareness of the problem.
2. In-depth - recognition of one's own interpretations.
3. Deep - at the level of motivation to change.
In general, the psychological prerequisites of RET are as follows:
recognition of the client’s personal responsibility for their problems;
acceptance of the idea that there is an opportunity to decisively influence these problems
recognition that the client's emotional problems stem from his irrational beliefs about himself and the world;
detection (awareness) by the client of these ideas;
the client's recognition of the usefulness of serious discussion of these ideas;
agreement to make efforts to confront one's illogical judgments;
client consent to use RET.

Technicians
RET is characterized by a wide range of psychotechniques, including those borrowed from other areas.

1. Discussion and refutation of irrational views.
The psychologist actively discusses with the client, refutes his irrational views, demands evidence, clarifies logical grounds, etc. Much attention is paid to softening the client’s categorical attitude: instead of “I should” - “I would like”;
instead of “It will be terrible if...” - “It probably won’t be very convenient if...”; instead of “I am obliged to do this work” - “I would like to do this work at a high level.”
2. Cognitive homework is associated with self-analysis according to the “ABC model” and the restructuring of habitual verbal reactions and interpretations.
3. Rational-emotive imagination. The client is asked to imagine a difficult situation for him and his feelings in it. Then it is proposed to change how you feel about the situation and see what changes in behavior this will cause.
4. Role play. Disturbing situations are played out, inadequate interpretations are worked out, especially those that carry self-accusation and self-deprecation.
5. "Attack on fear." The technique consists of homework, the purpose of which is to perform an action that usually causes fear or psychological difficulties in the client. For example, a client who experiences severe discomfort when communicating with a salesperson is asked to go to a large store with many departments and ask to show him something in each department.

Psychotherapy is understood as treatment, where the main “drug” is the doctor’s word. Communicating with the patient, he inevitably influences him psychologically and, by helping to change his attitude towards himself and the world around him, promotes recovery. The main methods of such influence include rational psychotherapy. It can be combined with occupational therapy, etc.

Rational therapy in psychology

It aims to influence the patient with logically reasoned explanations. That is, the doctor explains to the patient something that is difficult for him to understand and accept. Having received clear and simple arguments, the patient abandons his false beliefs, overcomes pessimistic ideas and gradually moves towards recovery. Rational therapy uses a variety of techniques:

• indirect suggestion;
• emotional impact;
• didactic techniques.

Frequent practice involves a dialogue between the doctor and the patient, and much will depend on the personality of the specialist, his ability to persuade and listen, gain trust and be sincerely interested in the fate of the patient. This treatment has several directions, and some of its provisions and techniques are consistent with the method of neurolinguistic programming.

Rational-emotive psychotherapy

This direction was proposed by Albert Ellis in 1955. He believed that the causes of mental disorder are irrational - erroneous cognitive attitudes. The main types of psychological problems include:

1. Self-deprecation and self-disparagement.
2. Exaggeration of the negative components of the situation.

Rational psychotherapy techniques help patients accept themselves and increase their tolerance to frustration. In this case, the doctor acts according to the following scheme:

1. Explains and clarifies. Interprets the essence of the disease, which helps the patient get a clear and clear picture of the disease and more actively control it.
2. Convinces. It corrects not only the cognitive, but also the emotional aspect, and modifies the patient’s personal attitudes.
3. Refocuses. Changes in the patient's attitudes become stable, the system of values ​​regarding the disease changes, and he goes beyond it.
4. Educates. Creates positive prospects for the patient after overcoming the illness.

Rational cognitive psychotherapy

The previous direction is one of its main branches. Their theoretical positions and the techniques used are close, but the methods of rational psychotherapy, where the emphasis is on emotions, are more structured, and the work with the patient is consistent. Cognitive techniques include:

• Socratic dialogue;
• the art of “filling the void”;
• decatastrophization;
• method of similarity and similarity;
• reattribution;
• reformulation;
• decentralization.

At the same time, in his work, the doctor uses role-playing games, exposure treatment, distraction techniques and activity planning. All this helps the patient to recognize the erroneous nature of his thinking, take responsibility for his actions and get rid of mental problems. In this case, it is necessary that the doctor has an idea of ​​the achievements of logic and masters the modern theory of argumentation.

Rational-emotive psychotherapy

It is based on assumptions about human nature and the origins of people's unhappiness or emotional disturbances. All kinds of false ideas, such as the inability to control external circumstances or the desire to always be first in everything, are widespread in society. They are accepted and reinforced by self-hypnosis, which can provoke neurosis, because they cannot be implemented. But regardless of the influence of external factors, people can act independently, and the recognition of this ability formed the basis of the A-B-C theory of behavior and personality disorders.

Rational and explanatory psychotherapy proves that if you think sensibly and reasonably, then the consequences will be the same, and if the belief system is crazy and unrealistic, then the consequences will be destructive. By recognizing this relationship, it is possible to change such attitudes, actions and behaviors in response to external circumstances and situations.