Summary

RATIONALITY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

"This book is a labor of love! Michael Bernard has painstakingly transcribed a number of Albert Ellis's therapy and demonstration sessions as well as a selection of his lectures and has used this material to excellent effect to make Dr Ellis's views on psychological health and happiness come alive. A gem of a book on a gem of a man by a gem of an author."
Professor Windy Dryden, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

"Michael Bernard's book reveals the importance of 'rationality' as a positive faculty of mind that enables people to strengthen their resilience and self-efficacy in order to not only cope with the inevitable challenges, demands and changes characteristic of our post-modern age but, in addition, through the application of different principles of rational living identified by legendary psychologist Albert Ellis, to live fulfilled and meaningful professional and personal lives. I confidently commend this book."
Professor Field Rickards, Dean, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia

Albert Ellis, one of the world's most influential psychologists, founded Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in the 1950s. Over the years, this pioneering form of cognitive behavior therapy has advanced the emotional well-being of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Yet while Ellis's innovative approaches for helping people with emotional difficulties are well known, his views on the pursuit of personal happiness - which have also influenced generations of people both with and without such problems - are far more elusive. Ellis's powerful arguments in favor of the rational pursuit of happiness are set out for the very first time in this book.

Rationality and the Pursuit of Happiness presents Ellis's views on how the principles of rational living can be used by anyone to achieve lifelong happiness. Transcripts of private counseling sessions and public forums reveal the great power of rationality and the self-defeating nature of irrationality. Drawing on 50 years of Ellis's writing, Michael Bernard shows how the emotional misery that arises from irrational thinking of the human psyche can obstruct our innate potential for self-actualization and happiness. In doing so, he firmly establishes Ellis as a pioneer of positive psychology and a human being whose superior intellect and years of public education and psychotherapy experience offer genuine insights into the eternal question of what makes for a happy life.

Choice Review

Albert Ellis, an innovative psychotherapist and author, broke from the psychoanalytical approach to create a system of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (using self-talk to change behavior and feelings) called rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT). He authored or coauthored more than 80 books and 1,200 articles and was considered one of the three most influential psychotherapists in history. He also broke a lot of new ground in sexology during the 1950s and 1960s. Bernard (Univ. of Melbourne, Australia), an educational psychologist who worked with Ellis, shows how Ellis's work ties in with the new field of positive psychology or the pursuit of happiness. The book relies heavily on selections from Ellis's therapy sessions with clients, quotes from talks he gave, and interviews with the author to demonstrate how REBT can help with a wide variety of problems. Chapters focus on love, relationships, sex, women, homosexuality, work, children and parents, and death and dying. In the final chapter, the author includes a series of additional interviews he had with Ellis on a broad range of topics. The book is a good detailed overview of REBT methods. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, professionals, general readers. W. P. Anderson emeritus, University of Missouri--Columbia