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Is Rational Psychotherapy Rational?

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Abstract

Rational psychotherapists have stressed correcting the irrational assumptions and incorrect beliefs which underlie their clients’ behaviors, but they have not dealt adequately with the influence of their own biases on therapy. Ellis, for example, has been inculcating in clients a logically—and empirically—unverifiable hedonistic doctrine and a contradictory, illogically derived rationale for treating others with kindness. That irrationally practiced rational psychotherapy can be successful suggests that factors other than the therapist’s logicality per se might be crucial for therapeutic success.

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Eisenberger, R. Is Rational Psychotherapy Rational?. Psychol Rec 16, 289–292 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393670

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393670

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