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Fundamentals of Rational
Emotive Behaviour Therapy
Fundamentals of Rational
Emotive Behaviour Therapy
A Training Handbook

Third Edition

Windy Dryden
This edition first published 2024
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Edition History
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 Contents
Contents

About the author vii

Introductionix

1 What you need to know about the theory of REBT

to get started 1

2 What you need to know about the practice of REBT

to get started23

3 Teaching the ABCs of REBT 39

4 Distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy negative

emotions53

5 Being specific in the assessment process 71

6 Assessing C75

7 Assessing A 83

8 Assessing B 87

9 Assessing meta-­emotional problems 95

10 Goal-­setting 101

11 Eliciting your client’s commitment to change 113

12 Preparing your client and yourself to examine

their attitudes 123

v
Contents 13 Helping your clients to examine their attitudes 127

14 Helping your clients to strengthen their conviction in

their flexible/non-­extreme attitudes 141

15 Negotiating homework assignments 153

16 Reviewing homework assignments 173

17 Dealing with your clients’ misconceptions of REBT theory

and practice183

18 Using REBT in a single-­session therapy format 193

19 An example of an REBT-­based single session 207

Appendix I: Homework skills monitoring form 219

Appendix II: Possible reasons for not completing self-help assignments 223

Appendix III: Training in REBT 225

References227

Index229

vi
 About the author
About the author

Windy Dryden is Emeritus Professor of Psychotherapeutic Studies, Goldsmiths University of London.

He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and of the British Association for Counselling
and Psychotherapy (BACP). He began his training in REBT in 1977 and became the first Briton to be
accredited as an REBT therapist by the Albert Ellis Institute. In 1981, Windy spent a six-­month sabbatical
at the Center for Cognitive Therapy, University of Pennsylvania, one of the first British psychologists to
do an extended training in cognitive therapy. He is a Fellow of the Albert Ellis Institute and a Founding
Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.
While his primary therapeutic orientation is REBT, Professor Dryden has been very much influenced
by his cognitive therapy colleagues, by the working alliance theory of Ed Bordin and by the work by Mick
Cooper and John McCleod on pluralism in counselling and psychotherapy. His current interests are in
REBT and single-­session therapy.
Professor Dryden is perhaps best known for his voluminous writings in REBT/CBT and the wider
field of counselling and psychotherapy. He has authored or edited over 265 books, making him one of
the most prolific book writers and editors in the field today. He has also edited over 20 book series,
including the best-­selling CBT: Distinctive Features series.
Professor Dryden was the founding editor in 1982 of the British Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy,
which later merged with the Cognitive Behaviorist to become the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An
International Quarterly. He was co-­founding editor of this journal with E. Thomas Dowd. From 2003
until 2012, he served as editor of the Journal of Rational-­Emotive & Cognitive-­Behavior Therapy.
Professor Dryden’s current interests are in providing very brief therapy and coaching for people who
need help quickly. In particular, he advocates the use of single-­session therapy as a way of providing help
at the point of need.

vii
 Introduction
Introduction

Having given numerous introductory training courses in rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) in
Britain and throughout the world, it seemed to me a number of years ago that it would be valuable to
write a training handbook on the fundamentals of REBT in which an attempt is made to recreate the
atmosphere of these training courses. In particular, because REBT is a simple approach that is difficult
to practise well, I wanted to alert trainees to areas of difficulty that they are likely to experience while
attempting to use the approach and show them how they can deal constructively with the problems that
they will doubtless encounter along the way.
To do this, I have used constructed verbatim transcript material between trainees and myself as
trainer. What this means is that to highlight trainee difficulty and trainer response, I have constructed
dialogues that approximate those that have occurred between myself and trainees over the years. None
of these dialogues has actually taken place, however. As I do not record my training sessions, I do not
have access to actual trainer–trainee dialogues that have occurred. Nevertheless, the constructed dia-
logues illustrate the typical errors that trainees make in the practice of REBT. In addition, I will make
extensive use of constructed dialogue between myself as therapist and my clients.
Please note that on introductory training programmes in REBT, peer counselling is used extensively
as a training vehicle. This means that trainees form a pair and take turns counselling one another on
real emotional problems and concerns using REBT. In my experience this is a far more effective way of
learning how to use REBT and what it feels like to be an REBT client than the use of role-play. To pre-
serve confidentiality, any dialogue that appears in this book between trainees in peer counselling has
also been constructed. However, these dialogues are typical of the emotional problems that are raised in
this part of the course by trainees in the client role. The performance of REBT trainees in these inter-
changes approximates the level of skill beginning trainees tend to demonstrate on introductory training
courses.
It is important to stress that no book on REBT, however practical, can be a substitute for proper train-
ing and supervision in the approach. Thus, this book is best used as an adjunct to these educational
activities. I have provided information on where to get training and supervision in REBT in Appendix
III, should you be interested in pursuing your interest in this therapeutic approach. Indeed, I hope that
this handbook might encourage you to attend initial and more advanced training courses in REBT so
that you can learn for yourself what it has to offer you and your clients.
As I said earlier, this training handbook deals with the fundamentals of REBT practice. As such, I have
omitted issues of greater complexity, which may distract you from learning the basics. Let me briefly
summarise what I will cover in this volume. In the first two chapters, I outline the basic theoretical and
practical information that you need to begin to practise REBT. In the third chapter, I present material on
how to teach your clients the ABCs of REBT, while in the fourth chapter, I deal with the important issue
of helping your clients to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy negative emotions. In Chapter 5,
I stress that when you come to assess your clients’ problems, at the outset it is important to be specific.
In Chapters 6, 7 and 8, I show you how to assess C, A and rigid and extreme basic attitudes at B
(­previously known as irrational beliefs) respectively. Then, in Chapter 9, I discuss how you can assess

ix
Introduction your clients’ meta-­emotional problems and when to work with them in therapy. In Chapter 10, I go on
to deal with the important issue of helping your clients to set goals, while in Chapter 11, I show you how
to build on goal-­setting by encouraging your clients to make a commitment to change. At the heart of
REBT is the key task of helping clients to examine their rigid and extreme attitudes, and I devote the next
three chapters (Chapters 12–14) to this task. In the next two chapters, I discuss how to negotiate home-
work assignments with your clients (Chapter 15) and how to review them (Chapter 16). In Chapter 17,
I discuss how you can deal with your clients’ misconceptions of REBT theory and practice. In Chapters 18
and 19, I discuss how REBT can inform the practice of single-­session therapy given the fact that the
modal number of therapy sessions clients have is ‘1’.
Throughout this book I will address you directly as if you are on one of my training courses. Please
note that I will use they/them when referring to the gender of the client.

XX A guide to terminology
The terminology that I have used in this book to describe salient aspects of REBT theory is a significant
departure from the traditional ways that these concepts are described in the REBT literature and I will
explain the changes that I have made to traditional REBT language and why I have made them.
In Chapter 1 of this book, I will outline REBT’s ABC framework. Traditionally, A has stood for
‘­activating event’, B for ‘beliefs’ and C for the ‘consequences’ of B. This framework outlines the REBT
view of psychological disturbance and health.

From activating event to adversity

In my view, the term ‘activating event’ is problematic because it is not clear what the event activates.
REBT theory states that it should activate B, but some people consider that it activates C. Also, the term
‘activating event’ can be taken to mean the event itself or the aspect of the event that the person is most
­disturbed about. REBT states that it should be the latter, but some people consider it to be the former.
In this book, I will generally use the term ‘adversity’ to represent the aspect of the situation about which
the person is most disturbed, which is what the A in the ABC framework represents. So, the adversity
­activates B that accounts for C.

From beliefs to attitudes

Traditionally in REBT B has stood for ‘beliefs’, which can either be ‘irrational’ or ‘rational’. I have always
been unhappy with these terms and decided formally to change them several years ago (Dryden, 2016).
A few years before I took the above decisions, I carried out research on how REBT’s ABC framework
is understood by different professional and lay groups.1 This research revealed a range of confusions and
errors made by these groups about each element in the framework (Dryden, 2013a), but particularly
about B. For example, the term ‘belief’ was often used to describe adversities at A rather than evalua-
tions at B (e.g., ‘I believe that you don’t like me’). I concluded that such confusions and errors about B
could be rectified by using the term ‘attitude’ rather than ‘belief’ since the term ‘belief’ is often used
by people in a way that is very different from the way it is used in REBT.

1
The four groups were: (a) authors of textbooks on counselling and psychotherapy, (b) REBT therapists, (c) Albert Ellis (when he
was in the twilight of his career) and his wife (Ellis & Joffe Ellis, 2011) and (d) patients in a psychiatric hospital who were taught
the REBT framework.

x
 Thus, the term ‘belief’ has been defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, fourth edition

Introduction
(Colman, 2015) as ‘any proposition that is accepted as true on the basis of inconclusive evidence’. Thus,
as we have seen, a client may say something like: ‘I believe my boss criticised me’, and while they think
that they have articulated a belief, this is not actually a ‘belief’ as the term has been used in REBT, but
rather an inference. It is very important to distinguish between an inference at A and an attitude (or
belief in the REBT sense) at B, and anything that helps this distinction to be made routinely is to be
welcomed. Using the term ‘attitude’ rather than ‘belief’ in REBT is one way of doing so.
Definitions of the term ‘attitude’ are closer to the meaning that REBT theorists ascribe to the term
‘belief’. Here are three such definitions of the term ‘attitude’:

▪▪ ‘an enduring pattern of evaluative responses towards a person, object, or issue’ (Colman, 2015);
▪▪ ‘a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially
significant objects, groups, events or symbols’ (Hogg & Vaughan, 2005, p. 150);
▪▪ ‘a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor
or disfavor’ (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1).

Before deciding to change the term ‘belief’ to the term ‘attitude’ in my writings and clinical work,
I used the term ‘attitude’ rather than ‘belief’ with my clients and found that it was easier for me to convey
the meaning of B when I used ‘attitude’ than when I used ‘belief’, and they, in general, found ‘attitude’
easier to understand in this context than ‘belief’.
Consequently, I decided to use the term ‘attitude’2 instead of the term ‘belief’ to denote an evaluative
stance taken by a person towards an adversity at A which has emotional, behavioural and thinking con-
sequences (Dryden, 2016). In deciding to use the term ‘attitude’ rather than the term ‘belief’, I recognise
that when it comes to explaining what the B stands for in the ABC framework, the term ‘attitude’ is
problematic because it begins with the letter ‘A’. Rather than use an AAC framework, which is not nearly
as catchy or as memorable as the ABC framework, I suggested using the phrase ‘basic attitudes’3 when
formally describing B in the ABC framework. While not ideal, this term includes ‘attitudes’ and indi-
cates that they are central or basic and that they lie at the base of a person’s responses to an adversity.
In using the term ‘basic’, I have thus preserved the letter B so that the well-­known ABC framework can
be used. However, when not formally describing the ABC framework I will employ the word ‘attitude’
rather than the phrase ‘basic attitude’ to refer to the particular kind of cognitive processing that REBT
argues mediates between an adversity and the person’s responses to that negative event.

From ‘irrational’/‘rational’ beliefs to rigid and extreme/flexible and non-­extreme attitudes

Another change that I initiated is the movement away from the terms ‘irrational’ and ‘rational’ to the
terms ‘rigid and extreme’ and ‘flexible and non-­extreme’ when describing the attitudes that underpin
psychological disturbance and psychological health. The reason that I made that change is that the terms
‘irrational’ and ‘rational’ tend to be a turn off to both clients and non-­REBT therapists. Towards the end
of his career, Albert Ellis himself regretted that he chose the name ‘rational therapy’ to describe his

2
As this is still a relatively new development, please note that other REBT therapists (including myself in my previous work) still
employ the word ‘belief’.
3
This phrase was suggested by my friend and colleague Walter Matweychuk.

xi
Introduction therapy. He said that he wished that he had called it ‘cognitive therapy’, but he did not do so because the
term ‘cognitive’ was not in vogue in the mid-­1950s.4
Clients can see readily that the attitudes that underpin their psychologically disturbed responses to
adversities are rigid and extreme. These terms are less pejorative than the term ‘irrational’, which tends
to be equated in many clients’ minds with the term ‘crazy’ or the term ‘bizarre’. Far from being seen as
something to strive for, the term ‘rational’ is seen by clients as being robot-­like and unemotional. On the
other hand, the terms ‘flexible’ and ‘non-­extreme’ when describing the attitudes that underpin psycho-
logically healthy responses to adversities at A are more acceptable to clients.

From disputing beliefs to examining attitudes

As I mentioned earlier, the ABC framework is used in REBT as an assessment tool to help clients under-
stand the factors involved in their psychologically disturbed responses to adversities and what would
constitute psychologically healthy responses to the same adversities. When moving from assessment to
therapy, the REBT therapist adds D and E to the ABC framework. Traditionally, D stands for ‘disputing’
beliefs (both irrational and rational) and E stands for the ‘effects’ of the disputing process. I have never
cared for the term ‘disputing’. It has an adversarial ‘feel’ about it. It can mean ‘debating’, but it can also
mean arguing vehemently. What it does not conjure up is a process where two people stand back and
examine the attitudes of one of them. For this reason, I prefer to use the term ‘examining’ when it comes
to the therapist and client considering the client’s attitudes (both rigid and extreme and flexible and non-­
extreme). To examine something means to inspect it thoroughly in order to determine its nature or
condition. In my opinion, this best approximates what the therapist and client do in what was previously
called ‘disputing’. In order to preserve the letter D, I formally use the term ‘dialectically examining atti-
tudes’. The term ‘dialectical’ is particularly apt here since it means trying to resolve a conflict between
opposing views, and rigid/extreme and flexible/non-­extreme are opposing ways of evaluating adversi-
ties. In general, when not concerned with formalities I will use the term ‘examining attitudes’ to describe
the activity more traditionally known as disputing beliefs.
See Table 1 for a summary of these changes.

Table 1 Terminology employed in this book

Traditional REBT language Language employed in this book

▪▪ Activating event (at A) ▪▪ Adversity (at A)

▪▪ Belief (at B) ▪▪ (Basic) Attitude (at B)
▪▪ Irrational (to describe beliefs) ▪▪ Rigid/extreme (to describe attitudes)
▪▪ Rational (to describe beliefs) ▪▪ Flexible/non-­extreme (to describe attitudes)
▪▪ Disputing beliefs (at D) ▪▪ (Dialectically) Examining attitudes (at D)

I hope that you find this training handbook of use and that it stimulates your interest to develop your
skills in REBT.

Windy Dryden PhD

February, 2023
London and Eastbourne

4
Interestingly enough, when Ellis changed the name of his therapy from ‘rational therapy’ to ‘rational-­emotive therapy’ in 1962
and to ‘rational emotive behaviour therapy’ in 1993, he had the opportunity to change the ‘rational’ part of the name to ‘cognitive’
but did not do so.

xii
 W h a t y o u n e e d t o k n o w a b o u t t h e t h e o r y o f REBT t o g e t s t a r t e d
◀ C HA P TER ONE  ▶

What you need to know about

the theory of REBT to get started

Most books on counselling and psychotherapy begin by introducing you to the theory and practice of
the approach in question. This is obviously a sensible way to start such a book because otherwise how
are you to understand the practical techniques described by the author(s)? However, in my experience
as a reader of such books, I am often given more information than I need about an approach to begin
to practise it, at least in the context of a training setting. As I explained in the Introduction, my aim in
this training handbook is to recreate the atmosphere of a beginning training seminar in REBT. In such
seminars the emphasis is on the acquisition of practical skills and, consequently, theory is kept to a
minimum. What I aim to do in such seminars and what I will do in this opening chapter is to introduce
the information you will need to know about the theory of REBT so that you can begin to practise it in a
training seminar setting. In the following chapter, I will cover what you need to know about the practice
of REBT to get started.
Let me reiterate a point that I made in the Introduction. When learning any approach to counselling
and psychotherapy, you will need to be trained by a competent trainer in the approach you are learning
and supervised in your work with clients by a competent supervisor in that approach. To do otherwise
is bad and, some would say, unethical practice. Certainly, when learning to practise REBT you will need
to be trained and supervised by people competent not only in the practice of REBT but also in educat-
ing others how to use it (see Appendix III). A book such as this, then, is designed to supplement not to
replace such training and supervision.

XX The situational ABC model of REBT

REBT is one of the cognitive-­behavioural approaches to psychotherapy. This means that it pays particu-
lar attention to the role that cognitions and behaviour play in the development and maintenance of
people’s emotional problems. However, as I will presently show, REBT argues that at the core of emo-
tional disturbance lies a set of rigid and extreme attitudes1 that people hold towards themselves, other
people and the world.

1
As I explained in the Introduction, I prefer to use the word ‘attitudes’ to the word ‘beliefs’ and the terms ‘rigid and extreme
a­ ttitudes’ and ‘flexible and non-­extreme attitudes’ to the terms ‘irrational beliefs’ and ‘rational beliefs’. Also, when specifically refer-
ring to the B in the ABC framework, I use the term ‘basic attitudes’, as suggested by my friend and colleague Dr Walter Matweychuk,
since attitudes lie at the ‘base’ of the person’s reactions at C. However, the rest of the time I use the word ‘attitudes’.

Fundamentals of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy: A Training Handbook, Third Edition. Windy Dryden.
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2024 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

1
F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y When assessing clients’ psychological problems, REBT therapists employ a situational ABC
­framework, and I will now discuss each element of this framework in turn.

XX Situations
In this handbook, you will learn how to help your clients deal with their problems by working with spe-
cific examples of these problems. These specific examples occur in specific ‘situations’. Such ‘situations’
are viewed in the ‘situational ABC’ model as descriptions of actual events about which you form infer-
ences (see below). Briefly, inferences go beyond the data at hand and may be accurate or inaccurate.
‘Situations’ exist in time. Thus, they can describe past actual events (e.g., ‘My boss asked me to see
her at the end of the day’), present actual events (e.g., ‘My boss is asking me to see her at the end of the
day’) or future events (e.g., ‘My boss will ask me to see her at the end of the day’). Note that I have not
referred to such future events as future actual events since it is not known that such events will occur
(such future events may prove to be false). But if we look at such future ‘situations’, they are still descrip-
tions of what may happen and do not add inferential meaning (see below).
‘Situations’ may refer to internal actual events (i.e., events that occur within ourselves, e.g., thoughts,
feelings, bodily sensations, aches and pains, etc.) or to external actual events (i.e., events that occur out-
side ourselves, e.g., your boss asking to see you). Their defining characteristic is as before: they are
descriptions of events and do not include inferential meaning.

XX As
As are usually aspects of situations which your client is potentially able to discern and attend to and
which can trigger their attitudes at B. While your client is potentially able to focus on different aspects
of the situation at any moment, in an ABC episode what I refer to as A represents that actual or psycho-
logical event in their life which activates, at that moment, the attitudes that they hold (at B) and which
lead to their emotional and behavioural responses (at C). The key ingredient of an A is that it activates
or triggers attitudes. An A is usually an aspect of the situation that your client was in when they experi-
enced an emotional response.
As have several features that I will explain below.

As can be actual events

When actual events serve as attitude-­triggering As, they do not contain any inferences that your client
adds to the event.

While Susan was in therapy, her mother died. She felt very sad about this event and grieved appro-
priately. Using the ABC framework to understand this, we can say that the death of her mother
represented an actual event at A which activated a set of attitudes that underpinned Susan’s grief.

As can be inferred events

When Wendy was in therapy, her mother died. Like Susan, she felt very sad about this and as such
we can say that the death was an actual A, which triggered her sadness-­related attitudes. However,
unlike Susan, Wendy also felt guilty in relation to her mother’s death. How can this be explained?

2
According to REBT, people make interpretations and inferences about the events in their lives. I regard

W h a t y o u n e e d t o k n o w a b o u t t h e t h e o r y o f REBT t o g e t s t a r t e d
interpretations and inferences as hunches about reality that go beyond observable data which may be cor-
rect or incorrect but need to be tested out. While most REBT therapists regard interpretations and infer-
ences to be synonymous, I make the following distinction between them. Interpretations are hunches
about reality that go beyond observable data but are not personally significant to the person making them.
They are, thus, not implicated in the person’s emotional experience. Inferences are also hunches about
reality that go beyond the data at hand, but unlike interpretations they are personally significant to the
person making them. They are, then, implicated in the person’s emotional experience.
For example, imagine that I am standing with my face to a window and I ask you to describe what
I am doing. If you say, ‘You are looking out of the window’, you are making an interpretation in that you
are going beyond the data at hand (e.g., I could have my eyes closed) in an area that is probably insignifi-
cant to you (i.e., it probably doesn’t matter to you whether I have my eyes open or not) and thus you will
not have an emotional response while making the interpretation.
However, imagine that in response to my request for you to describe what I was doing in this example,
you said, ‘You are ridiculing me’. This, then, is an inference in that you are going beyond the data avail-
able to you in an area that is probably significant to you (i.e., it probably matters to you whether or not
I am ridiculing you) and thus you will have an emotional response while making the inference. Whether
this emotional response is healthy or not, however, depends on the type of attitude you hold about the
inferred ridicule.

Returning to the example of Wendy who felt guilty about the death of her mother, I hope you can
now see that she is guilty not about the death itself but about some inferred aspect of the death
that is significant to her. In this case it emerged that Wendy felt guilty about hurting her mother’s
feelings when she was alive. This, then, is an inferred A – it points to something beyond the data
available to Wendy; it is personally significant to her and it triggered her guilt-­producing attitude.

As can be external or internal

So far, I have discussed As that relate to events that have actually happened (e.g., the death of Susan’s
mother) or were deemed to have happened (e.g., Wendy’s inference that she hurt her mother’s feelings
when she was alive). In REBT, these are known as external events in that they are external to the person
concerned. Thus, the death of Susan’s mother is an actual external A and Wendy’s statement that she
hurt her mother’s feelings is an inferred external A.
However, As can also refer to events that are internal to the person. Such events can actually occur, or
their existence can be inferred.

An example of an actual internal event is when Bill experiences a pain in his throat. An example
of an inferred internal event is when Bill thinks that this pain means that he has throat cancer.
When Bill is anxious in this situation, the inferred internal event (‘I have cancer’) is more likely to
trigger his rigid and extreme attitude than the actual internal event (‘I have a pain in my throat’).
As such, the inferred internal event is an A2 and the actual internal event is not.

2
In this book, I refer to an A that triggers rigid and extreme attitudes as an adversity.

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y As well as bodily sensations, internal As can refer to such phenomena as a person’s thoughts, images,
fantasies, emotions and memories.
It is important to remember that, as with external As, internal As have their emotional impact by trig-
gering attitudes at B.

As can refer to past, present and future events

Just as As can be actual or inferred and external or internal, they can also refer to past, present or future
events. Before I discuss the time-­dimensional nature of As, remember that the A in an ABC episode, by
definition, is that part of the person’s total perceptual field which triggers their attitude at B.
When your client’s A in an ABC episode is a past actual event, they do not bring any inferential meaning
to this event. Thus, if their father died when they were a teenager, this very event can serve as an A.
However, more frequently, particularly in therapy, you will find that your clients will bring inferential
meaning to past events. Thus, your client may infer that their father’s death meant that they were deprived
in some way or they may infer that his passing away was a punishment for some misdeed that they were
responsible for as a child. It is important to remember that it is the inferences your client makes now about
a past event that triggers their attitudes at B. Such inferences may relate to the past, present and future.

An example of a future-­related inference that your client might make about an actual past event
is as follows:
Because my father died when I was a teenager, I will continually look for a father figure to replace him.

I have already discussed present As. However, I do want to stress that your clients can make past-­,
present-­or future-­related inferences about present events.

For example, if one of your clients has disturbed feelings about their son coming home late
­(present actual A), they may make the following time-­related inferences about this event that trig-
ger their disturbance-­provoking attitudes:

1. Past-­related inference: ‘He reminds me of the rough kids at school who used to bully me when
I was a teenager.’
2. Present-­related inference: ‘He is breaking our agreement.’
3. Future-­related inference: ‘If he does this now, he will turn into a criminal.’

The importance of assuming temporarily that A is true

As I will show in greater detail in Chapter 7, in order to assess a client’s attitudes accurately you will need
to do two things. First, you will need to help your client to identify the A which triggered these attitudes.
Because there are many situational aspects that are in your client’s perceptual field, it takes a lot of care
and skill to do this accurately. Second, it is important that you encourage your client to assume t­ emporarily
that the A is true when it is an inferred A. The reason for doing this is to help your client to identify the

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 attitudes that the A triggered. You may well be tempted to help your client to challenge the inferred A if

W h a t y o u n e e d t o k n o w a b o u t t h e t h e o r y o f REBT t o g e t s t a r t e d
it is obviously distorted, but it is important for you to resist this temptation if you are to proceed to assess
B accurately.
This is such an important point that we wish to emphasise it.

Assume temporarily that your client’s A is true when it is an inferred A

XX Bs
A major difference between REBT and other approaches to cognitive-­behaviour therapy (CBT) is in the
emphasis REBT gives to basic attitudes. In REBT, attitudes are at the base of clients’ emotions and sig-
nificant behaviours. Such basic attitudes are the only cognitions that constitute the B in the ABC frame-
work in REBT. Thus, while other approaches which use an ABC framework classify all cognitive activity
under B, REBT reserves B for basic attitudes and places inferences, for example, under A. It does so
because it recognises that it is possible to hold two different types of basic attitudes at B about the same
inferred A. It is the type of attitude that determines the nature of the person’s emotional response at C.
Let me stress this point because it is very important that you fully grasp it.

In REBT, basic attitudes are the only cognitions that constitute B in the ABC framework

XX Flexible and non-­extreme attitudes

REBT keenly distinguishes between flexible and non-­extreme attitudes and rigid and extreme attitudes.
In this section, I will discuss flexible and non-­extreme attitudes. These have four defining ­characteristics,
as shown in Table 1.1.
People do not only proceed in life by making descriptions of what they perceive, nor do they just make
interpretations and inferences of their perceptions. Rather, we engage in the fundamentally important
activity of holding attitudes towards what we perceive and infer. REBT theory posits that people have
four types of flexible and non-­extreme attitudes, as shown in Table 1.2.

Table 1.1 Defining Characteristics of Flexible and Non-­extreme Attitudes

▪▪ Consistent with reality
▪▪ Logical
▪▪ Largely functional in their emotional, behavioural and cognitive consequences
▪▪ Largely helpful to the individual in pursuing their basic goals and purposes

Table 1.2 Four Types of Flexible and Non-­extreme Attitudes

▪▪ Flexible attitudes
▪▪ Non-­awfulising attitudes
▪▪ Attitudes of bearability
▪▪ Unconditional self-­acceptance/other-­acceptance/life-­acceptance attitudes

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y Flexible attitudes

As humans we have a range of preferences, wishes, desires, wants, etc. When we bring a flexible attitude
to these preferences, etc., when they are not met then such flexible attitudes are at the base or core of
psychological health.
Flexible attitudes are often expressed thus:
‘I want to do well in my forthcoming test (‘asserted preference’ component), but I do not have to do so
(‘negated demand’ component).’
If only the first part of this flexible attitude was expressed, which I call the ‘asserted preference’ com-
ponent – ‘I want to do well in my forthcoming test’ – then your client could, implicitly, change this to a
rigid attitude or demand – ‘I want to do well in my forthcoming test. . . (and therefore I have to do so).’
Such an attitude is at the base or core of psychological disturbance, as I will describe presently. So, it is
important to help your client express fully their flexible attitude, and this involves helping them to
include both the ‘asserted preference’ component (i.e., ‘I want to do well in my forthcoming test’) and the
‘negated demand’ component (i.e., ‘but I do not have to do so’).

In short, we have:
Flexible attitude =
▪▪ ‘Asserted preference’ component +
▪▪ ‘Negated demand’ component

This flexible attitude is healthy for the following reasons:

▪▪ It is flexible in that your client allows for the fact that they might not do well.
▪▪ It is consistent with reality in that (a) your client really does want to do well in the forthcoming test
and (b) there is no law of the universe dictating that they have to do well.
▪▪ It is logical in that both the ‘asserted preference’ component and the ‘negated demand’ component are
not rigid and thus the latter follows logically from the former.
▪▪ It will help your client to have immediate functional emotions, behaviours and cognitions and help
them pursue their longer-­term goals. Thus, the flexible attitude will motivate them to focus on what
they are doing as opposed to how well or badly they are doing it.

According to Albert Ellis (1994), the originator of REBT, a flexible attitude is a primary attitude, and
three other non-­extreme attitudes are derived from it. These attitudes are non-­awfulising attitudes, atti-
tudes of bearability and unconditional self-­, other-­and life-­acceptance attitudes, and I will deal with each
in turn. In doing so, I will emphasise and illustrate the importance of negating the extreme component
in formulating a non-­extreme attitude in each of these derivatives.

Non-­awfulising attitudes When your client does not get their preference met and holds a flexible
attitude towards this adversity, then it is healthy for them to conclude that it is bad but not awful that they
failed to get what they wanted. The more important their preference in this scenario, then the more
unfortunate is their failure to get it. Evaluations of badness can be placed on a continuum from 0% to
99.99% badness. However, it is not possible to get to 100% badness. The words of the mother of pop

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singer Smokey Robinson capture this concept quite nicely: ‘From the day you are born till you ride in the

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hearse, there’s nothing so bad that it couldn’t be worse.’ This should not be thought of as minimising the
badness of a very negative event, rather as showing that ‘nothing is truly awful in the universe’.

Taking my example of the client whose primary flexible attitude is ‘I want to do well in my
­forthcoming test, but I do not have to do so,’ their full non-­awfulising attitude is:
‘It will be bad if I fail to do well in my forthcoming test (‘asserted badness’ component), but it is
not awful if I don’t do well (‘negated awfulising’ component).’

If only the first part of this non-­extreme attitude was expressed, which I call the ‘asserted badness’
component – ‘It will be bad if I fail to do well in my forthcoming test’ – then your client could, implicitly,
change this to an awfulising attitude, which, as we shall see, REBT theory considers to lead to a disturbed
response to the adversity – ‘It will be bad if I fail to do well in my forthcoming test. . . (and therefore it
will be awful if I don’t do well).’ So, it is important to help your client express fully their non-­awfulising
attitude, and this involves helping them to include both the ‘asserted badness’ component (i.e., ‘It will be
bad if I fail to do well in my forthcoming test’) and the ‘negated awfulising’ component (i.e., ‘but it is not
awful if I don’t do well’).

In short, we have:
Non-­awfulising attitude =
▪▪ ‘Asserted badness’ component +
▪▪ ‘Negated awfulising’ component

This non-­awfulising attitude is healthy for the following reasons:

▪▪ It is non-­extreme in that your client allows for the fact that there are things that can be worse than not
doing well in the test.
▪▪ It is consistent with reality in that your client really can prove that it would be bad for them not to do
well and that it wouldn’t be awful.
▪▪ It is logical in that both the ‘asserted badness’ component and the ‘negated awfulising’ component are
non-­extreme and thus the latter follows logically from the former.
▪▪ It will help your client to have immediate functional emotions, behaviours and cognitions and help
them pursue their longer-­term goals. Thus, the non-­awfulising attitude will again motivate them to
focus on what they are doing as opposed to how well or badly they are doing it.

Attitudes of bearability When your client does not get their preference met and holds a flexible
­attitude towards this adversity, then it is healthy for them to conclude that:

1. It is difficult to bear this adversity.

2. It is not unbearable to do so and they can bear it.

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y 3. It is worth tolerating (if it is).
4. They are worth bearing the adversity for.
5. They are willing to bear the adversity.
6. They commit themself to bear the adversity.
7. They behaviourally implement this commitment.

Adhering to an attitude of bearability enables your client to put up with the frustration of having their
goals blocked, and in doing so they are more likely to deal with or circumvent these obstacles so that they
can get back on track. REBT holds that the importance of developing an attitude of bearability is that it
helps people to pursue their goals, not because bearing frustration is in itself good for people.

Applying this to my example, when your client holds the flexible attitude ‘I want to do well in my
forthcoming test, but I do not have to do so,’ their attitude of bearability will be:
‘If I don’t do well in my forthcoming test, that will be difficult to bear (‘asserted struggle’ ­component),
but I can stand it. It will not be unbearably intolerable (‘negated unbearability’ component), it is
worth it for me to tolerate it (‘worth bearing’ component) and I am worth bearing it for (‘I’m worth
bearing it for’ component). Furthermore, I am willing to bear my poor performance (‘willingness
to bear it’ component) and I am going to bear it (‘commitment to bear it’ component). Then the
person implements this commitment behaviourally (‘behavioural implementation’ component).’

If only the first part of this non-­extreme attitude was expressed, which I call the ‘asserted struggle’
component – ‘If I don’t do well in my forthcoming test, that will be difficult to bear’ – then your client
could, implicitly, change this to an attitude of unbearability, which, as we shall see, REBT theory consid-
ers to lead to a disturbed response to the adversity – ‘If I don’t do well in my forthcoming test, that will
be difficult to bear… (and therefore I can’t stand it if I don’t do well).’ So, it is important to help your client
express fully their attitude of bearability, and this involves helping them to include all seven
components.

In short, we have:
Attitude of bearability =
▪▪ ‘Asserted struggle’ component +
▪▪ ‘Negated unbearability’ component +
▪▪ ‘Worth bearing’ component +
▪▪ ‘I’m worth bearing it for’ component +
▪▪ ‘Willingness to bear it’ component +
▪▪ ‘Commitment to bear it’ component +
▪▪ ‘Behavioural implementation’ component

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 This attitude of bearability is healthy for the following reasons:

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▪▪ It is non-­extreme in that the person allows for the fact that not doing well is bearable as opposed to
the extreme position that it is unbearable.
▪▪ It is consistent with reality in that the person (a) recognises the struggle involved in bearing the
adversity, (b) acknowledges the truth that they really can bear that which is difficult to bear, (c) sees the
truth that it is in their interests to bear the adversity (if it is), (d) acknowledges the truth that they are
worth bearing it for even if they don’t have a strong conviction in this yet, (e) sees that they have a
choice to being willing or, at least, prepared to bear the adversity, (f ) sees the truth that being committed
to bear the adversity is better than not being committed to do so and (g)
▪▪ It is logical in that the seven components are all non-­extreme and are thus connected to one another
logically.
▪▪ It will help your client to have immediate functional emotions, behaviours and thoughts and help
them pursue their longer-­term goals. Thus, it will help them to do well in the sense that it will lead
them to focus on what they need to do to face the ‘difficult to bear’ situation of not doing well rather
than on the ‘intolerable’ aspects of doing poorly.

Unconditional self-­, other-­and life-­acceptance attitudes In this section, I will focus on uncondi-
tional self-­acceptance attitudes. However, the same substantive points apply to unconditional other-­
acceptance attitudes and unconditional life-­acceptance attitudes. When your client does not get their
preference met, holds a flexible attitude towards this adversity and this failure can be attributed to
themself, then it is healthy for them not to like their behaviour but to accept themselves uncondition-
ally as a fallible human being who has acted poorly. Adopting an attitude of unconditional self-­
acceptance will encourage your client to focus on what needs to be done to correct their own
behaviour.

In my example, if your client who holds the flexible attitude ‘I want to do well in my forthcoming
test, but I do not have to do so’ fails to do well in this test because of their own failings, then their
unconditional self-­accepting attitude will be:
‘I don’t like the fact that I messed up in the test (‘negatively evaluated aspect’ component), but
I am not unworthy for my poor performance (‘negated global negative evaluation’ component).
Rather, I am a fallible human being too complex to be rated on the basis of my test performance
(‘asserted complexity/unrateability/fallibility’ component).’

If only the first two parts of this non-­extreme attitude were expressed, which we call the ‘negatively
evaluated aspect’ component – ‘I don’t like the fact that I messed up in the test’ – and the ‘negated global
negative evaluation’ component – ‘but I am not unworthy for my poor performance’ – then the person
could, implicitly, change this to a self-­devaluation attitude, which (as will be shown later) REBT theory
considers an extreme attitude – ‘I don’t like the fact that I messed up in the test, but I am not unworthy
for my poor performance (but I would be worthier if I did well than if I did poorly).’ So, it is important
to help your client express fully their unconditional self-­acceptance attitude, and this involves helping
them to include all three components: the ‘negatively evaluated aspect’ component (‘I don’t like the fact
that I messed up in the test’), the ‘negated global negative evaluation’ component (‘but I am not

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y unworthy for my poor performance’) and the ‘asserted complexity/unrateability/fallibility’ component
(‘Rather, I am a fallible human being too complex to be rated on the basis of my test performance’).

In short, we have:
Unconditional acceptance attitude =
▪▪ ‘Negatively evaluated aspect’ component +
▪▪ ‘Negated global negative evaluation’ component +
▪▪ ‘Asserted complex/unrateability/fallibility’ component.

This unconditional self-­acceptance attitude is healthy for the following reasons:

▪▪ It is non-­extreme in that the person sees that they are able to perform well and also poorly.
▪▪ It is consistent with reality in that while the person can prove that they did not do well in the test
(remember that at this point we have assumed temporarily that their inferred A is true), they can also
prove that they are a fallible human being and that they are not unworthy as a person.
▪▪ It is logical in that the person is not making the part–whole error. They are clear in asserting that the
whole of themself is not defined by a part of themself.
▪▪ It will lead to immediate functional emotions, behaviours and thoughts and help them pursue their
longer-­term goals. For example, it will help them to do well in the future in the sense that they will be
motivated to learn from their previous errors and translate this learning to plan what they need to do
to improve their performance in the next test rather than dwell unfruitfully on their past poor
performance.

Once again let me state that the same points can be made for unconditional other-­acceptance attitudes
and unconditional life-­acceptance attitudes.

XX Rigid and extreme attitudes

As I mentioned above, REBT keenly distinguishes between flexible and non-­extreme attitudes and rigid
and extreme attitudes. Having discussed flexible and non-­extreme attitudes, I will now turn my atten-
tion to rigid and extreme attitudes, which lie, according to REBT theory, at the base or core of psychologi-
cal problems. Rigid and extreme attitudes have four defining characteristics, as shown in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3 Defining Characteristics of Rigid and Extreme Attitudes

Rigid and extreme attitudes are:

▪▪ Inconsistent with reality

▪▪ Illogical
▪▪ Largely dysfunctional in their emotional, behavioural and cognitive consequences
▪▪ Largely detrimental to the individual in pursuing their basic goals and purposes

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Table 1.4 Four Types of Rigid and Extreme Attitudes

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▪▪ Rigid attitudes
▪▪ Awfulising attitudes
▪▪ Attitudes of unbearability
▪▪ Self-­devaluation/Other-­devaluation/Life-­devaluation attitudes

I explained earlier in this chapter that people can have four types of flexible and non-­extreme a­ ttitudes.
According to REBT theory, people easily transmute or change these flexible and non-­extreme attitudes
into four types of rigid and extreme attitudes (see Table 1.4).

Rigid attitudes

As humans we often express rigid attitudes in the form of musts, absolute shoulds, demands, have to’s,
got to’s, etc. According to REBT, our rigid attitudes are at the core of psychological disturbance.

Taking the example which I introduced above, the rigid attitude is expressed thus: ‘I want to do
well in my forthcoming test and therefore I must do so.’
(This is often expressed in everyday life as ‘I must do well in my forthcoming test.’)

Rigid attitudes, like flexible attitudes, are often based on asserted preferences. I have written else-
where (Dryden, 2021a) that it is difficult for human beings only to think flexibly when their desires are
strong. Thus, in my example, if your client’s asserted preference is strong it is easy for them to change
it into a rigid attitude: ‘Because I really want to do well in my forthcoming test, therefore I absolutely
have to do so.’ As you can see, this attitude has two components: an ‘asserted preference’ component
(i.e., ‘I really want to do well in my forthcoming test’) and an ‘asserted demand’ component (‘. . . there-
fore I absolutely have to do so’). In practice, in a rigid attitude, the ‘asserted preference’ component is
rarely articulated and therefore is held to be implicit. Thus, rigid attitudes are most often only shown
with the ‘asserted demand’ component made explicit (e.g., ‘I must do well in my forthcoming test’).
I will show both cases below.

In short, we have:
Demand = ‘Asserted demand’ component
Demand =
▪▪ ‘Asserted preference’ component +
▪▪ ‘Asserted demand’ component

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y This rigid attitude is unhealthy for the following reasons:

▪▪ It is rigid in that your client does not allow for the fact that they might not do well.
▪▪ It is inconsistent with reality in that if there was a law of the universe that decreed that your client
must do well in their forthcoming test, then there could be no possibility that they would not perform
well in it. Obviously, no such law exists.
▪▪ It is illogical in that there is no logical connection between their ‘asserted preference’ component,
which is not rigid, and their ‘asserted demand’ component, which is rigid. In logic, something rigid
cannot logically follow from something that is not rigid.
▪▪ It will lead to immediate dysfunctional emotions, behaviours and thoughts and interfere with them
pursuing their longer-­term goals. It will interfere with them doing well in the sense that the rigid
attitude will draw them to focus on how poorly they are doing rather than on what they are doing.

A note on language. The rigid attitudes targeted for change in REBT are absolute unconditional musts, as
described above. Your clients will often express their rigid attitudes using terms such as ‘must’, ‘should’, ‘got
to’, ‘have to’ and so on. As an REBT therapist it is important to be able to distinguish between unconditional
rigid attitudes or demands that underpin emotional disturbance and conditional musts and shoulds, which
do not. In the course of normal conversation your client is likely to use non-­absolute shoulds regularly. At
this point in your training, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the different ways of using words
like ‘should’ so you can better assess your client’s rigid attitudes. Encouraging your client to place the perti-
nent descriptor before the word ‘should’ or ‘must’ can help you both to make a clear distinction between
absolute and non-­absolute shoulds. Below is a list of different ways of using the word ‘should’.

▪▪ Recommendatory should: This ‘should’ specifies a recommendation for self or other: ‘You should read
this book’ translates to ‘I recommend that you read this book,’ or ‘I really should go to bed early
tonight’ means ‘It’s in my best interest to go to bed early tonight.’
▪▪ Predictive should: This use of ‘should’ indicates predictions about the future: ‘I should be on time for
my flight’ is interpreted as ‘I predict that I will be on time for my flight.’
▪▪ Ideal should: This ‘should’ describes ideal conditions. For example, ‘People should not litter’ expresses
the viewpoint ‘Ideally, people should not litter.’ Another way of phrasing this ‘should’ is to say ‘In an
ideal world x, y and z conditions would exist.’
▪▪ Empirical should: This ‘should’ points to the existence of reality. It encapsulates the idea that when all
conditions are in place for a given event to occur then that event should occur. For example, ‘Because
the car is old and in ill repair it should have broken down’ or ‘Because of laws of gravity you should have
fallen when you stepped off the ladder.’
▪▪ Preferential should: This ‘should’ indicates a desire or preference for a given condition to exist: ‘My
husband preferably should remember my anniversary,’ for example, carries an implicit additional
meaning: ‘It would be good if he remembered but he does not have to.’
▪▪ Conditional should/must: This ‘should’ denotes that in order for one condition to exist another primary
condition must be met. Examples include ‘I should eat healthily in order to become slimmer’ and
‘I must pass the interview in order to be accepted onto the course.’
▪▪ Absolute should: This term obviously refers to disturbance-­creating rigid attitudes or demands at B in
the ABC model of REBT. ‘I absolutely should visit my aunt in hospital’ and ‘I absolutely must tend to my
aunt at all times and under any conditions’ are examples of absolute shoulds.

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 Given the fact that the word ‘should’ has many meanings in English, I recommend that you use the

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qualifier ‘absolute’ when using the disturbance-­creating ‘should’ with your clients.
According to Albert Ellis, a rigid attitude is a primary attitude, and three other extreme attitudes
are derived from it. These are awfulising attitudes, attitudes of unbearability and self-­, other-­and life-­
devaluation attitudes. I will deal with each in turn.

Awfulising attitudes When your client holds a rigid attitude towards an adversity (e.g., not getting
what they want), then they will tend to conclude that it is awful that they have failed to get what they
consider essential. Awfulising, according to REBT theory, can be placed on a continuum from 101% to
infinity and means worse than it absolutely should be.

Taking your client whose primary rigid attitude is ‘Because I really want to do well in my forth-
coming test, therefore I absolutely have to do so,’ their full awfulising attitude is:
‘Not only will it be bad if I fail to do well in my forthcoming test (‘asserted badness’ component),
but it would also be awful if I fail (‘asserted awfulising’ component).’
More frequently, this is abbreviated as:
‘It would be awful if I fail to do well in my forthcoming test.’

In practice, in an awfulising attitude, the ‘asserted badness’ component is rarely articulated and there-
fore is held to be implicit. Thus, awfulising attitudes are most often only shown with the ‘asserted
awfulising’ component made explicit (e.g., ‘It would be awful if I do not do well in my forthcoming test’).
I will show both cases below.

In short, we have:
Awfulising attitude = ‘Asserted awfulising’ component
Awfulising attitude =
▪▪ ‘Asserted badness’ component +
▪▪ ‘Asserted awfulising’ component

The awfulising attitude (i.e., ‘It would be awful if I fail to do well in my forthcoming test’) is unhealthy
for the following reasons:

▪▪ It is extreme in that your client does not allow for the fact that there are things that can be worse than
not doing well in the test.
▪▪ It is inconsistent with reality in that your client really cannot prove that it would be awful if they do
not do well. While there is evidence that it would be bad for them not to do well, there is no evidence
that it would be more than 100% bad.
▪▪ It is illogical in the sense that the idea that it would be awful if they do not do well (‘asserted awfulising’
component) does not logically follow from the idea that it would be bad if this occurred (‘asserted badness’
component). The former is extreme and does not follow logically from the latter, which is non-­extreme.

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y ▪▪ It will lead to immediate dysfunctional emotions, behaviours and thoughts and interfere with the
person pursuing their longer-­term goals. It will not help them to do well in that it will discourage
them from focusing on what they need to do in order to perform well in the test; rather, it will draw
them to focus on how poorly they are doing while they are doing it.

Attitudes of unbearability When your client holds a rigid attitude towards an adversity (e.g., not
­ etting what they want), then they will tend to conclude that they can’t bear the adversity. In REBT theory
g
‘I can’t bear it’ either means that the person will disintegrate or that they will never experience any hap-
piness again if the adversity occurs. Adhering to an attitude of unbearability discourages your client
from bearing the frustration of having their goals blocked and thus they will tend to back away from
dealing with these obstacles.

Applying this to my example, when your client holds the rigid attitude ‘Because I really want to do
well in my forthcoming test, therefore I absolutely have to do so,’ their attitude of unbearability will be:
‘Because it would be difficult for me to bear not doing well in my forthcoming test (‘asserted
struggle’ component) it would be unbearable if I fail (‘asserted unbearability’ component).’
More frequently this is abbreviated as:
‘If I don’t do well in my forthcoming test, it will be intolerable.’

In practice, in an attitude of unbearability, the ‘asserted struggle’ component is rarely articulated and
therefore is held to be implicit. Thus, attitudes of unbearability are most often only shown with the
‘asserted unbearability’ component made explicit (e.g., ‘It would be unbearable if I do not do well in my
forthcoming test’). I will show both cases below.

In short, we have:
Attitude of unbearability = ‘Asserted unbearability’ component
Attitude of unbearability =
▪▪ ‘Asserted struggle’ component +
▪▪ ‘Asserted unbearability’ component

This attitude of unbearability (i.e., ‘If I don’t do well in my forthcoming test, it would be intolerable’)
is unhealthy for the following reasons:

▪▪ It is extreme in that your client does not allow for the fact that not doing well is bearable.
▪▪ It is inconsistent with reality in that if there was a law of the universe which stated that your client
couldn’t bear not doing well, then they couldn’t bear it no matter what attitude they held. This means
that they would literally disintegrate or would never experience any happiness again if they failed to
do well in the test. Hardly likely!
▪▪ It is illogical in that the idea that not doing well on a test is unbearable (‘asserted unbearability’
component) does not logically follow from the idea that it is difficult to bear (‘asserted struggle’
component). The former is extreme and does not logically follow from the latter, which is non-­extreme.

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▪▪ It will lead to immediate dysfunctional emotions, behaviours and thoughts and interfere with the

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person pursuing their longer-­term goals. It will interfere with them doing well in the sense that it will
lead them to focus on the ‘unbearable’ aspects of doing poorly rather than on what they need to do to
circumvent the obstacles in their way.

For a detailed discussion of different categories of attitudes of unbearability see Chapter 5 of Neenan
and Dryden (1999).

Self-­, other-­ and life-­devaluation attitudes In this section, I will focus on self-­devaluation atti-
tudes. However, the same substantive points apply to other-­devaluation attitudes and life-­devaluation
attitudes. When your client holds a rigid attitude towards an adversity (e.g., not getting what they want)
and attributes this failure to themselves, then they will tend to dislike themselves as well as their own
poor behaviour. Adopting an attitude of self-­devaluation, for example, will discourage your client from
focusing on what they need to do to correct their behaviour.

In my example, if your client who holds the rigid attitude ‘Because I really want to do well in my
forthcoming test, therefore I absolutely have to do so’ fails to do well because of their own failings,
then their self-­devaluation attitude will be:
‘Because I failed to do well in the test and that is bad (‘negatively evaluated aspect’ component),
therefore I am a failure (‘asserted global negative evaluation’ component).
Or more frequently: ‘I am a failure for not doing well in the test’ (see below).’

In practice, in a self-­devaluation attitude, the ‘negatively evaluated aspect’ component is rarely articu-
lated and therefore is held to be implicit. Thus, self-­devaluation attitudes are most often only shown with
the ‘asserted global negative evaluation’ component made explicit (e.g., ‘I am a failure for not doing well
in the test’). I will show both cases below.

In short, we have:
Self-­devaluation attitude = ‘Asserted global negative evaluation’ component
Self-­devaluation attitude =
▪▪ ‘Negatively evaluated aspect’ component +
▪▪ ‘Asserted global negative evaluation’ component

The self-­devaluation attitude (i.e., ‘I would be a failure if I fail to do well in the forthcoming test’) is
unhealthy for the following reasons:

▪▪ It is extreme in that the person only sees themself as a reflection of their behaviour, rather than as a
complex person with many different facets.
▪▪ It is inconsistent with reality in that while the person can prove that they did not do well in the test
(remember that at this point we have assumed temporarily that their inferred A is true), they cannot

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y prove that they are a failure. Indeed, if the person was a failure, then they could only ever fail in life.
Again, this is hardly likely!
▪▪ It is illogical, in that the person’s conclusion that they are a failure does not logically follow from the
observation that they did poorly in the test. They are making a part–whole error of logic.
▪▪ It will lead to immediate dysfunctional emotions, behaviours and thoughts and interfere with the
person pursuing their longer-­term goals. It will interfere with them doing well in the sense that the
attitude will motivate them to focus on their negatively evaluated self rather than on helping them to
deal with their negatively evaluated behaviour.

Similar points can be made about other-­and life-­devaluation attitudes.

XX Cs
In REBT theory C stands for consequences of holding basic attitudes (at B) towards adversities (at A).
These consequences can be emotional, behavioural and thinking in nature. I will deal with each set of
consequences in turn.

Emotional consequences of attitudes

The REBT theory of emotions is distinctive both in the field of psychotherapy and even within the tradi-
tion of CBT. It is a qualitative theory of emotions rather than a quantitative theory in that it distinguishes
between healthy negative emotions and unhealthy negative emotions. For example, anxiety (unhealthy
negative emotion) is deemed to be qualitatively different from concern (healthy negative emotion) rather
than quantitatively different. I will discuss this issue more fully in Chapter 4.

Healthy negative emotions and unhealthy negative emotions As I will discuss in detail in Chapter 4,
REBT theory holds that your clients experience healthy negative emotions when their preferences are not
met, and that they hold a set of flexible and non-­extreme attitudes towards this adversity. While negative
emotions (which are listed in Table 1.5) are negative in feeling tone, they are healthy because they encour-
age your clients to change what can be changed or make a constructive adjustment when the situations
that they face cannot be changed.
Alternatively, your clients experience unhealthy negative emotions when their preferences are not met,
and this time they hold a set of rigid and extreme attitudes towards this adversity. These negative emo-
tions (which are also listed in Table 1.5) are again negative in feeling tone, but they are unhealthy in that
they tend to discourage your clients from changing what can be changed and from adjusting construc-
tively when they cannot change the situations that they encounter. In short, healthy negative emotions

Table 1.5 Types of Healthy and Unhealthy Negative Emotions

Healthy negative emotions Unhealthy negative emotions

Concern Anxiety
Sadness Depression
Remorse Guilt
Sorrow Hurt
Disappointment Shame
Healthy anger Unhealthy anger
Healthy jealousy Unhealthy jealousy
Healthy envy Unhealthy envy

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stem from flexible and non-­extreme attitudes towards adversities, while unhealthy negative emotions

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stem from rigid and extreme attitudes towards the same adversities.
As I have explained elsewhere (Dryden, 2021a), it is important for you to understand that your clients
may use emotion words very differently from the way they are used in REBT theory. As such, you will
need to explain very carefully the distinctions between healthy and unhealthy negative emotions and
adopt a shared vocabulary when working with your clients. I will discuss this issue fully in Chapter 4.

Mixed emotions As I will discuss in Chapter 5, when you and your client select a problem to work
on, this problem is called a nominated problem. While assessing a nominated problem, you will ask for
a concrete example of its occurrence. You need to realise at this point that it is likely that your client will
have a mixture of emotions about the situation in which their problem occurred, rather than having a
single, unalloyed emotion.

For example, let’s suppose that Betty, your client, has difficulty expressing her negative feelings
to her friends when she considers that they take advantage of her. Thus, Betty keeps her feelings
to herself with the result that her friends continue to use her. When you come to assess a specific
example of this problem you may well find that Betty experiences a mixture of the following
emotions: anger, hurt, anxiety and shame. Now, it is important to appreciate that each of these
emotions is about a different A, which as you know may be an actual event or, more frequently,
an inferred event. Thus, Betty may be:

▪▪ unhealthily angry when focusing on the selfish aspects of her friends’ behaviour
▪▪ hurt when focusing on the uncaring aspects of their behaviour
▪▪ anxious when thinking about the possible rejection that might follow any assertion and
▪▪ ashamed when focusing on her own weakness for not having the courage to speak up.

I argue that if you want to deal with all these issues, then it is helpful to do an ABC assessment
for each of the four unhealthy negative emotions that your client experiences. If you try to do one
ABC assessment for the entire experience, you will become confused and so, undoubtedly, will
your client.
In this situation, your client chooses the order in which to deal with these different problematic
facets.

Meta-­emotions As human beings, your clients have the ability to reflect on their experiences and
think about their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Thus, a client’s emotion can itself serve as an A in
an ABC episode in which their attitudes determine what subsequent emotions they will have about their
prior emotion. These emotions about emotions are referred to as ‘meta-­emotions’ in REBT. As is the
case with negative emotions, negative meta-­emotions can be healthy or unhealthy. Thus, as Table 1.6
shows, your clients may have healthy negative meta-­emotions about both healthy and unhealthy nega-
tive emotions, and they may also experience unhealthy negative meta-­emotions about both healthy and
unhealthy negative emotions. The term used in REBT to describe the latter situation, where clients have
emotional problems about their emotional problems, is ‘meta-­emotional problems’. As you will see in
Chapter 9, the identification and analysis of meta-­emotional problems plays a particularly important
role in the overall REBT assessment process.

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y Table 1.6 Negative Emotion and Meta-­emotion Matrix
Healthy negative emotion Unhealthy negative emotion

Healthy negative Disappointment about being Disappointment about being

meta-­emotion healthily angry unhealthily angry
Unhealthy negative Shame about being healthily Shame about being
meta-­emotion angry unhealthily angry

Behavioural consequences of attitudes

REBT theory distinguishes between an overt action and an action tendency. Whenever your client
holds an attitude then they have a tendency to act in a certain way. Whether or not your client actualises
that tendency and goes on to execute a behaviour consistent with it depends mainly on whether or not
they make a conscious decision to go against the tendency. One major task that you have as an REBT
therapist is to help your client to see the purpose of going against the action tendencies that are based
on rigid and extreme attitudes and to develop alternative behaviours that are consistent with action
tendencies based on the corresponding flexible and non-­extreme attitudes. Before you can do this, you
need to help your client to identify and examine their rigid and extreme attitudes and to develop and
strengthen their alternative flexible and non-­extreme attitudes. I will discuss more fully in Chapter 4
the action tendencies associated with each of the major healthy and unhealthy negative emotions listed
in Table 1.5.
For now, I just want to stress that according to REBT theory, constructive behaviours and action ten-
dencies stem from flexible and extreme attitudes towards adversities, and unconstructive behaviours
and action tendencies stem from rigid and extreme attitudes towards the same adversities.

Thinking consequences of attitudes

You will recall that earlier I discussed the differences between actual events and inferred events. I argued
that although inferences are cognitions, they are best considered as As that trigger your client’s basic
attitudes at B. In this straightforward case, the A triggers the B, as shown in the following formula:

A→B

However, the attitudes that your client holds can influence the subsequent inferences that they make
at C. Remember that C can stand for thinking consequences of attitudes as well as emotional and behav-
ioural consequences of attitudes. In this more complicated case, we can denote this influence by the
following formula:

B → C Inf

Let me illustrate the influence of attitudes on subsequent inferences at C in two ways. The first con-
cerns a series of experiments that I conducted with my colleagues in the late 1980s. In one of these
studies (Dryden et al., 1989), we asked one group of subjects to imagine that they held a flexible/non-­
extreme attitude towards giving a class presentation and another group to imagine that they held a rigid/
extreme attitude towards the same presentation. Then we asked them to make several judgements

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 on a series of inferential measures related to giving the presentation, while maintaining the attitude that

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they were asked to hold. We found that the type of attitudes subjects held had a profound influence on
the inferences that they subsequently made. In general, subjects holding the rigid/extreme attitude
made more negatively distorted inferences about their performance in the class presentation and about
other people’s reactions to it than did subjects who held the flexible/non-­extreme attitude.

The second illustration of the effect of attitudes on subsequent inferences at C is a clinical one.
Sarah, a 34-­year-­old woman, came into therapy because she was depressed about her facial appear-
ance. At the beginning of therapy, she held the following rigid and extreme attitude:

‘I must be more attractive than I am, and I am worthless because I am less attractive than I must be.’

At this point she thought that everybody that she met would consider her ugly and that no man
would want to go out with her. You will note that these latter statements are her inferences about
the reactions of people in general and men in particular and that these inferences are the thinking
consequences of her rigid and extreme attitudes. During therapy I (WD) worked predominantly
at the attitude level and at no time did I encourage her to examine her distorted inferences. As a
result of my interventions, Sarah came to hold the following flexible and non-­extreme attitude:

‘I would like to be more attractive than I am, but there is no reason why I must be. I don’t like the fact that I
am less attractive than I would like to be, but I can accept myself as a fallible, complex human being with this
lack. I am not worthless, and my looks are just one part of me, not the total whole.’

As a result of this attitude change, Sarah reduced markedly her inferences that others would con-
sider her ugly and that men would not want to go out with her. In fact, soon after her therapy
ended, she started dating a man whom she later married. This clinical vignette shows quite clearly,
I believe, the influence of attitudes on inferences.

XX ABCs interact in complex ways: the principle of psychological interactionism

So far in this chapter, I have discussed the ABCs of REBT as if they were separate processes, distinct
from one another. During therapy it is important to deal with the ABCs as if they were separate compo-
nents, because otherwise your clients will end up confused. In reality, though, REBT theory has, right
from the outset, advocated the principle of psychological interactionism. This principle states that the
events that we choose to focus on, our interpretations and inferences, the attitudes that we hold and the
emotions, behaviours and thoughts that stem from these attitudes are all interrelated and reciprocally
influence one another, often in complex ways. It is beyond the scope of this book for me to discuss fully
and in detail these complex interactions. Those of you who are interested to learn more about the prin-
ciple of psychological interactionism should consult Ellis (1994) and Dryden (2000).

XX Summary
Table 1.7 provides a summary of the main points of this chapter.
Having introduced you to the theoretical fundamentals of REBT in this chapter, in the next we will
cover what you need to know about the practice of REBT to begin to practise it in a training seminar
setting.

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y

Table 1.7 Flexible/Non-­extreme Attitudes vs Rigid/Extreme Attitudes: Examples with Shared and Differentiating Components
Attitude Shared component Differentiating components

I want to do well, but I don’t have to do so . . . but I don’t have to do so

Flexible attitude (‘Negated demand’ component)
I want to do well. . .
(‘Desire’ component)
I want to do well and therefore I have to do so . . . and therefore I have to do so
Rigid attitude (‘Demand’ component)

It’s bad if I don’t do well, but it’s not terrible . . . but it’s not terrible
Non-­awfulising attitude (‘Non-­awfulising’ component)
It’s bad if I don’t do well. . .
(‘Evaluation of badness’ component)
It’s bad if I don’t do well and therefore it’s terrible . . . and therefore it’s terrible
Awfulising attitude (‘Awfulising’ component)

It’s a struggle for me to bear the discomfort . . . but I can bear it

of not doing well, but I can bear it, it’s worth (‘I can bear it’ component)
it for me to do so and I am worth doing it for. . . . it’s worth it for me to do so
I am willing to do so, and I am (‘Worth bearing’ component)
going to do so -­> doing so . . . I am worth doing it for
Attitude of bearability (‘I’m worth bearing it for’ component)
. . . I am willing to do so
(‘Willingness to bear it’ component)
. . . and I am going to do so
(‘Commitment to bear it’ component) -­>
behavioural action
It’s a struggle for me to tolerate the discomfort
of not doing well. . .
(‘Struggle’ component)
It’s a struggle for me to tolerate the discomfort . . . and therefore I can’t tolerate it
of not doing well and therefore I can’t tolerate it (‘Unbearability’ component)
Attitude of unbearability

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If I fail to do well, that is bad, but I am not . . . but I am not a failure
a failure, I am a complex, fallible human (‘Negated global negative evaluation’
being who has failed component)
Unconditional acceptance attitude
If I fail to do well, that is bad. . . . . . I am a complex, fallible human being who
(‘Negatively evaluated aspect’ component) has failed
(‘Asserted complex fallible’ component)
If I fail to do well, that is bad . . . and I’m a failure
and I’m a failure (‘Asserted global negative evaluation’ component)
Devaluation attitude

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 W h a t y o u n e e d t o k n o w a b o u t t h e p r a c t i c e o f REBT t o g e t s t a r t e d
◀  CHAPTER T W O  ▶

What you need to know about

the practice of REBT to get started

In this chapter, I will outline aspects of the practice of REBT that you need to know before beginning to
practise it. In particular, I will discuss (a) the REBT perspective on the so-­called ‘core conditions’, (b) the
active-directive therapeutic style adopted by REBT therapists and the skills involved in the implementa-
tion of this style, (c) the goals of REBT and (d) the tasks that both therapist and client need to accomplish
in the REBT therapy process. The purpose of this chapter is to provide you with an overview of the practice
of REBT so that you can make sense of the skills-­based chapters that follow.

XX The ‘core conditions’

In the late 1950s Carl Rogers (1957) wrote a highly influential paper on what have come to be known as
the ‘core conditions’. These represent the qualities which therapists need to communicate to clients,
who in turn need to experience their presence for their therapeutic effect to be realised. Before I present
the REBT perspective on these ‘core conditions’, I want to address one point that Rogers made with
which REBT therapists fundamentally disagree. Rogers argued that the ‘core conditions’ that he posited
were necessary and sufficient for therapeutic change to occur. In contrast, REBT theory claims that cer-
tain therapist qualities are desirable conditions for therapeutic change to occur, but that these qualities
are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for the occurrence of client change (Ellis, 1959). REBT
holds the view that therapeutic change can take place in the absence of such therapist qualities, although
such change is more likely to occur when these ‘core conditions’ are present. What are the ‘core condi-
tions’ in REBT?

Empathy

REBT therapists agree with our person-­centred colleagues in regarding empathy as an important thera-
pist quality. However, we distinguish between two different types of empathy. First, there is affective
empathy, whereby you communicate to your clients that you understand how they feel. Here, you need
to clarify for yourself and for your clients whether they have experienced healthy or unhealthy negative
emotions (see Chapters 1 and 4). This is an important precondition for the second type of empathy
delineated in REBT – that is, philosophic empathy. In this type of empathy, you communicate to your
clients that you understand the flexible/non-­extreme or rigid/extreme attitudes that underpin their emo-
tional experience. When you are accurate in communicating such philosophic empathy, your clients will
often exclaim that they truly ‘feel’ understood.

Fundamentals of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy: A Training Handbook, Third Edition. Windy Dryden.
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2024 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y Unlike our person-­centred colleagues, however, REBT therapists do not see either type of empathy as
curative. Rather, we consider that both types of empathy serve to strengthen the therapeutic bond
between you and your clients (Dryden, 2011a, 2021b) and that philosophic empathy, in particular, has an
educational effect in that it helps your clients to understand the link between their emotions and the
attitudes that underpin them.

Unconditional acceptance

The second ‘core condition’ put forward by Rogers has been variously called ‘unconditional positive
regard’, ‘prizing’, ‘non-­possessive warmth’ and ‘respect’. From an REBT perspective these terms are
problematic in that they imply that you are giving your clients a global positive evaluation. As such, as
an REBT therapist you will prefer to offer your client ‘unconditional acceptance’. This term means that
you regard your client as a fallible human being, too complex to merit any kind of global evaluation, who
has many different aspects, positive, negative and neutral.
In an interview with me (Dryden, 1997a), Ellis cautioned REBT therapists against being overly warm
with their clients. He feared that undue therapist warmth would sidetrack the therapeutic process, lead the
client to become involved with the therapist at the expense of involving themselves in self-­change methods
outside the consulting room, inhibit the therapist from confronting the client and reinforce the client’s
need for approval. Interestingly, in a research study (DiGiuseppe et al., 1993), Ellis was rated low on warmth
by his clients, a finding consistent with his ideas on the dubious therapeutic value of this variable.

Genuineness

The third ‘core condition’ advocated by Rogers again has been described differently in the field. It has
been called ‘genuineness’, ‘congruence’ and ‘openness’. From an REBT perspective genuineness means
that as a therapist you do not hide behind a façade and answer your clients’ questions honestly, even
those directed to your personal life, as long as you do not consider that your client will disturb them-
selves about what you may say. With this caveat, you will, for example, honestly point out to a client why
you consider some of their behaviour self-­defeating or anti-­social.
In order to do this therapeutically, you need to show the client that you accept them unconditionally
and your client needs to experience the presence of your acceptance.

Humour

Rogers did not write about therapist humour, but I consider this to be a desirable therapist quality in
REBT. Ellis has argued that one way of looking at psychological disturbance is that it involves taking one-
self, other people and life conditions not just seriously but too seriously (Dryden, 1990). As such, if you
can help your client not to take anything too seriously, then this is considered therapeutic in REBT. It is
important that you do not poke fun at the client themselves; but, given this, the judicious use of humour
through jokes, witticisms and even rational humorous songs (Dryden & Neenan, 2004) can provoke
constructive attitude change in those clients who will accept such unorthodox behaviour in therapists.

XX Therapeutic style
Although it is possible to practise REBT in a variety of different styles, the style adopted by most REBT
therapists and that advocated by Albert Ellis is active-­directive in nature. In my experience as a trainer of
REBT therapists, it is this aspect of the therapy with which most trainees struggle. This is especially the

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case with trainees who have had prior training in person-­centred therapy or psychodynamic therapy.

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Therapists from these approaches have been schooled in the philosophy that it is therapeutic to give
clients as much time and ‘space’ as they need and that the therapist should not interrupt or direct the
flow of the client’s exploration or experiencing.
In contrast, REBT therapists believe that it is beneficial for you to provide a structure to therapy and
to be active in directing your clients’ attention to salient points that will help them to understand their
problems more clearly and that will enable them to do something productive to help themselves. Let me
make an important point at this juncture: REBT represents one perspective and not the perspective in
psychotherapy. It is my practice to explain this to our clients and to mention that there do exist other
approaches to psychotherapy that may be equally or more useful to them. I then explain that we will be
using the REBT structure for understanding and dealing with their psychological problems and encour-
age them to experience this to determine whether or not it could be helpful for them. I have found that
this approach has been more successful in engaging clients in REBT than a messianic approach which
lauds REBT as the only worthwhile approach to therapy and denigrates other therapeutic approaches.
Having thus explained to my clients that I will be using a structured approach to therapy, I then get
down straight away to demonstrate this approach in action. While REBT is structured, it is important to
stress, however, that this therapeutic structure should preferably be used flexibly by you as an REBT
therapist. At times, the structure is loose, particularly when you give some of your clients an extended
opportunity to talk about their concerns in their own way, while at other times you will employ a tight
structure, as when you teach the ABCs of REBT (see Chapter 3).

Therapist directiveness in REBT

Let me deal more explicitly with the issue of REBT’s active-­directive therapeutic style. If we break down
this style into its constituent parts, we have therapist directiveness and therapist activity. Taking direc-
tiveness first, it is important for you to understand the issues towards which you as an REBT therapist
will direct your own and, more particularly, your clients’ attention. As REBT is an emotional problem-­
solving approach to psychotherapy, at the outset you will direct your clients to their emotional problems
and help them to describe these problems as concretely as possible. Then you will ask clients directly to
select a problem that they want to tackle first (I call this the client’s nominated problem), and they are
asked, again directly, to provide a specific example of this nominated problem, which is then assessed
using the ABC framework discussed in Chapter 1, to be expanded on in Chapters 6–9.
During this assessment, you are highly directive. You direct the assessment process because you
know what you are looking for, while your clients do not. Your job, at this point, is to encourage your
clients to provide you with the kind of information that will enable you to help them. I will deal with the
practical skills needed to carry out an effective ABC assessment in Chapters 6–9. For the present, let me
outline the direction that such an assessment tends to take. In general, when your client starts to describe
a specific example of their target problem, you, as an REBT therapist, should ideally direct their attention
to their feelings and help them to identify whether they have experienced a healthy negative emotion or
an unhealthy negative emotion. If their negative emotion is unhealthy, then you should1 direct their
attention to the A, which, as you will recall, is the aspect of the situation about which they are most dis-
turbed (i.e., the adversity). Once you have identified this, you should direct the discussion to your client’s
constructive goals for change.

1
Please note that when I use the word ‘should’ in this context in the book I am using it to denote what I advise you to do. So, it is
an advisory ‘should’, not an absolute ‘should’.

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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y Here, you should explain to your client that given the existence of the adversity, it would be in their
best interests to aim for a healthy, albeit negative emotional response to this A. Doing so will, in fact,
make it more likely that they will be able to change the adversity if it can be shown to exist or to correct
any inferential distortions that they have in viewing it than if they retain an unhealthy negative emo-
tional response to the adversity.
Once you have elicited your client’s goals for change, you should direct your attention to an assessment
of the rigid and extreme attitudes that underpin your client’s unhealthy negative emotion at C. Once these
have been identified, you should direct your client to the attitude–emotion link and ensure that they
understand what is known colloquially as the B–C connection. There are, in effect, two B–C connections.
The first one helps the client understand the connection between their rigid and extreme attitudes and
their disturbed responses to the adversity. This may be called ‘the disturbed B–C connection’. The second
one helps the client see the connection between flexible and non-­extreme attitudes and what would con-
stitute healthy responses to the same adversity. This may be called ‘the healthy B–C connection’. This is
an important stage in the therapeutic process in that it not only forms a bridge between assessment and
intervention but also provides a rationale for the examination of attitudes that follow.
As I will show later, while helping your client to examine their attitudes (both rigid/extreme and flex-
ible/non-­extreme), you, as therapist, direct them to three kinds of arguments: empirical, logical and
pragmatic. When using empirical arguments, you ask your client to find empirical evidence to support
these attitudes; in using logical arguments, you ask your client for logical justification for these attitudes;
and in using pragmatic arguments, you ask your client to reflect on the immediate and longer-­term
consequences of holding these attitudes. If you are successful at this stage, you will have helped your
client to see two things. First, they will understand that their rigid and extreme attitudes are: (a) incon-
sistent with reality, (b) illogical and (c) unconstructive (in that they lead to dysfunctional emotive, behav-
ioural and cognitive consequences as well as being largely disruptive to their basic goals and purposes).
Second, they will understand that their alternative flexible and non-­extreme attitudes are: (a) consistent
with reality, (b) logical and (c) constructive (in that they lead to functional emotive, behavioural and cog-
nitive consequences as well as being largely enhancing of their basic goals and purposes).
Your client’s insight into the above is likely to be ‘intellectual’ at this point, which means that they may
understand the points that you have helped them to see and agree with them, but their strength of con-
viction in these points will be low; that is, they will not have so-­called ‘emotional’ insight. As such, you
will need to help them to see what they need to do to gain emotional insight into their flexible and non-­
extreme attitudes where their conviction in this is high to the extent that it has a productive effect on the
person’s emotions, behaviour and subsequent thinking. If you do your job well at this point, your client
will see that weakening their conviction in their rigid and extreme attitudes and strengthening their
conviction in their flexible and non-­extreme attitudes so that the latter significantly influence how they
feel and act takes a lot of what Ellis calls ‘work and practice’. Much of this work is undertaken by your
client in the form of homework assignments, which you negotiate with them and which you check in
the following session (see Chapters 15 and 16).
I hope you can see from this brief overview of doing REBT with a single client problem the extent of
therapist directiveness in this approach to psychotherapy. Effective REBT therapists not only vary the
amount of structure in therapy sessions but are also flexible concerning how much direction to provide at
any point in the therapeutic process (see Dryden & Neenan, 2021 for a fuller discussion of this latter point).

Therapist activity

We have considered the directive constituent of your active-­directive style as an REBT therapist, but what
comprises the active component of this style of doing therapy?

26
 Advancing hypotheses As Ray DiGiuseppe (1991a) has shown, REBT therapists follow the

W h a t y o u n e e d t o k n o w a b o u t t h e p r a c t i c e o f REBT t o g e t s t a r t e d
hypothetical-­deductive approach to knowledge, and this is especially true when assessing clients’ prob-
lems. This involves using a body of knowledge to form hypotheses about, among other things, (a) what
your client may be feeling, based on the inferences they make about the world, and (b) what their atti-
tudes may be, based on these inferences and the feelings they have about these inferred As. Rather
than collect a great deal of information before advancing these hypotheses, I recommend that you apply
your knowledge of REBT theory to the discrete information provided by your client. Thus, if your client
tells you about their feeling, then you can generate a hypothesis about their inferred A, and if they tell
you about their feeling and the adversity at A, then you can generate a hypothesis about their attitudes.
You should use hypothesis testing particularly when your clients do not respond to open-­ended enquiry
regarding the information you are seeking. Here are some examples of theory-­driven questions when
testing your hypotheses:

▪▪ Could it be that you were feeling hurt when your partner ignored you and thus in your eyes showed
that he did not care about you? (hypothesis about a feeling based on a disclosure of an inferred A).
▪▪ When you were feeling hurt when your partner, in your view, demonstrated that he did not care that
much about you, I wonder if your attitude towards this was something like: ‘He must care about me.
If he does not, it proves that I’m not worth caring about’ (hypothesis about a rigid and extreme attitude
based on the adversity and a feeling).

When advancing such hypotheses, it is very important for you to do two things. First, make it clear
to your client that you are testing a hunch (i.e., hypothesis) and that you could be wrong. Emphasise to
your client that it is very helpful for them to give you honest feedback about your hunch and that they
can help you in the assessment process by correcting or refining your hunches. In this way your client
becomes an active participant in the assessment process and not a passive recipient of your clinical
wisdom (or otherwise!). Second, pay particular attention to the way in which your client responds to
your hypothesis. There is a world of difference between a client saying to you: ‘That’s exactly right. How
did you know?’ and ‘Well, er. . . I guess. . . I suppose you could be right.’ In the latter case, it is advisable
for you to say something like: ‘You seem quite hesitant. That tells me that my hunch is off target. Can
you help me to correct it?’

Asking questions Many people who are trained in person-­centred therapy and other so-­called non-­
directive approaches to therapy and then seek training in REBT are shocked to discover the extent to
which REBT therapists employ questions. While they were initially trained to use questions sparingly, if
at all, they are now asked to make liberal use of questions. What are your purposes in asking questions
as an REBT therapist? In addition to the questions that are a central part of hypothesis testing discussed
above, you ask questions for the following reasons.
First, you should ask questions to gather general information about the client and their life
situation.
Second, you should ask questions to obtain specific information in the assessment phase of therapy.
These questions are directed towards the salient aspect of the ABC framework that you are currently
assessing (see Chapters 6–9).
Third, you should ask questions as part of the attitude-­examination phase of therapy – that is, to help
you to encourage your client to stand back and examine their attitudes. As I will discuss in greater detail
later in the book, I recommend that you ask questions that are directed towards the empirical status, the
logical status and the pragmatic status of both your clients’ rigid and extreme attitudes and their alterna-
tive flexible and non-­extreme attitudes.

27
F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y Fourth, I recommend that you ask Socratic questions to encourage client understanding of healthy
REBT principles. While educating his pupils, Socrates would ask them questions to involve them actively
in the educational process. Rather than tell them the answers, Socrates asked questions to encourage
them to think for themselves as he gently guided them towards the answers. Thus, whenever you can,
use the same type of orienting questions. For example, if you want your client to understand why self-­
rating is a pernicious concept, rather than tell them why this is so, ask questions designed to encourage
them to think actively about this issue. In response to their incorrect answers, you should ask further
questions based on their replies to guide them towards the correct answer. In reality, you will find that
you will use a combination of Socratic questioning and brief didactic explanations (see below) to get your
teaching points across, because few of your clients will readily respond to the sole use of Socratic
questioning.
Finally, I recommend that you ask questions to ensure that your client has understood any teaching
points that you have made using didactic explanations (see below). REBT can be viewed as an educa-
tional approach to therapy. As such, its impact lies not in the information imparted but in the informa-
tion received and digested. Given this fact, it is important that you gauge whether or not your client
comprehends and agrees with the point you are making. First, ask your client to put into their own
words their understanding of the point that you have made. Once you are satisfied that your client has
understood the point in question, ask your client for their views on that point.
You should note two things about the use of questions in REBT. First, avoid asking too many ques-
tions, particularly when these are directed at the same target. For example, when seeking information
about your client’s rigid and extreme attitudes, ask one question at a time. Second, when you ask a ques-
tion that is directed at a particular target – for example, the client’s feelings – monitor closely the client’s
response to determine whether or not they have answered the question satisfactorily. If not and the
information is important, then ask the question again, using a different form of words if necessary.

Providing didactic explanations The second major class of therapist activity involves the use of
didactic explanations. As I have already mentioned, REBT can be viewed as an educational approach to
therapy. As such, one way of presenting educational points is for you to provide explanations of these
points in a didactic manner. You can generally make didactic explanations when your client has not
understood a teaching point that you have tried to convey by the use of Socratic questioning (see above).
Such explanations involve the deliberate imparting of information concerning, for example:

1. The ABCs of REBT.

2. How REBT theory may help your client to understand their problems.
3. What is likely to happen in REBT.
4. How you construe your role (as therapist) in the therapeutic process and what tasks you need to carry
out during therapy.
5. How you construe your client’s role in the therapeutic process and what tasks they need to carry out
during therapy.
6. The importance of homework.

This illustrative list shows the range of issues that you need to be prepared to explain to your clients.
A full list would be much longer. Given this range of issues, it is important for you to have a lot of infor-
mation at your fingertips and be able to explain a lot of concepts in ways that are meaningful to different
clients. I will briefly consider the variety of teaching methods you should be ready to employ as an REBT

28
 therapist in the next section. Before I do so, let me discuss a number of points that you need to bear in

W h a t y o u n e e d t o k n o w a b o u t t h e p r a c t i c e o f REBT t o g e t s t a r t e d
mind while using didactic explanations.

1. It is important for you to explain relevant information clearly and succinctly. Avoid long-­winded,
rambling expositions.
2. Explain only one concept at a time.
3. As discussed in the section on questioning, check out your client’s grasp of the point you are making
by encouraging them to put their understanding into their own words. This is a particularly important
point. It is all too easy for you to think that your client has understood REBT principles because they
indicate understanding non-­verbally. This is no substitute for your client putting their understanding
into their own words. You should encourage them to do this whenever possible.
4. Elicit your client’s view on the material you have presented, correct any misconceptions they may
have and engage them in a dialogue on any matters arising.

Using other methods in teaching REBT principles In addition to Socratic questioning and didactic
explanations, you can employ a variety of other active methods to teach your clients REBT principles. As
my goal here is to give you a ‘feel’ of the active constituent of the active-­directive therapeutic style, I will
briefly mention some of these methods rather than give you a comprehensive list.

▪▪ Use of visual aids. Here you can use posters and flipcharts to present REBT principles in visual form.
▪▪ Self-­disclosure. Here you tell your client how you have used REBT to overcome your emotional
problems. You can tailor such self-­disclosure to highlight different REBT principles with different
clients.
▪▪ Hypothetical teaching examples. Here you can use hypothetical examples to teach your clients salient
aspects of REBT. The ‘money model’ example of teaching the ABCs of REBT presented in Chapter 3
is a good illustration of this.
▪▪ Stories, aphorisms and metaphors. You can employ these methods to teach an REBT principle when you
think that your client needs a vivid and memorable illustration of the principle.
▪▪ Flamboyant therapist actions. These are active examples of the use of humour in REBT. For instance,
you may bark like a dog to demonstrate the point that you are not a fool even though you act foolishly
at times.

XX The goals of REBT

In the late 1960s, Alvin Mahrer (1967) edited a book entitled The Goals of Psychotherapy. In his summary
chapter, Mahrer reviewed the ideas of his contributors and argued that the goals of psychotherapy can
fall into one of two major categories: (a) relief of psychological problems and (b) promotion of psycho-
logical health. REBT therapists would basically concur with this view and extend it. First, you need to
help your clients over their psychological disturbances; then you need to help them to address their life
dissatisfactions; finally, you can help them to become more psychologically healthy and strive towards
self-­actualisation.
This is fine as an ideal, but the actual world of the consulting room can be very different. As such, as
we will show you, as an REBT therapist you often have to make compromises with your preferred goals
(Dryden, 2021a).

29
F U N D A M E N TA L S O F R AT I O N A L E M OT I V E B E H AV I O U R T H E R A P Y Attitude change

Ideally, as an REBT therapist, your preferred goal is to help your clients to achieve attitude change, which
means that they relinquish their rigid and extreme attitudes and adopt flexible and non-­extreme atti-
tudes. Your clients may achieve attitude change in specific situations, in one or more broad areas of their
lives or more generally. According to REBT theory, the more your clients acquire and implement a gen-
eral flexible and non-­extreme philosophy, the more psychologically healthy they are deemed to be. From
my experience, I make the following predictions:

▪▪ Only a minority of your clients will achieve general change in adopting a flexible and non-­extreme
philosophy across the board.
▪▪ A larger number of them will achieve attitude change in one or more broad areas of life.
▪▪ Most of your clients who achieve attitude change will do so in specific situations.

When your clients do achieve an attitude change, their inferences tend to be accurate representations
of reality and they tend to behave constructively. The point I want to make here is that if your client
achieves an attitude philosophic change, this does not mean that they will only change their attitudes.
Rather, making an attitude change helps them to make other constructive changes in the ABC
framework.
Please note that not all of your clients will be willing or able to change their rigid and extreme atti-
tudes, and when this is the case then you need to make compromises with your preferred goals and help
your clients in other ways. There are three kinds of change other than attitude change that you can try to
bring about. I will now discuss each in turn.

Inferential change

If you cannot help your clients to achieve attitude change, you can attempt to help them to achieve
inferential change. An example of a therapist helping a client to effect inferential change without
accompanying attitude change occurred when a colleague of mine failed to help his client develop
flexible and non-­extreme attitudes towards her husband’s presumed uncaring behaviour, but suc-
ceeded in helping her to correct her faulty inference that he did not care for her. As such, if your client
makes an inferential change they will identify and correct distorted inferences and will view situations
more accurately. As with attitude change, your clients may achieve inferential change in specific situ-
ations, in one or more broad areas of life or more generally. Given the REBT view that inferential
distortions stem largely from underlying rigid and extreme attitudes, inferential change is deemed to
be unstable, as your clients are more likely to form distorted inferences about themselves, other peo-
ple and the world if their rigid and extreme attitudes remain unchecked than if they hold flexible and
non- ­extreme attitudes.

Behavioural change

Sometimes when you fail to help your client achieve an attitude change, you can assist them by encour-
aging them to change their behaviour. Thus, if your client is anxious about being rejected by women,
you may help them to minimise rejection by teaching them to improve their social skills. If successful,
this may be very therapeutic for your client. However, even sophisticated social skills do not guarantee
that your client will never be rejected and thus they remain vulnerable to anxiety in this area because
their underlying rigid and extreme attitudes remain.

30
Changing actual As and situations

W h a t y o u n e e d t o k n o w a b o u t t h e p r a c t i c e o f REBT t o g e t s t a r t e d
Sometimes, if some of your clients are unable or unwilling to hold flexible and non-extreme attitudes
towards adversities, you can help them by encouraging them to change their inferences about these
events, their behaviour in the hope of modifying these events or you can best help them by encouraging
them to leave the relevant situation. In REBT, this is known as changing the A. However, we have
extended this to include changing actual As and the situations in which they occur. While such environ-
mental change is fine in the overall context of other psychological changes that your clients may make
(especially attitude change), on its own it leaves your clients particularly vulnerable. Because they have
not effected any attitude change, such clients take their tendency to disturb themselves from situation
to situation. Also, if solely relied upon, opting for environmental change teaches your clients that the
only way that they can help themselves is by changing or leaving aversive situations. They will therefore
not be motivated to attempt other, more psychologically based changes.

Different types of change within a case

It is important to stress that a given client may make different types of change on different issues. In the
following example please note the point that we have previously made: namely, when a client makes an
attitude change they will also make other relevant kinds of change. However, when that client makes an
inferential, behavioural or environmental change, they do not often change their rigid and extreme
attitudes.

For example, one of my clients, Belinda, came to therapy with the following problems: approval
anxiety, coping with pressure from her mother, dealing with her boyfriend’s lateness and a fear of
spiders. At the end of therapy Belinda had made an attitude change on the broad issue of approval
anxiety, an attitude change on the specific problem of dealing with her mother’s pressure, an infer-
ential change on the specific problem of her boyfriend’s lack of punctuality and an environmental
change of A on the specific issue of spiders (i.e., she moved house).

Clients’ goals for change

So far, I have dealt with the goals that you have for your clients as an REBT therapist. I made the point
that while you have preferred goals for client change which you are explicit about, you need to be flexible
and be prepared to compromise and accept less preferred goals when it becomes clear that it is very
unlikely that your client will achieve attitude change.
It is also crucial to note that your clients come to therapy with ideas about what they want to achieve
from the therapeutic process. They may state these goals explicitly or these may be implicit in what they
say. Sometimes your client’s true goals may be contrary to their stated goals and can only be inferred
from their behaviour later in therapy. The point I want to stress here is that your clients’ goals may well
be at variance with your goals as an REBT therapist and this may be a source of conflict in the therapeu-
tic process. One way to minimise such conflict is for you to encourage your client to make a problem list
(which is updated throughout therapy) and to set goals for each problem. I will discuss this issue later
in this book. For now, I want to reiterate that you can be most helpful to your clients by encouraging
them to set goals which are based on attitude change. However, as noted above, this is not always
possible.

31
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Ja mä punaisen myllyn lakassa mun vanhan viuluni viritän
sen kuoleman pillin sointiin ja soittelen rytkypolkkaa:
puukoista, helapääpuukoista, kolmesta sällistä soitan.

RAUHATON RITARI

Minä harjaa linnan muurin kävin Naurun kiltaa päin. Ja

rauhaton ritari laukkas, ja rauhaton ritari laukkas ja sen
haamuratsun näin.

Minä kuulin: aarrekoira juoks tietä haukkuen, ja kirkon

kukko huusi yli märkäin katujen.

Ja kuolleet munkit astui ja veisas kulkeissaan, pyhä risti

kunkin käässä ja murhe kulmillaan.

Näin viimein oudon miehen: se synkkä ja kamala on. Se on

kuin pitkäisen jymy, se on kuin pitkäisen jymy: se on ritari
rauhaton.

***

Oli pertuskan nenässä lyhty. Ja kannukset kimmeltäin sen

Vivikan ikkunan alle minä ratsastavan näin.

Se kerjäs: yhden katseen

kun neito hälle sois
jo hautaan rauhassa laukkais
ja rauhassa maata vois.
 Oi pieni Margareta:
yks katse mulle suo!
Ei heitetty sun ruumistas
linnan portin luo.

Ei piikkineito saanut
sua syliinsä kamalaan.
— Mutta kaunis Vivika Trotte:
hänet syöstiin kuolemaan.

Ja sydän ripustettiin
yli portin rautaisen —
Oi neiti Margareta,
minä tiedän kyllä sen,

minä tiedän, Margareta: et voi mua rakastaa. Minä ikinä en

tulla sun ikkunas alle saa.

LAPSENMURHA

Etkös pelkää, piika? Puiston ylle uusikuu niinkuin kirkas veitsi

äkkiä laskeutuu.

Ehtoon katvetessa
neiti jalosyntyinen,
kuollut neiti ajaa
keskeen varjojen,
 sulkalakki päässä, jahtitorvi huulillaan, piiskansiimoin
lyöden villiä ratsuaan,

kuulee pöllön huudon menninkäisten nauravan, muurin alta

itkun lapsi-vainajan,

säpsähtää ja kiitää jahtihaukka olallaan läpi

hämmästyneen, aution pihamaan.

Kuu on kirkas veitsi. Ruskeata verta on tulvillansa lehdet

viileän puistikon.

PYÖVELINTALO

Kävin kevytmielisenä talosi ohitse, kuningaskunnan

virkaheitto pyöveli. Sinun talosi katolla punavalkeat tiilet olivat
ihmisen lihaa. Ja lamppusi tuikkeessa itse istuit ja luit, niin
että kuului kadulle, katumuspsalmia vaskihelaisesta kirjasta.

Ja ilmassa ympärilläsi katselivat rikollisten punatukkaiset,

syyttävät päät.

Minäkin olen rikollinen, oi virkaheitto pyöveli. Mutta en, en

syytä sinua, vaan itseäni, joka on sinua säälimättömämpi.

LEIJONANKESYTTÄJÄ
Oi saavu, jos voit, ja vielä yli kaupungin vapisevan yks kerta
katso: sä löydät mun huoneeni ikkunan,

jos havaita yltä pilvein, läpi savu-pylvästöin voit keltaisen

kynttilän juovan, joka piirtyy keskiöin.

Minä ristikkoikkunaani,
veli, nojasin kolkon pään
— ja kasvot, opetetut
joka hetki hymyilemään,

minä peitin kämmeniini.

Hei, pedot, ulvomaan!
Olen leijonankesyttäjä,
minut kyllä tunnetaan.

Minä kesytin metsänluomat ja katseet neitojen. Jätin yhden

kesyttämättä: tämän villisydämen.

***

Tämä lienee rakkausdraama, veli porvari-aatelismies:

primadonna voi olla kuollut tai elääkin kenties.

Ens' rakastajan osa

oli julma ja luonnoton.
Veli, tunsit primadonnan:
se sureva leskes on.

Sata jalopeuraa mulle

meni kerran sydämeen.
Sinun verelläs, huomenissa,
veli, virutin tantereen.
 Veli, onton katsees eestä minä vavisten pakenen. Sinun
kuolleitten kasvojes väri on kynttilänkeltainen.

YÖLLINEN TELOITUSPAIKKA

Älä vapise, armas, yhtään!

Olen kyllä syyllinen.
Olen tappanut mä kerran
ylen hyvän ihmisen.

Oi, tahdotkos mulle antaa,

sä sydänystäväin,
sun käsivartes ihanan,
kun käymme sinne päin,

läpi kumisevan torin

ja kujan pimeän
luo kamalan hirttopaikan,
min yllä riippuu hän — —

minun kaksoisolentoni,
joka hamppusilmukoin
on hirteen kohotettu.
Sinut, armas, tänne toin,

ett' rukouksin pienin ja pienin kyynelein voit lepyttää sen

miehen, min eessä synnin tein,
 kun heitin sydämeni sun etees tomuhun — ja palasiks sen
astui ihana jalkas sun.

SALOMEN TANSSI

Johanneksen kaulanleikkauspäivänä lensi pieni kiuru riutuvin

siivin kohti kukkatarhaa.

— Oi minun nuori tyttäreni, jonka silmissä on autuas hurma,

oi minun suloinen tyttäreni, joka olet sanomattoman kaunis,
niinkuin värisevä onni:

joku tappoi miehen mustassa tornissa.

Johanneksen kaulanleikkauspäivänä alakuun aikaan lensi

tuhkanvärinen yökkölintu riippuvin siivin kohti vauhkoa merta.

Metsässä rätisi peto. Se iski kynsin kuin luuhamarin

tuijottavan rämeen puihin.

Ilma oli ihmeellisen väsynyt. Joku tanssi ilmeetöntä tanssia

nauru hyytyneillä huulillaan.

— Oi minun nuori tyttäreni, jonka korvissa on korvarenkaat,

oi minun nuori tyttäreni, jonka jaloissa on nilkkarenkaat: joku
hautaa miestä esikartanoissa…

PYHÄ YRJÄNÄ
1

Prinsessalla oli vallattomat sormet: nyt ne olivat kaikki

tiukkaan puristettuina nyyhkyttävälle povelle.

Kalmanvärinen lohikäärme
vieri hänen jalkoihinsa
hampaat kärsimättömästi loksuen.

Kirkkaitten silmien lähteet

olivat valuneet täyteen tuskaa.
Niihin kuvastui odottava ajatus:

-Joku laukkaa, joku laukkaa.

Helmenvärinen silhuetti
verestävällä taivaalla!

— Nosta siipesi, nosta kauheat siipesi!

Oi ryömivä lohikäärme, joka syljet häkää kaikista suistasi!

Nauran sinulle hillitsemättömästi, minä joka tänäpänä saavun
lansetti janoisena, haaskalinnut kintereilläni, jotka kohta
pusertavat ulos, kaikki pullistuneet silmäsi! Prinsessan
vallattomat sormet leikkivät kohta kypäräni teräksisessä
silmikossa ja hänen rintansa huokaa niinkuin pienen lapsen
povi onnellisesta itkusta.

Nosta siipesi, nosta kauheat siipesi: ei ole muuta kuin viha,

ei ole muuta kuin rakkaus.
TYTTÖÄITI

»Pieni, sokea tyttäreni auringonjuovassa. Minä laulan

kehdollasi univirren.

Ah, älä ajattele maailmaa, älä ikinä himoitse sinne, älä

himoitse! Olen kulkenut sen säälimättömillä kaduilla: ne ovat
mykät, tylyt kiviaavat.

Sinä et pääse koskaan sinne, pieni, väsynyt tyttäreni, ja

miten hyvä se on: ei koskaan viekas renki, aivan nauravin
silmin, tartu valkoiseen kyynärpäähäsi.

Ah, suviehtoita sinä et näe: se on todellakin vahinko, rakas,

pieni tyttäreni!

Silloin on heinäntuoksua koko maailma, ja etäistä laulua.

Huutaako joku minua? Ja minä menen, polvet oudosti
väristen, pidellen molemmin käsin poveani, jossa on
pakahtuva sydän. Tänään on tanssit.

Niin, kevät. Mutta sitten on syksy. Ja minä pakenen autioita,

niljaisia katuja minkä ennätän. Lyhdyt ovat kalpeita aaveita.
Ne huutavat rivissä minulle: mene, mene, mene. Ja kyllä minä
menenkin. Mutta niin kylmää on olla vedessä näin myöhään.»

KUOLEMA
Olet ääneti. Huomaan kasvojes kalvenneen.
Merensiniset silmäs on tulvilla mustaa uhkaa.
Olet tarttunut kuumilla sormillas ranteeseen
sitä miestä, min ruumis on kylmää, kylmää tuhkaa.

Ja lujasti puserrat, tahtoen huomauttaa,

miten sinetinvarmasti kaikki on lukittu tänään,
ja kellään ei, niin totta kuin seisoo maa,
ole sanaa tai tavua lauluhun lisättävänään.

Ne työnsi sun pois. Ja sen miehen ne työnsivät pois.

Tänä päivänä kenkään kättäsi ei pois työnnä:
ne melkein sallis, ett' kätes hän saanut ois.
Niin, sydän sen myöntää. Suu ei tietysti myönnä.

Ne istuvat piirissä rikkaissa muistoissaan.

Ja äidillä näkyy jo olevan värjätyt hapset,
ja isällä virttynyt parta ja hopeat kulmillaan.
Ja ne istuvat myös, ne nyyhkivät toiset lapset.

Vain Henrik on makuulla. Portilta vuoteeseen

on kapea, pieni ja punaisenruskea jana.
Ja Henrikin kuolleille huulille mykistyneen
ihan näyttää viimeinen, sangen lempeä sana.

Se sana on väkevä täyttäen taivaan ja maan

ja äidin ja isän ja lapset ja, kuule, sinut.
Ah, vanhat laulut on totta. Ne kerrataan,
jok' ainoa, joit' olet hämyssä lauleksinut.

Sa lujasti puserrat, tahtoen huomauttaa,

miten sinetinvarmasti kaikki on lukittu tänään,
 ja kellään ei, niin totta kuin seisoo maa,
ole sanaa tai tavua lauluhun lisättävänään.

KOIRALAULU

Nyt hän kuoli ja haudataan: koira, sä yksin jäät. Kun hän kuoli
ja haudataan nälkäpäiviä näät,

istut mykkänä ikkunaan toivoen saapuvan sen, ken toi

ehtoisin tullessaan leivän ja särpimen,

ken toi hyväilyt tullessaan hienossa kämmenessään, ken

niin mykkänä ikkunaan painoi kauniin pään,

kaarevan kaulan peittäen

silkkiviuhkallaan…
Saitpa silloin nähdä sen
itkevän rakkauttaan,

pienet tohvelit jalassaan, pienet ja punaiset. Etkä sä

kyennyt lohduttamaan, koira rukka, et.

VANHASSA HUVIMAJASSA

Hei, kuinka me nauramme kahden! Ja paperilyhdyissä liekit

on, ja yllä hiljaisen lahden vyö hehkuva kuutamon.
 »Mä pelkään niin», miks' sanoit
ja kutripääsi painoit niin,
kuin turvaa multa anoit
ja hersyit kyyneliin?

… Käy harmaa kuollut teitä

ja kurkkii katsoin sisimpääs.
Voi, silmäs joutuin peitä
ja kätke kaunis pääs!

… Se on sun kuollut ylkäs.

Hän ehtookävelyllään on,
kun neito hänet hylkäs,
niin hurjan onneton.

… Hän astuu puiston teitä

ja näkee sun ja näkee mun
ja katsoo kauan meitä
ja lähtee kulkuhun.

Ja sitten me istumme kahden.

Ja paperilyhdyt on sammuneet.
Ja kuutamo kultaa lahden
hiljaiset veet.

TULI SIRKUS KAUPUNKIIN

Näin kerran viekkaan kissan: mä torilla näin sen. Juoks torilla

vastaani musta kissa silmät palaen.
 Oi kuulkaa, herrat ja naiset:
tuli sirkus kaupunkiin.
Ja suurta vaskipasuunaa
sen ovella soitettiin.

Oi kuulkaa: kuu oli noussut

sen teltan huipun taa,
ja punainen klovni soitti
vaskipasuunaa.

Oi kaunis Isabella,
sun nimeäs mainittiin.
Oi donna ihanaisin, klovni
rakasti sinua niin.

Oi kaunis Isabella,
kai muistat ehtoon sen
kun hältä monta vuotta sitten
raastit sydämen.

Oi kuulkaa, herrat ja naiset:

tuli sirkus kaupunkiin.
Sen ovella Isabellan
nimeä huudettiin.

Näin silloin viekkaan kissan, mä torilla näin sen. Juoks

torilla vastaani musta kissa silmät palaen.

KANSANSATU
Se unisena saapui ja kissan selkää silitti ja koukkuleuka-
akalle se hiukan hymyili. Ja kuusivalkeata ja pirtin suurta
hämärää se onnellisna katsoi. Ja sirkat, sirkat soitti.

Se otti ruokopillin, ja uuninpankon kulmasta se

Tuhkimuksen löysi ja ruokopillikauppaa sen kanssa yritti. Ja
viiteen äyrityiseen sai ruokopillin myytyä. Ja sirkat, sirkat
soitti.

Niin uuninpankon nurkasta nous Tuhkimus ja puhaltain ja

lurittaen läksi ja joutui karjatarhaan. Ja prinsessainen asui sen
länsilaidassa. (Sen Tuhkimuksen takissa on paikka paikan
vieressä ja prinsessainen loistaa kuin aamun kaunis koi.)

Kun Tuhkimuksen pilli soi sen karjatarhan laidassa, niin

kaikki lehmät tanssi. Ja vanha, vanha kauppamies, se
muuripata-kauppamies, hän myöskin hyppi haassa. Ja kaikki
muuripadat läks polkkamasurkkaan.

Ja nihdit heponiekat nous tapparansa unohtain ja polki

raskain saappain ma luulen, saksansaappain, maan vihreätä
kamaraa, ja pienet linnut vieri kuin pallot taivaasta.

Vaan prinsessainen istui ja ihmetteli tornissaan.

Niin karjatarhan loukosta läks Tuhkimus ja puhaltain ja

lurittaen astui sen prinsessaisen kammioon.

Ja neidot sinipaarat ne kehräs punapauloja ja silkkityynyin

päällä ne istui parvittain.

Kun Tuhkimuksen pilli soi sen prinsessaisen edessä, niin

kaikki kehrävarret niin ihmeellisen vikkelään ja riemuissansa
hyppi. Ja sinipaaraneidot ne tanssi parvittain.

Vaan prinsessainen istui ja itki kultatuolillaan. Ja sirkat,

sirkat soitti.

Ja Tuhkimuksen pilli on niin kummallisen väsynyt. Ja

tehden ristinmerkin käy Tuhkimus mun luokseni ja yhden
äyrin hintaan sen pillin myödä tahtoisi niin hiljaisessa
loukossa kuin suinkin vain, ja salaa.
EPILOGI

LAULU IHANISTA SILMISTÄ

Me eksyksissä kaupunkia käymme pimeää.

Kuin pasuunien merkkiääni yössä kajahtais

ja kaikki tuulet vaipuisivat ylitsemme,

katu uppoaisi kumahtain kuin harkko rautainen

ja ummehtunut sumu esiin tulvahtaisi,

ja nousisivat satamasta vedet niljakkaat

ja peittäisivät kangistuneet jäsenemme,

ja taikalinnut lentäisivät heltoin kamalin

ja piesten kylmin nahkasiivin kasvojamme,

ja ikuisuuden tiimat matais päämme ympäri;

me pienet ja niin ahdistetut olisimme,

ja Jumalaa ei olisi. Yks varjo sininen vain vieris ylle

vesikentän pauhaavaisen:
sun silmiesi katse, joka tulvat hillitsee.
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAULU
IHANISTA SILMISTÄ ***

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