Albert Ellis (1953) created Rational Emotional Therapy. RET is a school of psychotherapy that teaches people to recognize their negative/irrational/self-defeating thoughts and the effect that these thoughts have on their emotions.

Tenets Of RET:

1. you are responsible for your own emotions and behaviors


2. your harmful emotions and unhealthy behaviors are a product of your irrational thoughts


3. you can learn more realistic views with practice and let them become a part of you


4. you'll experience a deeper acceptance of yourself and an improved quality of life

Some common "automatic negative thoughts" include:

1. it is necessary (and possible) to please most of the people most of the time (and have unfailing approval/love/positive attention)


2. it is necessary (and possible) to be unfailingly competent and nearly perfect


3. it is intolerably horrible when things don't go our way


4. the past determines the future


5. happiness can be achieved with inactivity, passivity and leisure


6. we are helpless and cannot control or change the way we feel


7. it is necessary to be more focused on others' needs than one's own


8. when people disapprove of you it means you are unworthy, wrong or bad


9. there is such a thing as a perfect person and a perfect relationship


10. your worth as a person is measured by how much you achieve or produce


11. anger is always bad and destructive


12. others should be able to know what we need/want without us telling them


13. I should/can wait to start a new behavior until I have the motivation (instead of realizing that often motivation follows behavior)


14. Life is supposed to be ("fair," "easy," "fun"). All the time spent otherwise it is terrible all the time.