The irrational ideas of Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis made a crucial contribution to cognitive psychology: the definition of irrational ideas. Learn here what they are.

How many times has wrong thinking led us to undesirable situations? Our way of thinking can ruin us for a few seconds, several months or our entire lives. Albert Ellis was one of the founding psychologists of cognitivism. He began developing the therapy in 1962, which he called “Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy” (REBT). Ellis believes that many psychological problems are due to irrational thought patterns and ideas.

Ellis centers his theory on the idea that “People are not upset by facts, but by what they think about facts.” as the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus said. Thus we can say that the “REBT” is based on the following hypothesis:

It is not the events (A) that generate our emotional states (C), but the way we interpret them (B). Therefore, if we are able to change our mental schemas, that is, our thought patterns, we will be able to generate emotional states that are less painful, more positive and in line with reality.

Thought can exert great power over us.

irrational ideas

Ellis listed a series of irrational beliefs and grouped them into 11 basic irrational ideas that we could summarize as follows:

“I need love and approval from everyone around me” or “I have to be loved and have the approval of all the important people around me.”«To be valuable I must achieve everything I set my mind to» or “if I am a valuable person, I have to always be competent, sufficient and capable to achieve everything I set my mind to.” “The bad guys must be punished for their bad actions.” “It is horrible and catastrophic that things do not work out, no whether or not they go as I wish or want.«Human misfortunes originate from external causes and I can do nothing or almost nothing to avoid or control the pain and suffering they cause me.” “I must constantly think that the worst can happen.” “It is easier to avoid than to face the responsibilities and problems of life.”“You have to have someone stronger to trust.”“My past is decisive for my present and my future.” “I must constantly worry about the problems of others.”“Every problem has a correct solution, and it is catastrophic not to find it.”

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These fundamental irrational ideas contain three basic notions in which individuals make requests of an absolute nature. to himself, others and the world.

I have to act well and I have to earn approval for the way I act. All people must act nice, considerate and fair to me; If they don’t, they are despicable and evil and should be punished. The conditions of life should be good and easy so that I can get practically everything I want without much effort and discomfort.

As we see, Almost all of us cultivate irrational ideas in our minds as a result of our personality, education and experiences. The problem is that they are usually the reason for our discomfort because just as we think, we see the world according to one perspective.

How do you know if a thought is irrational?

When a person is immersed in negative thoughts or emotional states of sadness, irrational thoughts become camouflaged within the emotionality of the moment, becoming more difficult to locate.

That is why it is good that you train yourself to recognize and isolate these irrational thoughts so that they do not have power over you. Some tricks for this are:

These are inflexible thoughts: They do not allow clarifications or replies. For this reason they are quite far from reality.They are erroneous beliefs: They derive from unconscious thoughts that come to light at the moment the irrational idea is processed. An example is thinking that the ideal is for everyone to like you, when this is not the case, due to a hidden need for approval.They usually incorporate absolutist adverbs of time: “always” and “never” are the most used.

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Other characteristics of these thoughts are:

It distorts reality. It is illogical. They prevent goals from being achieved. They lead to unhealthy emotions. They lead to self-destructive behavior.

Not everything is irrational…

On the other side of the coin, however, we can find rational beliefs for each of the beliefs previously presented. Rational beliefs tend to be more flexible, not putting obstacles in our way and not generating stress as intense as irrational beliefs.

So that When we catch ourselves maintaining an irrational belief, we can stop to reflect and question it. Not everything we think is true, nor beneficial, although at first we do not believe it that way. Let us not forget that we are both the masters and slaves of our thinking. Therefore we must be very careful with the type of beliefs we harbor.

Best of all, we have the power to choose what we want to keep, as well as to build the beliefs that will dominate our daily lives.

ABC technique to combat irrational ideas

This technique is based on demonstrating and recognizing irrational ideas. To do this, we have to detail the following in a matrix or record of automatic thoughts:

A: The event.

B: Interpretation or evaluation.

C: Emotion.

Let’s take an example:

A: EventB: EvaluationC: EmotionIrrationalWe fall in the street Everyone is looking at me, I’m an idiot Discomfort, shame and anxietyRationalWe fall in the streetThis can happen to anyoneAnnoying

In the picture, we can see that the same event can generate very negative emotions (discomfort, shame, anxiety) or simply negative ones (annoyance). The only difference is the interpretation of the event.

Therefore, when something like this happens to us we have to put the following technique into practice: ABCDE technique. In this case, the columns of the table would be the following:

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A: the event.

B: evaluation.

C: emotion.

D: questioning irrational thoughts.

E: new rational thinking.

Let’s take an example:

A: EventB: AssessmentC: EmotionD:QuestioningE: New thinkingWe go out into the street with a dirty shirtEveryone is looking at me, they’re going to think I’m a person who doesn’t clean Upset, anguish, anxietyWho is looking at you? Nobody is paying attention to your shirt, there are more people on the street. Also, they may be looking at how handsome you look. People who look at me don’t necessarily notice my shirt.

As you can see, to create a new thought the most important thing is D: the questioning, debate or dispute of our thinking. Questioning is necessary to create more rational thinking. In that case, it may be that people are not looking at us or that if they are looking at us it is for something else that has nothing to do with having a small stain on their shirt.

This time to finish, in a more practical and dynamic way, we propose detect an irrational belief of those presented by Ellis in your way of thinking. We even invite you when you have some free time, to reflect on your life and make a list of irrational thoughts that cause you discomfort and in another column, alternative ways of thinking. This way you can begin to undo knots, opening new paths of serenity.