Growth Through Reason by Albert EllisMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Growth Through Reason
Context & Why I read this book
I am exploring "rationality" this year and already have read (and really liked) Ellis' A New Guide to Rational Living. Furthermore, everything with the term "growth" in it captures my attention since personal growth is at the heart of my personal mission statement.
What is the book about as a whole?
The book is a collection of clinical sessions conducted by several psychiatrists. Among the problems discussed in these sessions are masochism, depression, homosexuality, sex life and marriage, religion, phobic reaction, all loosely connected by the fact that RET (Rational-Emotive Therapy) was chosen as a form of therapy. The sessions are all interluded with commentary by Ellis on why something was done a certain way, why it worked, and how it could have been done even better.
The book's structure
The book is divided into 8 chapters:
1. Introduction
2. The Case of the Black and Silver Masochist
3. Rational-Emotive Therapy with a Culturally Deprived Teen-Ager
4. A Young Male Who Is Afraid of Becoming a fixed Homosexual
5. A Young Woman with Feelings of Depression
6. A Husband and Wife Who Have Not had Intercourse During Thirteen Years of Marriage
7. A Relapsed Client with Severe Phobic Reactions
8. A Twenty-Three-Year-Old Girl, Guilty about Not Following her Parents' Rules
One lesson
I quote a passage from the book: "A human being is an ongoing process and is constantly changing. It is therefore inaccurate to measure him on the basis of any of his past or present behavior—which merely shows, at most, what he has done up to now but doesn't necessarily show what he may do from now on."
Reading Recommendation / Who should read this?
While there are some interesting parts of the book I would rather recommend you read Ellis' more prominent books like the superb A New Guide to Rational Living (unless you are a psychologist yourself and can gain more from all these recorded interviews). This one here deserves only a 3 out of 10 (⭑⭑⭑) on my personal scale.
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