One of the current cognitive-behavioral psychological interventions that have demonstrated the greatest efficacy in the analysis, management and reformulation of dysfunctional beliefs is Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), proposed in the middle of the last century by Albert Ellis .

Its central theoretical hypothesis defends that it is mainly the cognitive interpretations of the situations a person experiences that cause a certain emotional state.

In this way, detecting the existence of distortions when extracting a conclusion or idea in the face of a certain event and replacing these thoughts with other more realistic ones, the emotional consequence may have a more rational and balanced nature .

The postulates of the TREC today

Over the last two decades TREC has evolved and modified significantly. In contrast to its initial nomenclature (the SRT), this type of intervention currently emphasizes much more significantly the relationship between the constructs cognition, emotion and behavior .

A second element that has been taking more prominence in the TREC more recently is the relevance of the general adoption of a philosophy of life made up of the awareness of the differentiation between irrational and rational cognitions . The three central principles on which this type of philosophy of life is based correspond to the following.

1. Unconditional self-acceptance

From this an attitude of self-respect remains in the individual himself , regardless of whether the assessment of the aspects that define the behaviour of such a subject are categorised as good or bad.

2. The unconditional acceptance of the other

The positive or negative evaluations that a person makes of others are conditioned by one’s beliefs, emotions or actions and are based on the principles, values and moral aspects present in society. Despite such influence, the global being of the other is accepted with compassion and respect .

3. The unconditional acceptance of life

Depending on the personal or social goals or objectives, an assessment of the life circumstances can be made , although such circumstances are not judged in themselves, but actively assumed and accepted.

The foundations of the current TREC

The theoretical basis underpinning the TREC and allowing the adoption of a more adaptive and rational general cognitive functioning, as well as the above-mentioned philosophy of life, derives from the following central ideas.

1. The confluence between genetic and biological load

It is an element that the human being counts on in the origin and the set of contextual experiences (physical environment, interpersonal relations and prevailing social values) is the cause of the system of thoughts and beliefs of each individual.

The learnings derived from family, academic or professional influence, as well as from interpersonal relationships, form a particular perspective for reading and interpreting oneself, others and the world in a global way . Let’s say that it is the lens through which the person values everything around him. For this reason, although sometimes such beliefs or perspectives are not functional, they tend to appear and be maintained unconsciously, since they are the precepts that the individual is accustomed to generate automatically.

When a thought manages to pass from the area of automatisms to the conscious part, it is when its analysis and questioning is made possible. The objective of the TREC in this sense is, therefore, to make conscious, in the first place, the type of cognitions that are set in motion before certain personal situations and to what nature they correspond (functional or not).

2. The methodology used in the TREC

This is fundamentally scientific . This implies substantial training in a series of techniques that will favour the adoption of a general cognitive functioning based on logic, realism and rationality.

Thus, assuming that sometimes personal situations will be more or less pleasant, they are actively accepted as such, but they will always be assessed on the basis of conclusions based on facts and not on subjective assumptions . In other words, the interpretation that the individual will learn to make with the TREC will be based on thought hypotheses derived from logical, probable and consistent approaches. On the other hand, those options that are unlikely, contradictory or easily falsified will be discarded.

This capacity to modify and adapt one’s thoughts according to the evidence and not to the subjectivities is due to a flexible, adaptable, modifiable style of thinking, etc., which is verified with behavioral experiments where the person is exposed to his irrational beliefs in order to scientifically contrast them.

This methodology intends to substitute rigid and dogmatic reasoning , as for example occurs with beliefs linked to merit or non-deserit that are granted to the vital circumstances experienced by others or oneself according to their good or bad actions; the scientific method has nothing to do with this type of divine justice that is sometimes intended to be applied to evaluate certain vital events.

3. Conceptual distinctions

Related to the previous point, the TREC intends that the person learns to discern the difference between a preference (related to rational approaches) and a demand (linked to dysfunctional postulates).

In the first case, the preference indicates a desire , which implies the acceptance of the possibility that this may not materialize.

In the second phenomenon, the requirement implies obligation, necessity, rigidity, etc., and does not contemplate the occurrence of other alternative options . The latter are those most usually associated with the appearance of personal emotional discomfort and are usually formulated through the well-known cognitive distortions “should” or “would”.

4. The focus on the present

Finally, the TREC emphasizes its techniques in identifying the dysfunctional cognitive patterns of the present, which is why gives little relevance to granting traumatic causality to events that occurred in childhood . The key lies, with a high probability, in the catastrophic connotation that the person generated at the time to elaborate his own thoughts, not so much to the situation itself.

Obviously, it is assumed that there are certain events such as episodes of mistreatment, abuse, marked deficits in the elaboration of significant links that can objectively constitute traumatic situations. However, on many other not so extreme occasions, the cognitive interpretation made of them becomes one of the factors causing the dysfunctional belief system that the person may present at present.

By way of conclusion

As has been seen, the type of intervention described shows a basic theoretical development with sufficient rigour and foundation to achieve highly significant efficiency rates . The way in which an individual values his reality becomes one of the fundamental aspects that condition the presence of an adaptive and satisfactory emotional state.

Thus, the basic learning that the TREC allows in the individual is mainly oriented towards generating in the person a self-image of positive competence in the management of their own thoughts and in the capacity that these have to be modified (supported or refuted) according to the objective evidence found. This new methodology in reasoning favours, in short, a realistic, rational and, therefore, more balanced cognitive style.

Bibliographic references:

  • Ellis, A. (2014). You can be happy. Rational Behavioral-Emotive Therapy to overcome anxiety and depression. Ed: Paidós Ibérica: Barcelona.
  • Ellis A. (2013). How to control anxiety before it controls you. Ed: Paidós Ibérica: Barcelona.