A Guide to Rational Living

By Albert Ellis

As recommended by Owen O'Kane

Years ago, after two decades of burning the midnight oil, reading manuscripts which professed to have all the virtues this one actually possesses, I found the original New Guide to Rational Living—a gem that has become a classic in the field of psychology.

Since then, I am delighted to say, I have sold 1.5 million copies of this book in previous editions. Numerous readers have thanked me for making the book available and have related how positively it has affected their life. Undoubtedly this new, updated third edition will prove particularly valuable to present-day readers, who face unprecedented challenges in daily living.

Those who have read a large number of euphoric and inspirational books without achieving lasting success will particularly appreciate this book. For although A Guide to Rational Living makes no promises, it can help readers more than all the other books put together.

In the first chapter of this extraordinary new edition of A Guide to Rational Living, Drs. Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper express the hope that readers will not “jump to the conclusion that we hand out the same old hackneyed, Pollyannaish message that you may have long ago considered and rejected as having no practical value.”

This book, unlike others you have probably read, employs none of the jargon usually associated with psychology or psychiatry, and it may well prove to be the best book on psychotherapy for laymen ever written. It can provide emotionally disturbed individuals with many answers they seek, and it can help everyone to feel better about themselves and to deal with their lives more effectively.

The authors use a unique method of projecting their solutions to common problems. Thus, they point out that the individual who feels inadequate and insecure suffers from, for example, “Irrational Belief No. 2: The idea that you must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving.”

Drs. Ellis and Harper use ten such ideas to bring out the scope of their psychotherapy, with subtle, helpful solutions that reflect their vast experience as therapists. They have training and a host of case histories, to buttress their advice. This not only makes for a more interesting book but creates confidence in the reader concerning the techniques suggested, all of which have proven effective in a clinical setting.

Their direct, get-to-the-heart-of-the-problem methods show wide variance with most orthodox treatments that drag on interminably with clients never quite knowing where they stand. As far as I can see, here certainly lies, along with group therapy, the direction psychotherapy will take if it intends to make a real contribution to comprehensive health.

If you feel you have the rigorous honesty necessary to conduct self-analysis, this book will be the most important one you have ever read. And it will seem a boon to those who cannot pay the high fees charged for individual treatment.

You have my best wishes as you join the 1.5 million people who have read and greatly benefited from A Guide to Rational Living since my publication of the first edition. You have chosen to read a book that has set the standard and that likely will remain the standard for years to come.