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Hard to believe that it has been 28 years since I taught a year long course at Haverhill High School called, Introduction to Psychology. When you repeat certain class activities for a few years, they tend to really stick in your mind. I remember one unit that included a comparison of various schools of thought on therapy. To help clarify the distinctions, I played some tape recordings (reel to reel !) of different therapists in action.
I was reminded of all this when I read a blog post that featured Dr. Albert Ellis, founder of the rational-emotive school of psychology. I’ll never forget the recording of a sample therapy session in which Dr. Ellis was the counselor. As I remember, he was talking with a guy who was quite depressed. At one point, Dr. Ellis says something like:
That’s right, you’re a schmuk! Do you know why you are a schmuk? Because you think you are a schmuk. You believe you are a schmuk. You gotta stop telling yourself you are a schmuk or you’re always gonna be a schmuk!
It always made me laugh. He was just so darned blunt. About as opposite to Carl Rogers in technique as you can get!
Anyway, the blog post I was referring to is called, How Self-Talk Changes Moods by Dr. Tony Fiore. In the post, he talks a bit about Dr. Ellis and then about the things (triggers) that cause people to be angry. He goes on to say that really it isn’t the trigger, it’s our belief about the trigger that directs our mood toward anger or toward a different emotion. He then goes on to say:
I am this type of psychologist and try to teach my local therapy clients that we as human beings should take responsibility for how we interpret and deal with the world because the only alternative is to try and change the world. Sometimes we can change parts of it, but most of the time a better strategy is to develop skills to deal with it more effectively.
Well, it’s true isn’t it? I find that I want many things to be different, but that’s not going to happen very often, so what’s my choice? Change my thinking.
I can’t help wonder, do some people have an easier time changing their thoughts than others? If so why?
