The New Rational Therapy: Thinking Your Way to Serenity, Success, and Profound Happiness

Author: Elliot D. CohenPublisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Paperback:ISBN 10: 0742547345ISBN 13: 978-0742547346Throughout the ages, great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, and many others have had incredibly useful things to say about overcoming the strife of everyday living and attaining happiness. Unfortunately contemporary approaches to psychology have made only limited use of this guidance. At last, here is an uplifting psychology that systematically applies the wisdom of the ages to attaining life pregnant with insight, meaning, value, and purpose. Guided by the vision of great minds, this book shows you how you can still feel secure and hopeful in a precarious, uncertain universe; face evil with lifeaffirming courage; build selfesteem, respect for others, and global reverence; become your own person; take control of you're emotions and behavior; strengthen your willpower; confront moral problems creatively; build rapport and solidarity with others; and hone your practical decisionmaking skills. Unlike classical approaches to rational psychology that only scratch the surface of what's deeply wrong in your life, THE NEW RATIONAL THERAPY gets to the core and offers you penetrating, philosophical antidotes for transcending your malaise, and for attaining an enduring, profound happiness. Review The New Rational Therapy is an intelligent and clearly written book. It is enjoyable to read, and it gently induces the reader to self-knowledge and self-improvement. The light of reason that shines through this new therapy can indeed be the right medication for persons suffering from mental and emotional disorders. Professional care givers can find new inspiration in the “Eternal Logos” reshaped as a Logic-Based talking cure (LBT) and use its wisdom in their own working settings. The New Rational Therapy presents the ripened fruition of Dr. Elliot Cohen's many years of research and clinical practice; it will be the remaining crown of excellence and distinction on his labor. (Shlomit C. Schuster Ph.D., author of Philosophy Practice: An Alternative to Counseling and Psychotherapy)In his New Rational Therapy, Elliot Cohen identifies eleven common and destructive patterns of reasoning that, left unchecked, can substantially impair personal happiness. He provides many useful antidotes to counteract the poisonous effects of these cardinal fallacies. (Samuel Zinaich, Jr., president, American Society for Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy)An amazingly profound book. (Albert Ellis PhD, Albert Ellis Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy, New York City)Cohen does a masterful job of melding concepts of positive psychology into his own theories of rational therapy. (Sara Dettinger Martino PsycCRITIQUES)This is a genuinely useful book that deserves a wide readership. It could help a lot of people become a great deal happier. (Kevin M. Purday Metapsychology Online)Clearly written and well argued, Cohen sets out eleven philosophical prescriptions that really can improve our everyday lives. If more philosophers followed Cohen's lead in their work, there will be many more (employed) philosophers and even more satisfied students of philosophy. (James P. Sterba, professor, University of Notre Dame) From the Author This book is the first systematic philosophical counseling approach to use philosophical wisdom to treat some of the most destructive fallacies endemic to humankind. For example, many people suffer from metaphysical insecurity as a result of making perfectionistic demands on a universe inherently imperfect. Standard psychological approaches are not equipped to deal with this metaphysical malais because the philosophical insights needed to overcome it are outside the purview of classical psychological training. In this book, I have identified eleven cardinal fallacies that tend to create the lion share of self-inflicted, needless human suffering; and I have provided many potent antidotes to these fallacies gleaned from the history of philosophy. The book shows how living philosophically according to these lights can help you better cope with the stresses of ordinary living, and, what is more, aspire to a life pregnant with deeper meaning, insight, value, and purpose. About the Author Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D., is executive co-director and co-founder of the American Society for Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy; professor and chair at the Indian River College; editor-in-chief and founder of The International Journal of Applied Philosophy and The International Journal of Philosophical Practice. Author of twelve books and numerous articles, his most recent book on philosophical counseling is What Would Aristotle Do? Self-Control through the Power of Reason. Other recent books include Philosophers at Work: Issues and Practice of Philosophy; The Virtuous Therapist: Ethical Practice of Counseling & Psychotherapy; and News Incorporated: Corporate Media Ownership and its Threat to Democracy. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From Preface: "About a half century ago, a man with a vision looked to the teachings of the ancient Stoic philosophers to develop a rational approach to psychology. The result was a type of therapy that has radically changed the face of contemporary psychology. I speak here of one of the most influential psychologists of the past century, Albert Ellis, founder of the popular therapy known as Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Ellis tapped into an enormously valuable reserve, but there is an incredibly vast sea of such knowledge that still remains untapped. The strides made in this book to harness the wisdom of the ages mark a new beginning in the endeavor to make rational therapy more profoundly rational."