After the Second World war, behaviorist ideas began to be displaced by cognitive psychology, and therapists turned their attention to the way in which thoughts influence emotions and their treatment. Amongst the first of these was Albert Ellis, who had originally trained as a Freudian therapist. Influenced by the “cognitive revolution” in the fifties, he developed Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT).
His belief was that mood disorders are not simply the response to a negative life experience; they are also largely determined by how one views such events. For example, if someone experiences a negative event – a triggering/activating event – they may automatically respond negatively to it, and then find themselves trapped in a painful cycle of negativity. Alternatively, they could see things differently and react rationally to the event, thus avoiding any further negative emotional responses. In either case, the person would avoid reinforcing their own negative feelings.
