A Guide to Rational Living

Ellis and Harper identify ten common irrational ideas that produce emotional disturbance. These include: the demand for love or approval from all significant people; the demand that one must be thoroughly competent and achieving; the demand that others must not act unfairly and should be damned when they do; the belief that frustration is awful and catastrophic; the belief that one must be miserable when pressured; the belief that dangerous things demand obsessive worry; the belief that one can avoid difficulties and still lead a fulfilling life; the belief that the past determines present feelings; the demand that reality must be better than it is; and the belief that maximum happiness comes through passive inaction . Each is discussed with case material and rational alternatives.

The 1975 revision, titled A New Guide to Rational Living, preserves the original content but adds three major modifications. First, it acknowledges RET's debt to Alfred Korzybski's general semantics and is written in E-prime, a style omitting all forms of the verb 'to be' to reduce the 'isness' of identity statements . Second, it eliminates much of the 'musterbation'—the shoulds, oughts, and musts—that peppers the first edition . Third, it adds a chapter covering refinements such as homework assignments, positive and negative imagery, and questions for disputing irrational ideas . A reviewer noted these revisions make the New Guide 'a stronger, more readable book' than the original .

A 1975 review in the Canadian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine identified two persistent weaknesses. First, the book never clearly defines what 'rational' means in rational-emotive therapy—it uses 'logical' as a synonym, but rational does not mean logically valid in the Aristotelian sense; it means empirically grounded . Second, the question-answer format used in parts of the book was called 'artificial and gimmicky,' a technique for conquering straw men . Modern readers have noted that the authors come across as 'glib, arrogant, and insensitive,' almost mocking clients, and that the writing style and conversational examples feel dated .

A Guide to Rational Living is the layperson's application of the theory Ellis presented in Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy (1962). One was written for therapists, presenting the clinical and theoretical rationale for rational-emotive therapy; the other was written for the general public, translating the same principles into accessible self-help language and exercises . Harper, a practicing psychologist with training in anthropology and sociology, co-authored the Guide, which uses case histories from clinical practice to illustrate the application of the ten irrational beliefs . The Guide became the bestselling popular expression of REBT, selling over a million copies .

Ellis and Harper argue that lasting emotional improvement requires more than symptom relief or temporary reassurance—it demands a fundamental shift in the beliefs and values that generate distress. The book teaches that we do not merely 'get' upset but 'do' upset ourselves through our thinking . This distinction—between experiencing an emotion and creating it through internalized sentences—is the philosophical core of REBT . The authors advocate rigorous self-analysis, challenging readers to examine and dispute the assumptions underlying their emotional reactions, and they present the case material to demonstrate that this process is both difficult and achievable .