Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Ellis revises the traditional ABC model by redefining the 'B' component. Rather than treating Beliefs as a purely cognitive variable, he now describes them as Believing-Emoting-Behaving—a unified process in which thinking, feeling, and acting are inseparable aspects of the same event . This reformulation addresses a persistent criticism that REBT overemphasized cognition at the expense of emotion and behavior. A reviewer noted that this change reflects Ellis's longstanding insistence that cognition, emotion, and behavior are not separate faculties but interdependent processes that influence one another . The revision positions REBT closer to constructivist and postmodern approaches while preserving its core disputation technique.

Ellis argues that psychological language misuses nouns, creating 'semifictional entities' or 'thought things' that obscure personal agency . When someone says 'I suffer from depression,' the noun 'depression' implies an external condition acting upon the person. Ellis prefers 'I depress myself,' which makes the active, ongoing role of the individual explicit. A reviewer found this stylistic choice initially awkward but ultimately clarifying: it forces readers to recognize that they are not passive victims of emotional states but active participants in creating them . The CHOICE review described this preference for verbs over nouns as making reading 'a bit cumbersome,' though it reflects Ellis's philosophical commitment to personal responsibility .

The volume divides into two major sections. The first eighteen chapters focus on the philosophical underpinnings of modern REBT—relating its assumptions to various schools of philosophy, therapy approaches, and service delivery modes—and on the history and future of REBT. The final twelve chapters apply REBT to specific clinical problems including depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, low frustration tolerance, elderly populations, severe perfectionism, morbid jealousy, addictive behaviors, borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder . The CHOICE review noted that because Ellis wrote each chapter for a different audience and venue, the book contains a fair amount of repetition of basics .

The CHOICE review identified two stylistic problems: 'self-aggrandizement and sexism emerging from his folksy style' that are 'likely to be offensive to the modern-day reader' . The reviewer also noted Ellis's preference for verbs over nouns (coining 'anxietizing' instead of 'anxiety') makes reading cumbersome. Additionally, the book contains significant repetition of basics because each chapter was written for different audiences and venues . These criticisms are consistent with broader reception of Ellis's later work, where his conversational, self-referential style divided readers between those who found it accessible and those who found it grating. The CHOICE review nonetheless recommended the book for large collections serving general readers and upper-division undergraduates through professionals .

Ellis devotes a chapter to demonstrating that REBT and constructivism are complementary rather than conflicting. A reviewer described this as 'a terrific chapter' and 'the most clarifying chapter about this intriguing subject' they had ever read . Ellis argues that constructivism holds that people have considerable power to construct self-helping thoughts, feelings, and actions as well as self-defeating behaviors . He quotes himself: 'You have considerable power to construct self-helping thoughts, feelings, and actions as well as to construct self-defeating behaviors' . This alignment positions REBT not as a static rationalist doctrine but as a therapy that acknowledges human agency in meaning-making while insisting that some constructions are more functional than others.

Unconditional self-acceptance (USA) is central to the clinical chapters. Ellis argues that people harmfully globally rate themselves as 'good' or 'bad' based on performance, which creates vulnerability to depression, anxiety, and shame . The alternative is USA: accepting oneself as a fallible human who is neither worthless nor godlike, regardless of achievements or failures. Research cited in a textbook review found support for REBT theory: participants higher in USA were more objective in evaluating their performances and less likely to denigrate others who evaluated them poorly . Ellis presents USA as both a philosophical stance and a practical skill that patients can develop through disputation of self-downing beliefs.