Though he wrote about the irrationality of religious belief, he modified his views in later years, as can be seen in an article in Professional Psychology, Ellis A. (2000). Can rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) be effectively used with people who have devout beliefs in God and religion?. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 31(1), Feb 2000. pp. 29-33, in which he presents two views of religious beliefs, as functional and dysfunctional, depending on the beliefs and how they are used by the individual. Riki Koenigsberg [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) In a message dated 12/29/2008 1:55:42 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi Albert Ellis does appear to have drawn a connection between irrational beliefs and religion. See http://www.geocities.com/bororissa/rel.html http://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Religion-Psychotherapists-Religiosity/dp/09 10309183 http://www.kenwilber.com/editor/lnttp.pdf The latter of course being a counter-argument. Again, to keep things at least tangentially related to Teaching Psychology, do we teach this aspect of Ellis's thinking or not? It was obviously important to him, given his writings and participation in the Council for Secular Humanism and its Free Inquiry magazine, and was connected in his mind with his ideas about psychological disorder and treatment. My gut feeling is that anything anti-religious gets short shrift in presentations of Ellis's thinking (and perhaps views of other secular psychologists?). It would be interesting to survey presentations of Ellis's work in Clinical Psychology texts. If Ellis's anti-religious writings are ignored, I see at least three negative consequences. (1) The scope of his notion of irrational thoughts is being misrepresented, such that people would not appreciate the full range of thinking to which Ellis himself would have applied his ideas. (2) Students miss an opportunity to see an atheist (he called himself a "probabilistic atheist" to avoid the absolute certainty to which he had such antipathy) who so obviously was concerned about human well-being. (3) Students miss an opportunity to examine more deeply some of their own beliefs. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] Department of Psychology University of Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 CANADA >>> "Dr. Bob Wildblood" <[email protected]> 28-Dec-08 2:29 PM >>> I have two things in reaction to the back and forth about the appearance of a "spiritual apparition" appearing and the child being snatched from the jaws of death. As a matter of background, I was a Navy hospital corpsman for 5 years and saw all sorts of unusual and unexpected events revolving around "miraculous recoveries" and unexpected deaths -- both unexplained. I have been a practicing clinician trained in CBT, RET, the new and improved RBT, and the much maligned EMDR (among several other modalities of therapy) for 35 years, and have dealt with death and grieving issues for much of that time as well. So... 1) I couldn't see this mother ever seeking help since there is no problem in her life. I doubt Ellis himself (God rest his soul - TIC)) would see her as having a problem that interferes with her day to day life, so why would she bother. Besides, she has a picture of the angel who came and had resolved that it was the angel of death or the angel of life, and that was that (except for the normal process of grief if the child had died - for which they were apparently prepared since the decision was made to remove the life support). 2) In regard to the picture, the story reports that it was seen on the security camera (which should have been recorded and saved) and that the picture the mother took of the "angel" was taken from the security tape. So, what is to be said except that there is no evidence either way and this does become one of life's mysteries for which there is no explanation and for which an experiment cannot be performed to attempt to explain what happened. You believe what you believe in these matters. Just this past semester someone in my class raised a situation similar to this and asked me what I thought of it. I said that I had no answer to explain what had happened, but said that if there were a God, that it is unlikely that He or She was a micro-manager. That got me 5 very angry emails from students. But then again, retirement is near. > Bob Wildblood, PhD, HSPP Lecturer in Psychology Indiana University Kokomo Kokomo, IN 46904-9003 [email protected], [email protected] We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible. - Barack Obama We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970) The race of men, while sheep in credulity, are wolves for conformity. -Carl Van Doren, professor, writer, and critic (1885-1950) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
