A Guide to Rational Living

We still see A Guide to Rational Living as a revolutionary book.
When it first appeared, in 1961, it was one of the first books by
reputable, experienced psychotherapists to show people how to deal
effectively with their own problems. Yes, a long time before such
popular books as Your Erroneous Zones and The Road Less Traveled
appeared.
Even a little earlier, we anticipated the trend to popular self-help
books, since one of us (A.E.) had brought out How to Live With a
"Neurotic" in 1957 and The Art andScience of Love in 1960, and in
1961 we jointly authored A Guide to Successful Marriage just before
writing A Guide to Rational Living. Our earlier books, however, only
dealt with limited aspects of emotional disturbance and did not cover
the wider range of problems. Moreover, they only partly presented
the new system of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT),
which I (A.E.) started at the beginning of 1955.
A Guide to Rational Living went far beyond our first books and
became the most authoritative and widely quoted work on REBT for
the general public. Along with Reason and Emotion in
Psychotherapy (aimed largely at the professional therapist) it has
become a classic in the field. Over the years, we have received
thousands of letters and personal greetings testifying to its
helpfulness. Hundreds of psychotherapists have urged their clients to
read it. Many of its main suggestions have been copied or
paraphrased, with or without acknowledgment, iri others writings.
Good! For our goal is still to take the best wisdom about changing
"human nature" and to make it widely available, with revisions and