Rational-emotive behavioral approaches to childhood disorders: History, theory, practice and research

Abstract

The history of cognitive restructuring with children and youth doubtless goes back many centuries and may be traced to early philosophers and religious preachers. Socrates, let us remember, was persecuted by the Athenians for supposedly corrupting the youth of that ancient city. And the GreekRoman Stoic Epictetus, who is often acknowledged as one of the main philosophical fathers of rational-emotive-behavior therapy (REBT) and cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), pioneered in conveying significant cognitive teachings to the young people as well as the adults of his time. Because of his influence, some 2,000 years ago, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was raised from childhood in the Stoic tradition and consequently was later led to write his famous Meditations, one of the most influential books of all time, outlining the principles and practice of cognitive restructuring. In modern times, methods of teaching children and adolescents to talk more sensibly to themselves, and thereby to make themselves individually and socially more effective, were pioneered by Alfred Adler. Not only was Adler (1927) one of the first cognitive therapists to specialize in direct psychological approaches to youngsters, but he and his associates, starting in the 1920s, saw the importance of using cognitive approaches in the school system and of teaching them to parents to employ in the rearing of children. Today, the field of child therapy and adolescent therapy has embraced the cognitive model and, indeed, therapy has been operationalized as any intervention designed to alter the attitudes, thoughts, feelings and actions of the young person who has sought or been brought to treatment with distress and/or maladaptive behavior (Weisz et al., 1995). © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.