WE ARE BY NATURE SOCIAL BEINGS
William Glasser openly rejected conventional psychiatry and the use of medication, claiming that most of the mental and psychological problems that people experience are actually on a spectrum of healthy human experience, and can be improved through changes in behaviour. His ideas focus on achieving greater happiness and fulfilment through personal choice, responsibility, and transformation. In 1965, he developed Reality Therapy, a cognitive-behavioural, problem-solving approach to treatment that encourages clients to seek what they really want in the present moment, and to assess whether or not the behaviours that they have chosen are bringing them closer to or further away from achieving their goals.
"Improving our relationships is improving our mental health."
William Glasser
Choice Theory
Over decades of practising Reality Therapy, Glasser realized that his entire approach was based on the idea of people actively identifying what they want to do in order to be fulfilled, and this led him to develop Choice Theory. This theory holds that we are all motivated to act in ways that increase pleasure and decrease pain – we want to think and behave in ways that will make us feel better. All pleasure and pain, he says, derives from our efforts to satisfy five genetically encoded needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Any behaviour that satisfies one of these is pleasurable, and any that fails to do so is a source of pain, and ultimately, he explains, it is only through human relationships that we can satisfy these needs. When we are struggling to survive, the help of another makes us feel good; in order to feel love and belonging, we need at least one good relationship; to sense even the least of our power, we need someone to listen to what we say; to feel free, we must feel free from the control of others; and while it is possible to have fun on our own, it is much easier with other people. For these reasons, he argues, “we are, by nature, social beings”. Glasser emphasizes that lasting psychological problems are usually caused by problems in our personal relationships (rather than signifying a biochemical abnormality in the brain), and distress can be remedied through repairing these relationships without recourse(依赖) to psychiatric drugs. He points towards the basic human need for power, which we try to satisfy by attempting to control other people. In fact, the only thing that we can control is the way we behave and think; we cannot control others. Trying to, he says, shows a lack of respect for others and is the cause of unhappiness. Choice Theory is a self-control psychology designed to counteract(抵消) this tendency and to help us find happiness within our relationships.
Interpersonal(人际的) strife with those close to us leads to rifts(裂痕) and resentments that produce symptoms of mental illness; these problems are, in fact, the logical consequences of troubled relationships.
MORE TO KNOW…
IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Choice Theory
BEFORE
c.350 BCE Greek philosopher Aristotle says we are driven by three things: sensual(感觉的) appetite, anger, and boulesis, the rational desire for what is beneficial.
1943 Clark L. Hull says that all human behaviour comes from four primary drives: hunger, thirst, sex, and the avoidance of pain.
1973 US scientist William T. Powers develops perceptual(知觉的) control theory (PCT), which suggests that our behaviour is how we control our perceptions in order to keep them close to internally fixed reference levels.
AFTER
2000 US psychiatrist Peter Breggin publishes Reclaiming our Children, criticizing the use of psychiatric drugs as “cures” for troubled children.
WILLIAM GLASSER
William Glasser was born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, in 1925. Originally trained as a chemical engineer, he attended medical school in Cleveland and trained in psychiatry in Los Angeles. He began practising in 1957. Through the writings on perceptual control theory (PCT) by William T. Powers, Glasser was introduced to control theory systems. In 1967, Glasser founded the Institute for Reality Therapy in California (later renamed the William Glasser Institute), which trains students in Choice Theory. His approach is taught in more than 28 countries, and he has written on mental illness, counselling, and how to improve schools. He is the recipient of many awards, including the “A Legend in Counseling Award” and the Master Therapist designation by the American Psychiatric Association.
Key works
1965 Reality Therapy
1969 Schools Without Failure
1998 Choice Theory
2003 Warning: Psychiatry Can be Hazardous to your Mental Health
