Reality Therapy: A New Approach to Psychiatry – The Classic Bestseller on Fulfilling Needs Through Present-Focused Responsibility (Colophon Books)

The only therapy that ever worked for me and helped me reach 38 years of happy sobriety. But this book is antiqued since it's the first and written in the 1960s. It is unenlightened about being gay or trans, so if that and frank conversations about mental hospitals would bother you, then I would choose a different book by Professor Glasser. I already followed the therapy since it's worked for me and wanted to learn more, so it was right for me. It does require mental filtering out if things we now no longer beleive about personal identity, etc.

This book was written fifty years ago. The approach is still being taught around the world as a method of counselling that helps people take charge of their life. Even though written in a time when psychiatrists largely used Freud and ways to blame a person's past for current mental illness, Dr Glasser swam against the tide with his notion of only being able the act in the present.He believed we can't change the past. Dr Glasser maintained this stance until his death in 2013; indeed the consistency of his thinking over those fifty years is evident.The ideas in this book led the way to what is becoming mainstream thinking in mental health. An excellent book for anyone who is in the helping profession.

This book;;;is excellent;;and it's a "game changer " in the field of clinical psychology and psychiatry;;;It's very helpful for the counseling profession;;and discusss what really helps and succeeds in the helping profession;;;It's where the Rubber meets the Road";;; I first read in college;;and have been looking for this book for 5 years;;;w/o success;;So I was very happy to find on Amazon for under $7.00;;; Talk about the cutting edge;;;This book is that good and more. While it's excellent for professionals ;;it's also readable and understandable by laymen and just students of human nature. An excellent addition for anyone's library. In my book Dr. Glasser is a true pioneer and hero. Big Time! Thanks, again. DH

I think I may have read this years ago but I stumbled on it recently and bought it again. Glasser is a good writer and obviously a great therapist. The premise of the book is that those with problems that we call mental illness, in most cases, are problems of responsibility.In some cases that might be a tough pill but overall there would seem to be a lot of truth to his findings, which he details from actual work in mental institutions along the way. The idea of taking responsibility for fulfilling our needs, which he describes as to love and be loved and to I think he says feel important ... certainly one can see in the business world playing out.So overall I liked the book and philosophy, probably not 100% applicable, but worth the read and understanding.

ABSOLUTELLY THE BEST BOOK ON THERAPY. CUTS OUT A LOT OF THE CRAP AND DEALS WITH WHAT'S REAL. I LIKE HIS ATTITUDE. YEARS AGO WHEN I LOOKED FOR A THERAPIST I FOUND ONE WHO BELIEVES IN GLASSER'S VISION ON HOW TO REALLY HELP PEOPLE SOLVE THIER PROBLEMS. ONE INCIDENT FROM THE BOOK SAYS IT ALL. DOCTORS IN A CLINIC WANTED TO GIVE THE PATIENT A PILL TO MAKE HIM FEEL BETTER AND TO CALM HIM DOWN. THEY WANTED TO REMOVE THE STRAIGHT JACKET. GLASSER VIEW WAS TO LEAVE THE PATIENT IN THE STRAIGHT JACKET, AND TO SIT DOWN AND TALK TO HIM AND GET HIM TO TAUGHT ABOUT WHAT WAS REALLY BOTHERING HIM. THERE IS A LINE SOMEWHERE IN A STAGE PLAY WHERE NURSE IS TRYING TO GET THE PATIENT TO TAKE A SLEEPING PILL. THE PATIENT SAID, " YOU WANT ME TO TAKE THE PILL, SO YOU CAN GET SOME SLEEP."

This work certainly shows its age, which is to be expected from a book written in 1965. Reality Therapy has man strong foundational therapeutic ideas that have been incorporated into other far more 'realistic' approaches to therapy, but it is still important for any aspiring therapist to be well-versed on the history of their field.That said, this work shouldn't be taken and applied as-is. Instead, search for more recent works which focus on more applicable therapies.

This book has the best outlook on mental health I know of. I love their approach on mental sickness; well, that it doesn’t exist. I wish I had learned and applied these principles earlier on in life, but like they say, moving forward in progress! Thank you to the author and those that make books like these available to read!

I was a rebel druggie and lost and I read this book I was 20 and All I remember it saying was, when will your parents have paid you back enough for all that you think they did to you? How far you willing to go down and for how long Because you think your parents deserve it? I don’t know, it was the first time I had actually asked myself that question, was there a cut off in terms of paying my parents back and realizing that’s kind of what I was doing without realizing that’s what I was doing.I was wasting my life on my parents and it was time for me to write a new story