AAMT: Lesson 1 cont'd -What is "RATIONAL"?

The other lessons in this course are devoted to assisting you in understanding how one irrationally controls his emotions. Stated another way, you will learn about the creation of irrational emotions. You will also learn how to produce emotions that will be in your best interest.

Throughout this course you will encounter rational as a key concept. It is that you understand the meaning of rational as it is used in the term rational self-counseling. Rational is defined as "that which is truly in one's best interest." Obviously then, irrational is defined as "that which is not in one's best interest."

The term one's best interest, however, does not mean taking selfish or unfair advantage of others. True self-interest must not ignore the best interest or "own good" of others. Generally speaking, something is in your best interest if it helps you avoid needless, self-inflicted, emotional pain now and/or later.

Rational behavior is behavior (thinking, feeling, acting) which means the following criteria:

1. based upon objective reality as opposed to subjective opinion.
2. likely to preserve your life, health, or well-being.
3. most effectively helps you to achieve your short- and long-range goals.
4. helps you avoid conflict with self or others.
5. helps you avoid undesirable emotions.

Rational behavior may be the production of limited negative emotions now for your best interest in the long run. Such might be the case when one produces sufficient fear to prevent himself or herself from doing something potentially hazardous to his or her life, health, or well-being. It may be rational to produce enough anxiety to prepare well for a test; it would not, however, be rational to produce thought-blocking anxiety while taking the test.

The definition of rational behavior will become more clear as you progress through the subsequent lessons.

Almost every emotion can be either rational or irrational, depending on the situation or event to which it is related. There seems to be only two exceptions to this statement: hatred and depression. Over the years I have thought about these two types of emotions, but I have not been able to identify situations in which they could be considered rational. On the other hand, fear could prevent one from unnecessarily risking his or her life and, in this way, could be considered rational (in one's best interest). If, however, a person created sufficient fear to prevent himself or herself from interviewing for a job, fear could be considered irrational. Similar illustrations can be created for each emotion except the two previously-mentioned exceptions.

Emotions can be classified into three relatively pure types. They are positive (love, joy, happiness, etc.), neutral (calmness, peace, tranquility, etc.), and negative (fear, hatred, anger, anxiety, depression). I say they are relatively pure types because they probably seldom exist in an absolutely pure form. For example, one might be relatively calm but just slightly anxious, fearful, or angry. To help you understand this idea, imagine a continuum with fear on one end and calm on the other like this:

fear -------------------------------------------------------------------- calm

One's emotional state can be indicated anywhere along the continuum, toward fear or toward calm, depending on the person's current thinking.