Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy And The African Culture

Abstract

Albert Ellis's rational emotive therapy that later metamorphosed into rational emotive behaviour therapy was developed in a non African culture in about 1955. The basic philosophical underpinnings of this psychotherapy model include that human beings are rational and that their belief about things is the critical determinant of how those things affect them. Bearing in mind the fact that human cognition, motivation, personality and indeed his/her entire epistemological endeavours are largely influenced by culture, the present paper seeks to answer the question 'are these basic views of man held by Ellis true of Africans since psychotherapy must be culture sensitive'? It therefore becomes very important to examine the basic characteristics of rational emotive behaviour therapy within the cultural context of African phenomenology. This is the thrust of the present paper.

Keywords. African reality, phenomenology, rational emotive behaviour therapy.