William GlasserRecensioni

12/5/22

Glasser's views on education mesh with those of several other authors I admire. He agrees with Daniel Pink that people's main motivators are autonomy, mastery, and purpose (though he calls them power and importance). He agrees with Randy Pausch that learning to work as a team is just as important as learning material. The book does contain some glaring flaws. Glasser doesn't seem to understand Pavlov's theory (he says the dogs "choose" to drool); he thinks dyslexia is students being "creative" in order to distract adults from their failure at learning to read. Nonetheless, it's a good, quick read that got me thinking about how to use learning teams in my classroom.

In the introduction and chapter 1 it is quite clear that the hazardous part is what he calls "brain drugs." He contends that mental health just like physical health is a continuum with most people in the middle, and that being in the middle isn't being mentally ill, but that being in the middle is called "unhappiness."

"Ritalin, a strong synthetic cocaine" (p3,32)

"Happiness or mental health is enjoying the live you are choosing to live, getting along well with the people near and dear to you, doing something with your life you believe is worthwhile, and not doing anything to deprive anyone else of the same chance of happiness you have." p7

"The people in (a focus group) are not there to hear extensively about your past or present unhappiness, ... or ... how much pain your are suffering or how unfair life has been to you. They will be interested in hearing about how you are applying the choice theory ideas of this book to your present problems. And in helping you to learn to do this more effectively as the group continues to meet." (p10)

(I have already started to apply this, and I am not even through chapter 1. Last night I made a choice that I would be happier if I vacuumed the floor, so I did, and was happier. Before that I made a choice that I would be happier if I played the musical keyboard, so I did that for 10 minutes, something I have not been doing for the last month or so. 05/03/2006)

Happiness Defined

"You are mentally healthy if you enjoy being with most of the people you know, especially with the important people of your life such as family and friends. Generally, you like people and are more than willing to help an unhappy family member, friend, or colleague to feel better. You lead a mostly tension-free life, laugh a lot, and rarely suffer from the aches and pains that so many people accept as an unavoidable part of living. You enjoy life and have no trouble accepting that other people are different from you. The last thing that comes to your mind is to criticize or try to change anyone. You are creative in what you attempt and may enjoy more of your potential than you ever thought was possible. Finally, even in difficult situations when you are unhappy -- no one can be happy all the time -- you'll know why you are unhappy and you'll attempt to do something about it. you may even be physically handicapped, as is actor Christopher Reeve, and still fit the criteria above." (p22)

"But if they are wrong, (about drugs being needed to correct erroneous brain chemistry) and there are many highly respected psychiatrist and psychologists who believe they are completely wrong, (10) it should reassure you to know that there is a small group of psychiatrists like myself who don't believe in mental illness." (p34)

"Is there a way to tell if I'm making a bad choice before I go ahead and make it?"

"The answer (is) ... covered in remaining chapters but ... Good choices are those that bring us closer to the people we want to be close to. Bad choices tend to separate us from those people." (p54)

The thrust of the book is to stop trying to exert external control over other people. That is hard to do because it is so ingrained into our society.

Interesting book on Choice Theory - formerly knoen as Control Theory.

Two alien scientists named Urr and Fedhisss land in small town America. Fedhisss has destructive plans and Urr wants to stop him. This brief, breezy book feels like the extraterrestrial movies that were popular in the 1980s. It also takes time to raise questions on physics, metaphysics, and philosophy. It's fun, but the climax is not as exciting as I hoped it would be.

I found this book ok. I thought the philosophical parts were interesting, even if I didn't necessarily agree with them. However, I felt the plot parts were rushed and uninteresting. Overall, I would not recommend it.

This is a good book for anyone wanting to change their mindset. Glasser introduces choice theory which is basically that we have a choice in the way we treat others and ourselves. The proponent is that we have a 'picture' in our minds of the way we want to be or of how we want others to be and all we have to do is change that picture to change what's in our mind. This is choice theory. Basically, it's about learning to stop blaming external sources for the way our lives, or people in our lives, are and look on the inside to change the way we think about things. He gives examples of how the theory can be applied to relationship problems, parenting, and more. In all, this book is a useful tool for anyone looking to change their thinking and, ultimately, their lives.

activities which strengthen the character, positive feedback becomes PA positive addiction, exercise, meditation, art

This is absolutely the best psychotherapy book I have ever read. It basically puts ownership and responsibility for a person's state of mind on the choices they make. I'm paraphrasing Glasser, but my interpretation is that we all need relationships to satisfy our basic needs, and when there is a problem in a relationship area we basically fall apart. It could be that you don't have any relationships and want them, you are scared of committing, you never had a secure relationship with a parent or you have harmful people in your life. Once you identify and acknowledge the relationship problem and figure out which needs aren't being met (survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, fun) you can begin to repair your mental health. Part of this is to also acknowledge that you make choices all day long that affect your level of functioning and happiness.

Glasser believes that most of the diagnoses in the psychiatric manual aren't truly mental illness. He also believes that people are over medicated. This is where his ideas are controversial. I personally agree with him but many people don't. He would argue that people don't have the willpower to put the effort in that is required to change. People want the easier and less expensive way which is medication. It's easier to treat something physiological than mental, so people and doctors convince them that their problem is out of their mental control. Glasser would argue that this keeps people on drugs that never fully work or have side effects at the expense of truly helping them change their thinking.

If you are motivated to change your thinking you should read this book. It is full of real accounts of people Glasser has worked with who had diagnoses such as OCD, schizophrenia and alcoholism. These are tough disorders to "cure," but he gives a play by play of actual therapy sessions which makes the therapeutic process easy to grasp.

In this book William Glasser tries to shed a light on the mystery of marriage! It can somehow sound funny to call something as common and as worldwide as marriage a mystery, but when you look at the amount of failures around it, you realize that it can be something there in the middle unsolved and neglected. And it is the inconsistency between the nature of marriage and are genetics! So what happens when we go against our genes? We end up unhappy, confused and often depressed. But as civilized and modern human beings, we might be able to find some ways to make it work in our favor, is that possible at all? That's the argument of the book.

This book was pretty good. It is a collection of case stories that Glasser, he goes through basically a transcript of each case but stops at points to explain his thoughts and reasons.

There are certain aspects that I REALLY like about choice theory/reality therapy (the belief that we choose everything we do). THe issues that are arising for me stem from the part of choice theory that does not believe in mental illness (and Glasser even says this is the hardest thing for most people to accept). I can believe that doctors are too quick to give out drugs rather than use therapy for patients. Our society is a 'quick fix' one: if there is a problem we want it fixed now. But I have a really hard time believing that there is NO such thing as mental illness.

I have two more books on reality therapy--we'll see if those change my mind.

I dig this book.

William Glasser is the developer of Reality Therapy and Choice Theory--theories that I am beginning to like more and more.

Here, he uses his experiences from being a counselor within schools to address the achievement gap and reaching students that are typically left behind.

I tried to think about how I could have implemented his practices in my classroom, and it could be difficult...but the rewards could be really great, too! Ay...makes me want some students!

Choice Theory as created by Glasser is really extraordinary. Basically humans choose everything that we do, we are in control directly or indirectly of everything.

Hold up there, then why are so many people depressed and miserable, you ask? Well, a person would not intentionally choose to be miserable, but they may choose behaviors and thoughts that make them so. See, the way Glasser puts it (as I understand it) is to say that humans have 5 needs: 1) Love and belonging, 2) Power 3) Survival 4) Freedom 5) Fun (I did not place them in any order). And we behave in ways to meet those needs. So, perhaps my need for love is lower than my need for freedom, I may jeopardize relationships with people in order to maintain freedom (which could at times also make me loney and unhappy). I may have such a strong need for love and belonging that I allow myself to be in an abusive relationship--as long as the abuser meets that need (the honeymoon period after violence where the abused is told he/she is loved and that the abuse will never happen again).

Here's the deal--humans all have different levels of these needs, and we need to be sure that the people in our lives (ie: romantic relationships) have similar needs as we do...or else it might lead to problems. (Can you imagine the relationship where Person A has a low need for Freedom, but a very high need for Love....being with Person B who has a very high need for Freedom and an average need for Love? Recipe for fighting? I think so...) There is no 'right' amount needed (although he speculates that sociopaths may have a far too low need for love) by anyone, but matching up with others may prove useful.

Here's the other big part of choice theory (formerly known as control theory): you can ONLY control your OWN behavior...not the behavior of others. Let that sink in a bit. You can't make other people do what you want them to do. The girl striving to get married can't force her boyfriend to propose any more than the parent (or teacher) can force the child to do school work. We can hope they will do it, but in the end you have to decide if you want to nag and guilt people into doing what you want them to, or if you want to maintain the strong relationship with the person.

Excellent book and a great way to think about human relationships. I'd say you should read it too.

Glassers books are meant to be able to be read by anyone, not just counselors and counseling students. This makes them easier to read, however at times, also pretty repetitive of previous books (I feel).

However, this is a good book for parents and potential school counselors (and really some teachers and admins too)...with some concrete examples.

I dig this book.

William Glasser is the developer of Reality Therapy and Choice Theory--theories that I am beginning to like more and more.

Here, he uses his experiences from being a counselor within schools to address the achievement gap and reaching students that are typically left behind.

I tried to think about how I could have implemented his practices in my classroom, and it could be difficult...but the rewards could be really great, too! Ay...makes me want some students!

This book was pretty good. It is a collection of case stories that Glasser, he goes through basically a transcript of each case but stops at points to explain his thoughts and reasons.

There are certain aspects that I REALLY like about choice theory/reality therapy (the belief that we choose everything we do). THe issues that are arising for me stem from the part of choice theory that does not believe in mental illness (and Glasser even says this is the hardest thing for most people to accept). I can believe that doctors are too quick to give out drugs rather than use therapy for patients. Our society is a 'quick fix' one: if there is a problem we want it fixed now. But I have a really hard time believing that there is NO such thing as mental illness.

I have two more books on reality therapy--we'll see if those change my mind.

Choice Theory as created by Glasser is really extraordinary. Basically humans choose everything that we do, we are in control directly or indirectly of everything.

Hold up there, then why are so many people depressed and miserable, you ask? Well, a person would not intentionally choose to be miserable, but they may choose behaviors and thoughts that make them so. See, the way Glasser puts it (as I understand it) is to say that humans have 5 needs: 1) Love and belonging, 2) Power 3) Survival 4) Freedom 5) Fun (I did not place them in any order). And we behave in ways to meet those needs. So, perhaps my need for love is lower than my need for freedom, I may jeopardize relationships with people in order to maintain freedom (which could at times also make me loney and unhappy). I may have such a strong need for love and belonging that I allow myself to be in an abusive relationship--as long as the abuser meets that need (the honeymoon period after violence where the abused is told he/she is loved and that the abuse will never happen again).

Here's the deal--humans all have different levels of these needs, and we need to be sure that the people in our lives (ie: romantic relationships) have similar needs as we do...or else it might lead to problems. (Can you imagine the relationship where Person A has a low need for Freedom, but a very high need for Love....being with Person B who has a very high need for Freedom and an average need for Love? Recipe for fighting? I think so...) There is no 'right' amount needed (although he speculates that sociopaths may have a far too low need for love) by anyone, but matching up with others may prove useful.

Here's the other big part of choice theory (formerly known as control theory): you can ONLY control your OWN behavior...not the behavior of others. Let that sink in a bit. You can't make other people do what you want them to do. The girl striving to get married can't force her boyfriend to propose any more than the parent (or teacher) can force the child to do school work. We can hope they will do it, but in the end you have to decide if you want to nag and guilt people into doing what you want them to, or if you want to maintain the strong relationship with the person.

Excellent book and a great way to think about human relationships. I'd say you should read it too.

Glassers books are meant to be able to be read by anyone, not just counselors and counseling students. This makes them easier to read, however at times, also pretty repetitive of previous books (I feel).

However, this is a good book for parents and potential school counselors (and really some teachers and admins too)...with some concrete examples.

William Glasser created a kind of therapy called Choice Theory which as far as I understand it to be means you no longer argue with your teenager or anyone really, you give them a choice. All unhappiness is created by trying to externally control the people around you. When you stop trying to make people do what you want then you become closer to them emotionally and as a result they are more likely to do what you want. You cannot force anyone to do anything and if you try both parties will be miserable. You need to remove the seven deadly sins which are criticizing, blaming, complaining, nagging, threatening, punishing, and rewarding to control from your relationships.

Glasser goes on to present some case examples including disobedience and anorexia which illustrate how his choice theory is beneficial. One of the things that stood out to me is how Glasser points out repeatedly in the book that you should not worry if your child is not doing their homework because the public school system is inherently stacked against them. He supports a non structured school environment where a student can study anything they choose. If they don't feel like taking Algebra 1 they don't have to. One of his patients dropped out of school completely and got pregnant. That's not okay or what I want for my kid. I want her to be emotionally healthy and succeeding in school. Not one or the other. Plenty of kids do well in public school, it's not bad for everyone. He also does not seem to have hard data for how his choice theory works. He loses touch with his patients but feels that if things got worse for them he would have heard. What if he didn't hear because they killed themselves or were in jail? Glasser does not seem concerned about kids having sex or trying drugs. He advises the parents of the anorexic to not even mention food to their daughter and to stop being concerned about a situation that could kill their child. I am still somewhat confused on how you offer choices about things that could potentially ruin your child's life.

I found the book to be thought provoking and it had useful points but it also generated a lot of questions in my mind. It was short and referenced a lot of Glasser's previous books. I think if I had read his more in depth work on Choice Theory this book would have been more helpful. I did however understand enough to want to learn more about choice theory but this book was probably not the best place to start.½

Originally posted on my blog.

The review linked to above is long, in-depth, and more than I think will be useful here. If you're looking for more depth, check that out. Below is my tl;dr version of the lengthier review:

William Glasser, in Choice Theory in the Classroom, suggests that having students work on meaningful tasks in well-defined groups is an improvement over lecture-based, kill-and-drill, individual work. However, his reasoning as to why this is true border on pseudoscience and his conclusions come across as being obvious and mundane. In short, I'd recommend you skip this text and read some of John Dewey's excellent works on education. Your time will be much better spend in doing so.½

I love this book. It sure does challenge other psychology theorists. Thinking outside of the square.

I think everyone in America could benefit from this book! It was very well-written and easy to understand. It really shines a light on seemingly complex relationship issues. I've gone back and referenced this book multiple times, I have things highlighted and I will re-read for the rest of my life I'm sure.

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