Abstract
Although irrationality has been consistently correlated with the intensity of acute clinical syndromes that are characterized by emotional or thought disorders, relationships between irrationality and personality disorders have not been investigated carefully. When they enter treatment, clients at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy (IRET) had personality trait scale scores that accounted for substantial variance in rationality scale scores on several well-validated instruments. The eleven scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) associated with the DSM-III axis II personality disorders had a pattern of relationships with rationality and irrationality that parallels their somewhat surprising relationships with measures of acute emotional distress. Scales 4, 5, 6, and 7 were almost always associated with hyperrationality on most scales and with enhanced self-esteem, as well as with relatively low distress; scales 1, 2, 3, 8, S, and C were associated with irrationality and low self-esteem, as well as with severe distress. The P scale had inconsistent and weak correlations with rationality and self-esteem, as it had with measures of intake distress.
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Russell C. Leaf is Associate Professor of Psychology at Rutgers. He also directs a research project at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, in collaboration with the four other authors of this article, on the relationships between intake personality and “mental health”. He is an Institute Fellow and Supervisor, and previously served as a staff therapist and as the Institute's Director of Clinical Evaluation.
Albert Ellis is President of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy.
Roslyn Mass is Professor of Psychology at Middlesex County College. She is in charge of data processing and analysis for the collaborative research of this authorial team, and is a Fellow of and previously served as Administrative Director of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy.
Raymond DiGiuseppe is Associate Professor of Psychology at St. Johns and Director of Research and Director of Training at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy.
Diane Alington is Assistant Director and a core member of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers, where she conducts a research program on sex differences in adult development.
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Leaf', R.C., Ellis, A., DiGiuseppe, R. et al. Rationality, self-regard and the “healthiness” of personality disorders. J Rational-Emot Cognitive-Behav Ther 9, 3–37 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01060635
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01060635