Reality therapy is an approach to psychotherapy and counseling developed by William Glasser in the 1960s. It differs from conventional psychiatry, psychoanalysis and other medical-model schools of psychotherapy by focusing on what Glasser called psychiatry's three Rs, realism, responsibility and right-and-wrong, rather than on diagnosing mental disorders. Reality therapy holds that most people suffer from socially universal human conditions rather than individual mental illnesses, and that a failure to meet basic needs moves a person's behavior away from the norm; because fulfilling those needs is part of a person's present life, the approach does not concern itself with a client's past or with unconscious mental processes.
Facts
Central QuestionHow does a person's failure to attain basic universal human needs in the present lead their behavior to move away from the norm, and how can taking responsibility for those needs restore it? 1 Founded Year Sources
1. Wikipedia: Reality therapy
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia, Reality therapy, lead section
Reality therapy maintains that most people suffer from socially universal human conditions rather than individual mental illnesses, and that failure to attain basic needs leads to a person's behavior moving away from the norm.
History section, 1965 publication
In 1965, Glasser published the book Reality Therapy in the United States.
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