Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom

In his most important book since the bestselling Reality Therapy, Dr. William Glasser continues his break with traditional psychology. He offers a new psychology that, if practiced, could reverse our widespread inability to get along with one another, an inability that is the source of almost all unhappiness. Take an honest look at your life, and you will see no evidence that your children will have happier marriages; that you and they will get along better; or that they will do better in school or at work than you, your parents or your grandparents. Dr. Glasser claims that, lacking good relationships, more and more people choose mental illness, psychosomatic disease, drug abuse, senseless violence and sex without any thought of love. For progress in human relationships, he explains that we must give up the punishing, relationship-destroying external control psychology that is by far the dominant one in the world. For example, if you are in an unhappy relationship right now, your unhappiness is caused by one or both of you using external control psychology on the other. But he goes further. If, for example, you are depressed, your misery is always related to a current unsatisfying relationship. Contrary to what you may believe, your troubles are always now, never in the past. No one can change what happened yesterday. In one of this century's most significant books on psychology, Dr. Glasser offers choice theory, a non-controlling psychology that gives us the freedom to sustain the relationships that lead to healthy, productive lives. Through clear, vivid language and numerous examples, he makes this vital new psychology come alive. Learning it could change your life.