Old 09-11-2012, 11:07 PM
  # 185 (permalink)  
ReadyAndAble
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: San Diego
Posts: 4,451
This is fascinating stuff, guys.

Originally Posted by Dalek
REBT views the Addictive Voice as an irrational belief which can be disputed, whereas AVRT does not. In fact, the Beast of AVRT is actually a rational entity. AVRT considers the Addictive Voice a rational, intelligent expression of a valid biological drive. Through the lens of AVRT, the thought processes and behavior of addicted people are actually perfectly logical, predictable, and rational.
Are they really worlds apart? It kind of reminds me of this:



Look at it one way, you see the ragged old woman. Look at it another, it's a glamorous young woman.

The Beast is a metaphor. It's a construct to aid in the identification of thoughts, right? These are my thoughts, those are the Beast's. Classification, with the aim to dismiss all thoughts that support future drinking. So doesn't REBT ultimately achieve the same end? It classifies thoughts into rational (don't drink) and irrational (have a drink), dismissing the irrational as being just that.

I personally like the Beast metaphor because it's a cleaner break, a distinct "me" vs. "it" separation. But when I first quit, before I heard of AVRT, it was more like "the real me" vs. "the addict me". That sounds closer to the REBT model to me. It was pretty easy for me to jump from one paradigm to another. They're different... but not that different, are they?

My thoughts are evolving on this by the minute. I've got a couple articles about this I need to read... I don't want to hijack this thread, though...
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