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Additional Information About:
Critical Thinking Therapy: For Happiness and Self-Actualization

The quality of your life depends heavily on the quality of your reasoning. When you reason poorly, you tend to make poor decisions; as a result, you and others around you are likely to suffer unnecessarily, and your mental health is thereby diminished. If you want to achieve mental well-being, you must recognize that your current reasoning is shaping the quality of your life today, and it is your own reasoning that you can control. You cannot change your past experiences, but you can think reasonably about them; you cannot control much that happens around you, but you can control some of it. To take command of your emotional life as a means of achieving happiness and self-fulfillment requires taking command of the reasoning that drives you to do the things you do.

Despite our many advances, humans are still doing a relatively poor job of alleviating the suffering caused by depression, anxiety, and similar tormenting states of mind. Similarly, we have yet to effectively deal with the irritability, defensiveness, irrational anger, and self-justifying behavior, that, regardless of whether they lead to depression or anxiety, keep people from relating intimately with others and developing their innate capacities. And even those who do not experience pervasive negative emotions will yet rarely achieve a self-realizing or self-actualizing state; this requires developing the skills and abilities, and embodying the virtues, of the fairminded critical thinker.

Critical Thinking Therapy introduces a substantive theory of critical thinking to the field of mental health therapy. It details a broad, integrated set of critical thinking tools for use in self-therapy and professional therapy. It is for the individual seeking a more enlightened, more fulfilled, less fearful, and less self-defeating orientation to the world. It is also for those who are aware that they are not now reaching their potential and who seek a self-actualizing frame of mind. To this point, only some of the many tools of critical thinking have made their way into mental health therapies (mainly through cognitive behavioral therapies); this book vastly broadens and deepens the critical thinking concepts and principles explicitly available to therapists. It is therefore recommended for use by therapists with clients, as well as for clients and individuals working alone.

Critical Thinking Therapy employs the most powerful concepts in critical thinking, offers an integrated and integrating theory of mind, provides essential tools for critiquing all other therapies, and advances the broad range of critical thinking skills within mental health. This new therapy has the potential to revolutionize how we see mental health therapies across the board, and even how we conceptualize mental health itself.

What the experts say:

 “Who doesn’t want to live a happier life in work, parenting, friendships, finances and all of its dimensions? In Critical Thinking Therapy, Linda Elder blends her extensive theoretical knowledge and teaching experiences to guide readers on new ways to achieve these goals–using explicit tools for better thinking. Her sane advice and easy exercises, if taken seriously, should help pave the way towards better mental well-being and greater self-fulfillment.”

~Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine; named by the APA as one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century

“Shout out to anyone interested in self-enquiry, reflection, learning, contemplating, inspiration and growth—whether you are in the healing professions or not!!! Critical Thinking Therapy by Linda Elder is one of those books that can be enjoyed by reading it cover to cover, or through focusing on one section at a time in any order, as one’s inclination leads one to do. This book is written with immense skill and clarity, is beautifully set out, including many activities and exercises that encourage self-awareness and knowledge, with delightful photos and images—this book could be considered by many as a Self-Help Workshop, Nourishment for the Intellect, and in parts—a Spa for the Mind! Incorporating many elements of the pioneering and groundbreaking approach of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, yet primarily focused on presenting Critical Thinking’s unique and particular aspects, elements and emphases, this book can indeed be a significant and powerful contribution to people who choose to create more meaningful and satisfying lives."

~Dr. Debbie Joffe Ellis, Psychologist and Coauthor with Albert Ellis of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

“I have often wished there was a ‘magic wand’ that I could wave over the world to help people transition from being mere believers in all forms of nonsense to become effective critical thinkers. Linda Elder’s clear and instructive book is as close to the magic wand as we’re likely to get, a gift for which we can be grateful. Leading readers along the path to develop the profound skills of increasing the quality of our thinking and our mental health, Elder illuminates how to integrate these skills into managing the challenges of living we all inevitably face. Don’t just read this valuable book—study it and discover the many rewards of knowing how to better use your mind’s potential.”

~Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D., Psychologist, author of Depression is Contagious and Breaking the Patterns of Depression

“A tour-de-force application of critical thinking to psychotherapy! The human change processes are fraught with mysteries and unpredictability, but the tools in this book ensure those uncertainties are minimized. It presents a strong and important foundation for psychotherapists interested in helping people outside the failed medical and disease model of human distress. A must read!"

~Chuck Ruby, Ph.D., Psychologist and author of Smoke and Mirrors: How You Are Being Fooled About Mental Illness—An Insider’s Warning to Consumers; Executive Director, International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry

More Testimonials:

“I have reviewed Dr Elder’s new Critical Thinking Therapy book from my perspective as a health professional academic and clinician. I have 40 years’ experience teaching clinical reasoning in postgraduate physiotherapy (Masters in Advanced Clinical Physiotherapy) with over 90 publications, including three editions of the text “Clinical Reasoning in the Health Professions” and two editions of the text “Clinical Reasoning for Musculoskeletal Practice”. The Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking had a significant impact on my teaching of clinical reasoning and to my personal development. I have taught cognitive behavioural therapy to physiotherapists working with patients in chronic pain and experienced first-hand the benefits of integrating the principles of critical thinking to the assessment and analysis of patients’ thinking and to the therapists’ ability to facilitate clinically relevant change.

I highly recommend this text to individuals seeking change in their lives and to therapists and health professionals tasked with facilitating change. While there is explicit relevance to mental health, there is a broader relevance to personal development across all parts of life including: professional life, intimate relationships, sexuality, parenting, friendships, physical health, self-development, finances, religion, ecology and relationship with nature, psychological health, social, civic and ethical responsibility.

Dr Elder provides a thorough summary of critical thinking concepts clearly articulated and visually portrayed in diagrams, to be accessible to the lay person and the therapist unfamiliar with the Paul-Elder Framework of Critical Thinking. A holistic definition of “genuine mental health” is provided that goes beyond simple notions such as being stress-free and coping with life’s challenges to encourage a broader self-actualizing “honesty to oneself, consideration for others, and desire to achieve positive, creative self-expression”. Activities throughout the book promote excellent application of critical thinking theory covered in the respective chapter to the reader’s individual context and circumstances, facilitating reflection, analysis, reanalysis, and planning.”

~Mark Jones, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Allied Health & Human Performance Academic Unit, University of South Australia

“This book takes you on a journey towards your mental well-being. The sound critical thinking theoretical framework and the corresponding tools woven throughout the book render the interactions between your mind and the book a wonderful journey. The experience is full of aha moments as the tools help you explore how your thoughts influence your feelings, how to break down your thoughts into their parts, assess these parts, and unpack the conscious and unconscious barriers that shape your thoughts. The tools help you make conscious moves towards improvement in your thinking and subsequently a more grounded state of mind. It is a journey; you will need to revisit the book and interact with the concepts and tools as often as needed to internalize and embody them. My experience working with the Paul-Elder’s Critical Thinking theory and tools has been a transformative one toward my empowerment and mental well-being.

~Nadine Ezzeddine, MS, MN, Instructor, Dalhousie School of Nursing

“Linda Elder’s Critical Thinking Therapy is a major contribution both to expanding the scope of critical thinking studies and to applying the concepts and tools of critical thinking to advancing people’s self-actualization and thus their potential for happiness. She lays out both the irrational ways people standardly undermine their own self-actualization as well as straightforward, rational methods people can use to achieve greater mental health.

Elder’s is the first (and only) book to apply robust, fairminded, explicit critical thinking to advancing greater mental health. The systematicity of the Paul-Elder Approach allows her to apply each of the vital dimensions of critical thinking — the elements of reasoning, the critical thinking standards, the critical thinking traits of mind, and the barriers that undermine our thinking—to our thoughts, desires, emotions, and actions. It is a down-to-earth book, reasonable throughout, a book that provides readers with sets of specific guidelines, as well as questions and activities they can use to analyze and evaluate the ways they interpret and respond to the world they live in. If worked through diligently, Elder’s book offers a path to greater self-understanding and self-fulfillment.”

~Dr. Gerald Nosich, Author, Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum and Critical Writing: A Guide to Writing a Paper Using the Concepts and Processes of Critical Thinking

“With her educational background in psychology and decades of work in the field of critical thinking, Dr. Linda Elder is eminently qualified to apply the Paulian framework for critical thinking to the broad field of mental health in this seminal work. Individuals seeking self-actualization, educators in the field of psychology, and current practitioners in mental health will benefit from Elder’s work in Critical Thinking Therapy: for Happiness and Self-Actualization. Elder’s melding of critical thinking theory with practical applications to one’s mental health is a novelty in the field of psychology and brings new hope to those experiencing debilitating thinking patterns and the potential for lasting happiness to those willing to do the work of thinking deeply about themselves through this new lens."

~Kathy Goddard, Associate Professor of Education (Retired), Southern Adventist University

“Critical Thinking Therapy is a seminal, much-needed guide for those seeking a path to better mental health—to greater happiness and self-actualization, and to therapists assisting them on that quest. Its central idea, that one’s emotional well-being is determined by the quality of one’s reasoning is like a beacon of light illuminating the way to successfully pursuing and achieving happiness and self-fulfillment. Filled with specific exercises for systematically improving one’s thinking, Critical Thinking Therapy is a masterful exposition of how to take command of one’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior. For those in therapy and, indeed, for all of us seeking to be better humans and contribute to a saner, happier, more just way to face and overcome the challenges each of us faces in today’s world, Critical Thinking Therapy is a singular addition to the broader corpus of works on critical thinking that Dr. Elder, Richard Paul, and others have produced over the past forty-plus years. It couldn’t have come at a more crucial time.”

~Dr. Ken Stringer, retired US intelligence officer

“Critical Thinking Therapy: for Happiness and Self-Actualization is grounded in relevant and significant methods and offers the reader a clear path to improve their critical thinking and, ultimately, mental health. Unlike many self-help or pop psychology books, this book refuses to be trite, simplistic, or superficial. This book is practical, deep, and accessible.

Critical Thinking Therapy: for Happiness and Self-Actualization provides the reader with an important foundation in the Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking, which is the basis for the overall approach and activities addressing mental health. Framing the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and desires, the book highlights commonly acknowledged aspects of human nature and behaviour. What is less common, however, is the clarity with which this information is presented because such clarity is rarely modelled in other mental health or therapy publications. Elder’s work insists on acknowledging other important writers in the field of psychology and mental health therapy and encourages the reader to broaden their own understanding through reading a breadth of resources. The book helps the reader to think through the breadth of perspectives in the field and points to significant writers and theorists, such as Sigmund Freud, Albert Ellis, Erich Fromm, Judith Beck, and Vickor Frankl; however, Elder’s writing offers a breadth of perspective in the field that is refreshing. For example, the book’s attention to the problems in thinking is unique. Focusing on the ways that egocentrism and sociocentrism are very real hurdles to fair-minded critical thinking, the book gives the reader hope that they are not alone and provides straight forward strategies to challenge and to change these problematic habits of mind. Elder also demonstrates the ways that these barriers to fair-minded thinking are the key to addressing bias and prejudice. The book emphasizes that critical thinking is foundational to emotional intelligence, which is yet another way that this book is significant. While Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Intelligence are buzzwords in contemporary academic and corporate contexts, publications and training sessions tend to simply identify the outcome of one’s thinking and fail to provide a clear process of how to improve the quality of one’s own thinking. Elder’s book rectifies this gap.

The practicality of this book also extends to its discussion of the ways that problems within relationships, such as bullying, superiority, and manipulation, impact mental health. Rather than simply reminding the reader of the frequency of these problems that manifest in sexism, racism, and other power imbalances in personal and professional contexts, the book highlights how these behaviours betray a problematic pattern of thinking that is not limited to a specific category or group of people. In doing so, the book not only invites the reader to confront these mental habits, but also offers a plethora of activities and practices to help the reader to analyze and to assess their thoughts and to create new, more fair-minded habits of mind.

What truly sets this book apart within the field is its honesty. There are no “quick fixes” or naïve and idealistic promises; instead, the reader is encouraged to think deeply and to reframe their own thinking. Although clear in method, the book is not prescriptive. In giving the reader essential tools for thinking critically about their own mental health, the book facilitates the reader’s intellectual freedom to radically reshape the quality of one’s thinking and, therefore, the quality of one’s life.”

~Linda Tym, PhD, Associate Professor of English, Oakwood University

“In Critical Thinking Therapy for Happiness and Self-Actualization Dr. Elder takes us on a significant, transformative journey into the realm of critical thinking therapy. Elder offers practical tools and activities to enhance our critical thinking abilities and navigate the complexities of life. A must-read for anyone seeking to take command of their rational potential in order to make effective decisions and take effective actions. This book presents a pathway to intellectual empowerment resulting in personal genuine happiness. The insights provided bridge past approaches to therapy with new and more comprehensive, and therefore more effective, approaches; they are a roadmap to a more discerning, fulfilling life.”

~Dr. Paul Bankes, Foundation for Critical Thinking Scholar and Consultant

“First, as a student of the Foundation for Critical Thinking, I have been fascinated by the highest level of intellectual standards incorporated into this book. It is comprehensive, clear and surprisingly easy to read, given the depth of its content. The critical thinking knowledge and tools people need to cultivate their mental health can be found in this book. Its universal breadth and deep concepts will aid any serious-minded person striving to find significant meaning in life. Insofar as a person actively seeks self-actualization, this book offers the best guidance. It is timeless and transformative — a true classic.”

~Behnam Jafari, Investment Advisor

“Critical Thinking Therapy is a 'masterwork' that brings the Paul-Elder framework for fairminded critical thinking and rational therapy models together in a profoundly helpful book. Thank you, Dr. Elder.”

~Scott O. Shaffer, very thankful member of Foundation for Critical Thinking Study Group