The Silly Mind: Learning to Take Life 'More or Less' Seriously

The Silly Mind is a well-written, lucid and humorous description of how we create our own emotional disturbances and what we can do to undisturb ourselves.

Authors/therapists David Lima and Donald Scobel made a startling discovery ten years ago that revolutionized their psychotherapy practices. They saw that when their clients acknowledged the "absurdity" of their own beliefs as well as the beliefs of others, their emotional distress was immediately and significantly reduced. This one acknowledgment had a profound effect on their client’s emotionality regardless of situation or type of distress. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary’s second definition of absurd helped to solidify Lima’s and Scobel’s psychotherapeutic use of the absurdity concept. The definition goes like this - "The state or condition in which a person exists in an irrational and meaningless universe and the person’s life has no meaning outside of his or her existence" - no universal meanings, no universal truths - including our own! The authors have written about this discovery and their enormously successful approach in The Silly Mind, Learning to Take Life ‘More or Less’ Seriously.

The Silly Mind is now available to help people understand:
· How ideas are created;
· How emotional disturbances occur;
· How certain ideas create certain disturbed emotions;
· How to tell the difference between helpful and harmful ideas;
· How to use very effective techniques to change disturbed feelings;
· How to act against acquired harmful beliefs; and,
· How to view oneself, others and the world with more tolerance.

David R. Lima, M.S.W., has been a practicing psychotherapist since graduation in 1966 from Florida State University with a Masters degree in Social Work. IN 1986, Mr. Lima completed a three year training program at the Albert Ellis Institute, New York, and is an Associate Fellow of the Institute. He has been counseling individuals, couples and families for over 34 years. His work as a presenter and sponsor of quality continuing education for mental health professionals throughout the United States and abroad has earned him the highest respect of his colleagues. He has developed a close working relationship with many of the leaders in the mental health field including Albert Ellis, Jay Haley, Michael Mahoney, Joan Borysenko, Arnold Lazarus, David Burns, as well as others. These associations have been influential in providing ideas that Mr. Lima has incorporated in this teachings and writings. He is also author of The Love Workbook.

Donald N. Scobel, M.S.S.A. graduated as a chemist from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He worked in that field for a few years but then decided he wanted to do more "people oriented" work. He went back to school and received a degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. He worked in labor-management relations for the Eaton Corporation until he retired with twenty five years of service. He formed his own organization, The Creative Worklife Center, and consulted with over fifty organizations since its creation. Socbel is considered one of the originators of the "Quality of Worklife" movement. After a brief encounter with retirement, he returned to school at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Applied Social Sciences. Two years later with a master’s degree in hand, he began practicing with Lima Associates and Western Reserve Counseling Service, Lake County, Ohio.