Dr. William Glasser is the creator of Reality Therapy and Choice Theory.  He heads up the William Glasser Institute (WGI) in California.

Based on making Correct Personal Choices, taking Personal Responsibility for your life, and generating your own Personal Transformation, Dr. Glasser’s ideas are considered controversial by some, but championed by many.

While mainstream psychology focuses on classifying psychiatric conditions, and treating them with medication, Choice Theory focuses instead on human emotion being behind many mental issues; the cure therefore is within us, and is something we need to take full responsibility for.

Glasser also applies his Choice Theory to broader issues, including education, management, and marriage.  His book, “Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom“, is the bible for Choice theory and states:

• All we do is behave and almost all our behavior is chosen
• That we are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun
• The only behaviour we can control is our own
• Trying to control others is not only pointless but an invasion of their privacy
• Whenever we try to control someone else, we are far more likely to build defensive walls than pathways
• The best we can do with others is to influence them, by providing information that will help them find their own truth
• All significant psychological problems are caused by poorly functioning relationships, or relationships that have totally broken down.  This includes our relationship with our self
• That problems, and problem relationships, always exist in the now.  They may have roots in the past, and implications for the future, but the thing we need to work with is the present, whilst planning for the future and acknowledging the past
• Our behaviours create our world, and that correct Choices today will bring present and future improvements in our lives
• Choice Theory makes us personally responsible for our choices. While we largely have control over how we think and how we act, how we feel is largely determined by how we think and how we act.

In the video below, Bob Hoglund, Senior Faculty Member at the WGI, outlines an Introduction to Choice Theory.

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