Dealing with Emotional Problems Using Rational-Emotive Cognitive

First published 2012 by Routledge27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA

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Ø 2012 Windy Dryden

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataDryden, Windy.

Dealing with emotional problems using rational-emotive cognitive-behaviour therapy : a client's guide / Windy Dryden.

p. ; cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-415-58686-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-415-58687-0 (paperback)1. Rational emotive behavior therapy. 2. Cognitive therapy. 3.

Psychotherapy, Rational-Emotive. I. Title.RC489.R3D7863 2012616.89©1425±dc23

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Contents

Preface vi

1 Emotional problems: foundations and healthy alternatives 1

2 Dealing with anxiety 17

3 Dealing with depression 37

4 Dealing with guilt 57

5 Dealing with shame 74

6 Dealing with hurt 92

7 Dealing with unhealthy anger 108

8 Dealing with unhealthy jealousy 128

9 Dealing with unhealthy envy 146

References 165

Appendix 1 166

Appendix 2 171

Appendix 3 173

Appendix 4 175

Appendix 5 177

Appendix 6 179

Index 181



Emotional problems: foundations andhealthy alternatives

In this book, I am going to discuss some common emotional problems andshow you how to deal with them. The book is structured as a workbook sothat you can implement the skills that I teach you in a step-by-step manner.

In this opening chapter, I am going to cover some important material thatI regard as foundations to your understanding of the eight emotionalproblems that I discuss in this book and their healthy alternatives.

WHAT ARE THE EIGHT EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS?

I have been practising in the ®eld of counselling and psychotherapy since1975 and have worked in a variety of different settings. In that time, I haveseen many people suffering from one or more of the eight emotionalproblems that I cover in this book. They are:

anxiety

depression

guilt

shame

hurt

unhealthy anger

unhealthy jealousy

unhealthy envy.

You will note that I have put the adjective `unhealthy' in front of anger,jealousy and envy. I have done this to distinguish the unhealthy version ofthe emotion with its healthy version. I will discuss healthy alternatives tothe eight emotional problems in the next section.

1



HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES TO THE EIGHTEMOTIONAL PROBLEMS

Adversity is unfortunately a fact of life.1 None of us can say that we havelived a life untouched by adversity. An adversity is a negative event. Sowhen you are looking for a healthy alternative to an emotional problem inthe face of adversity, it is not realistic for you to select an emotion that ispositive or neutral.

Problems with positive emotions as healthyalternatives to the emotional problems

If you want to feel a positive emotion about an adversity, you will have toconvince yourself that it is good that the adversity happened. Now, Iconcede that adversities do have some positive features, but they arelargely negative in nature. As such, the only way you are going to convinceyourself that it is a good thing that an adversity happened is to lie toyourself and to believe your lie. As you can see, this is unlikely to work inthe longer term and is, thus, not a good strategy.

Problems with neutral emotions as healthyalternatives to the emotional problems

It is also not realistic to have a neutral feeling about an adversity. If youwant such a neutral response, you will have to convince yourself that itdoes not matter to you that the adversity happened. However, that won'twork since it does matter to you that the adversity happened. Quiteproperly, you would have preferred that the adversity did not happen. Soagain the only way you are going to convince yourself that it doesn't matterto you that the adversity happened is to lie to yourself and to ®nd your lieconvincing. This, again, is unlikely to work in the longer term and is, thus,not a good strategy.

1 Throughout this book, I will refer to events where you don't get what you want, or getwhat you don't want, as `adversities'.

2 Dealing with emotional problems: a client's guide



Problems with living in an emotional vacuum as ahealthy alternative to the emotional problems

If a positive or neutral emotional response to an adversity is ruled out as ahealthy alternative to an emotional problem, what is left? You could say thatwhen an adversity happens, you don't want to feel the emotional problemthat you felt.

Harry regularly experiences anxiety about going to see his tutor because hethinks she is going to criticise his work. When asked what he wanted to feelinstead, Harry replied: `I don't want to be anxious about the possibility of mytutor criticising my work'.

The problem with this approach is that we don't tend to live in an emo-tional vacuum when an adversity has happened or we think that it is likely tohappen. Thus, it matters to Harry that his tutor does not criticise him. Weexperience emotions in areas of life that matter to us. Since it matters toHarry that his tutor does not criticise him, he is going to experience anemotion about this prospect. Don't forget that we are looking for a healthyalternative to the emotional problem of anxiety in Harry's case, and to alleight emotional problems in general.

Problems with reducing the intensity of emotionalproblems as healthy alternatives to these emotionalproblems

People often say when they are asked to nominate a healthy alternative to anemotional problem that they want to feel a less intense version of the emo-tional problem. Applying this to our example, when asked what he wants tofeel instead of anxiety about seeing his tutor, Harry says that he wants to feelless anxious. Now the problem with having a less intense version of anemotional problem as a healthy alternative for that emotion is that it is stillunhealthy, albeit less intense. If something is unhealthy, it would makesense to want to have a less intense version of it only if this is the onlyalternative available. Fortunately, it isn't!

3Emotional problems



Healthy negative emotions as healthy alternatives tothe emotional problems

Healthy alternatives to emotional problems are known as `healthy negativeemotions'. This term is used for two good reasons. First, such emotionshave a negative tone and this is their realistic aspect. Remember we aretalking about emotions in the context of life's adversities. It is realistic to feela negative emotion about a negative event. Second, such emotions arehealthy in that they are associated with a different set of behaviours andways of thinking than are emotional problems. I discuss this in greater detaillater in this chapter. For now, here is the list of healthy negative emotions:2

concern (rather than anxiety)

sadness (rather than depression)

remorse (rather than guilt)

disappointment (rather than shame)

sorrow (rather than hurt)

healthy anger (rather than unhealthy anger)

healthy jealousy (rather than unhealthy jealousy)

healthy envy (rather than unhealthy envy).

RATIONAL-EMOTIVE COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURTHERAPY

This book is based on rational-emotive cognitive behaviour therapy. Youmay have heard of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and it being describedas a therapeutic approach. However, in my view, CBT is not a therapeuticapproach, but a therapeutic tradition in which there are a number of dis-tinctive approaches, of which rational emotive behaviour therapy (known asREBT) is one. REBT was founded in 1955 by Dr Albert Ellis (1913±2007). Theterm rational-emotive cognitive behaviour therapy (RECBT) ± which I willuse in this book to remind you of the book's legacy ± shows that RECBT isplaced within the CBT tradition and that its distinctive features are rootedin REBT.

2 We do not have agreed terms for healthy negative emotions. Thus, it is importantthat you use the terms that are meaningful to you if they are different from the terms inthis list.




The eight emotional problems are underpinned byirrational beliefs

RECBT theory argues that each of the eight emotional problems stemsfrom two irrational beliefs: a rigid belief and three extreme beliefs that arederived from the rigid belief. Thus, an irrational belief is characterised bybeing rigid or being extreme. It has three other characteristics:

it is false

it is illogical

it has largely unconstructive consequences (e.g. in the face of an adversity it leads toan emotional problem).

Let me consider rigid and extreme beliefs separately.

Rigid beliefs

Perhaps the most basic characteristic of human beings is that we havedesires. We want certain things to happen and other things not to happen,but when we turn these desires into rigidities when we don't get what wewant, or get what we don't want, then we experience one or more of theemotional problems described in this book. Here are a few examples ofrigid beliefs:

I must do well on the forthcoming test.

You must respect my boundaries.

The world must not give me too much hassle.

As these examples show you can hold rigid beliefs about yourself, othersand life conditions.

Three extreme beliefs

According to RECBT theory, rigid beliefs are paramount in explaining theexistence of the emotional problems and three extreme beliefs tend to bederived from these rigid beliefs. These are

awfulising beliefs

discomfort intolerance beliefs

depreciation beliefs.

5Emotional problems



Awfulising beliefs

An awfulising belief stems from the rigid belief that things must not be asbad as they are. An awfulising belief is extreme in the sense that youbelieve at the time one or more of the following:

Nothing could be worse.

The event in question is worse than 100 per cent bad.

No good could possibly come from this bad event.

In the following examples of awfulising beliefs, the rigid beliefs are listed inparentheses:

(I must do well on the forthcoming test) . . . and it would be awful if I don't.

(You must respect my boundaries) . . . and it's the end of the world when you don't.

(The world must not give me too much hassle) . . . and it's terrible when it does.

Discomfort intolerance beliefs

A discomfort intolerance belief stems from a rigid belief that things mustnot be as frustrating or uncomfortable as they are. A discomfort intoler-ance belief is extreme in the sense that you believe at the time one or moreof the following:

I will die or disintegrate if the frustration or discomfort continues to exist.

I will lose the capacity to experience happiness if the frustration or discomfortcontinues to exist.

In the following examples of discomfort intolerance beliefs, the rigid beliefsare listed in parentheses:

(I must do well on the forthcoming test) . . . and I could not bear it if I don't.

(You must respect my boundaries) . . . and it's intolerable if you don't.

(The world must not give me too much hassle) . . . and I can't stand it if it does.

Depreciation beliefs

A depreciation belief stems from the rigid belief that you, others or thingsmust be as you want them to be and is extreme in the sense that you believeat the time one or more of the following:




A person (self or other) can legitimately be given a single global rating that de®nestheir essence and the worth of a person is dependent upon conditions that change(e.g. my worth goes up when I do well and goes down when I don't do well).

The world can legitimately be given a single rating that de®nes its essential natureand that the value of the world varies according to what happens within it (e.g. thevalue of the world goes up when something fair occurs and goes down whensomething unfair happens).

A person can be rated on the basis of one of his or her aspects and the world can berated on the basis of one of its aspects.

In the following examples of depreciation beliefs, the rigid beliefs are listedin parentheses:

(I must do well on the forthcoming test) . . . and I am a failure if I don't.

(You must respect my boundaries) . . . and you are bad if you don't.

(The world must not give me too much hassle) . . . and if it does, the world is arotten place.

The healthy alternatives to the eight emotionalproblems are underpinned by rational beliefs

RECBT theory argues that each of the eight healthy alternatives to theemotional problems stems from two rational beliefs: a ¯exible belief andthree non-extreme beliefs that are derived from the ¯exible belief. Thus, arational belief is characterised by being ¯exible or being non-extreme. Ithas three other characteristics:

it is true

it is logical

it has largely constructive consequences (e.g. in the face of an adversity it leads to ahealthy negative emotion).

Let me consider ¯exible and non-extreme beliefs separately.

Flexible beliefs

As I pointed out earlier in this chapter, it is a basic characteristic of humanbeings that we have desires. We want certain things to happen and otherthings not to happen. When we keep these desires ¯exible and when wedon't get what we want, or get what we don't want, we experience one or

7Emotional problems



more of the healthy negative emotions outlined earlier. Here are a fewexamples of ¯exible beliefs:

I would like to do well on the forthcoming test, but I don't have to do so.

I want you to respect my boundaries, but unfortunately you don't have to do so.

I would prefer it if the world did not give me too much hassle, but the world does nothave to be the way I want it to be.

As these examples show, you can hold ¯exible beliefs about yourself,others and life conditions. You will note from these examples that ¯exiblebeliefs have two components:

an `asserted preference' component (e.g. `I would like to do well on the forthcomingtest . . .')

a `negated rigid' component (e.g. `. . . but I don't have to do so').

Three non-extreme beliefs

According to RECBT theory, ¯exible beliefs are paramount in explainingthe existence of healthy negative emotions and three non-extreme beliefstend to be derived from these ¯exible beliefs. These are

non-awfulising beliefs

discomfort tolerance beliefs

acceptance beliefs.

Non-awfulising beliefs

A non-awfulising belief stems from the ¯exible belief that you would likethings not to be as bad as they are, but that doesn't mean that they mustnot be as bad. This belief is non-extreme in the sense that you believe at thetime one or more of the following:

Things could always be worse.

The event in question is less than 100 per cent bad.

Good could come from this bad event.

In the following examples of non-awfulising beliefs, the ¯exible beliefs arelisted in parentheses:




(I would like to do well on the forthcoming test, but I don't have to do so) . . . and if Idon't do well, it would be bad, but not awful.

(I want you to respect my boundaries, but unfortunately you don't have to do so) . . .It's disadvantageous to me if you don't, but not the end of the world.

(I would prefer it if the world did not give me too much hassle, but the world does nothave to be the way I want it to be) . . . It's bad when it's not, but not terrible.

You will note from these examples that non-awfulising beliefs have twocomponents:

an `asserted badness' component (e.g. `If I don't do well on the forthcoming test, itwould be bad . . .')

a `negated awfulising' component (e.g . . . `but it wouldn't be awful').

Discomfort tolerance beliefs

A discomfort tolerance belief stems from the ¯exible belief that it isundesirable when things are as frustrating or uncomfortable as they are,but unfortunately things don't have to be different. A discomfort tolerancebelief is non-extreme in the sense that you believe at the time one or moreof the following:

I will struggle if the frustration or discomfort continues to exist, but I will neither dienor disintegrate.

I will not lose the capacity to experience happiness if the frustration or discomfortcontinues to exist, although this capacity will be temporarily diminished.

The frustration or discomfort is worth tolerating.

In the following examples of discomfort tolerance beliefs, the ¯exiblebeliefs are listed in parentheses:

(I would like to do well on the forthcoming test, but I don't have to do so) . . . It will bea struggle for me if I don't do well, but I could bear it and it would be worth bearing.

(I want you to respect my boundaries, but unfortunately you don't have to do so) . . .It's hard for me to bear it if you don't respect my boundaries, but I can tolerate it andit is in my interests to do so.

(I would prefer it if the world did not give me too much hassle, but the world does nothave to be the way I want it to be) . . . When the world is not the way I want, it isdif®cult me to tolerate it, but I can stand it and it's worthwhile for me to do so.

9Emotional problems



You will note from these examples that discomfort tolerance beliefs havethree components:

an asserted struggle component (e.g. `It will be a struggle for me if I don't do well onthe forthcoming test . . .')

a negated unbearability component (e.g. `. . . but I could bear it . . .')

a worth it component (e.g. `. . . and it would be worth bearing').

Unconditional acceptance beliefs

An unconditional acceptance belief stems from a ¯exible belief that it ispreferable, but not necessary, that you, others or things are the way youwant them to be and is non-extreme in the sense that you believe at the timeone or more of the following:

A person cannot legitimately be given a single global rating that de®nes theiressence, and their worth, as far as they have it, is not dependent upon conditions thatchange (e.g. my worth stays the same whether or not I do well).

The world cannot legitimately be given a single rating that de®nes its essential natureand that the value of the world does not vary according to what happens within it(e.g. the value of the world stays the same whether fairness exists at any given timeor not).

It makes sense to rate discrete aspects of a person and of the world, but it does notmake sense to rate a person or the world on the basis of these discrete aspects.

In the following examples of unconditional acceptance beliefs, the ¯exiblebeliefs are listed in parentheses:

(I would like to do well on the forthcoming test, but I don't have to do so) . . . If I don'tdo well, it's bad, but I am not a failure. I am an unrateable, fallible human beingcapable of doing well and doing poorly on tests.

(I want you to respect my boundaries, but unfortunately you don't have to do so) . . .If you don't, you are not a bad person; rather you are an ordinary human beingcapable of doing good, bad and neutral things.

(I would prefer it if the world did not give me too much hassle, but the world does nothave to be the way I want it to be) . . . When the world does give me more hassle thanI want, it is not a rotten place; rather it is a complex mixture of good, bad and neutralaspects.

You will note from these examples that unconditional acceptance beliefshave three components:




an aspect evaluation component (e.g. `If I don't do well, it's bad . . .')

a negated depreciation component (e.g. `. . . but I am not a failure')

an asserted acceptance component (e.g. `. . . I am an unrateable, fallible human beingcapable of doing well and doing poorly on tests').

INFERENCE THEMES IN RELATION TO YOURPERSONAL DOMAIN

While emotional problems and healthy negative emotions can be differ-entiated in general by the beliefs that underpin them (irrational in the ®rstcase, rational in the second), in order to distinguish between particularemotional problems and their speci®c healthy alternatives, we need tounderstand a concept known as inference themes, because these relate toan individual's personal domain. Let me discuss the concept of `personaldomain' ®rst.

Personal domain

The concept known as the `personal domain' ®rst appeared in the psycho-logical literature in 1976 in an excellent book entitled Cognitive Therapy andthe Emotional Disorders by Dr Aaron T. Beck, one of the grandfathers ofcognitive behaviour therapy. Your personal domain has three features:

Your personal domain contains people, objects and ideas in which you have aninvolvement.

Your personal domain is like an onion in that these people, objects and ideas canoccupy a central, intermediate and peripheral place within it.

There are two basic areas within your personal domain ± an ego area and a comfortarea. As you will see, six of the eight emotional problems that I discuss in this bookcan be related to one or both areas, while two of them (i.e. shame and guilt) appear tobe related only to the ego area.

Inference

An inference is an interpretation that you make about a situation that goesbeyond the data at hand and one that has personal meaning to you. Aninference may be accurate or inaccurate and needs to tested against the

11Emotional problems



available evidence. Often you do not know for certain if an inference thatyou have made is accurate or inaccurate and therefore the best you can dois to make the `best bet' given the data at hand. The accuracy of aninference often becomes clear after you have made it. This is particularlythe case when you make an inference about a future event. Let me illustratethese points.

You will recall that Harry, to whom I referred earlier in this chapter, wasanxious about going to see his tutor. If someone asked him what he was anxiousabout, he would reply `I am anxious about being criticised by my tutor'. Thestatement `being criticised by my tutor' is an inference in that (a) it goes beyondthe data at hand; (b) it has personal meaning for Harry; (c) it may be accurateor inaccurate. Whether it is the `best bet' in the circumstances depends onhow critical Harry's tutor is in general.

Inference theme

When Harry made his inference about his tutor's criticism, we know that hefelt anxious. When people feel anxious they tend to do so because theyinfer some kind of threat to their personal domain. Therefore, we canassume that Harry's inference about his tutor's criticism was threat based.However, we also know that when people feel concerned (which is thehealthy alternative to anxiety), they also tend to do so because they infersome kind of threat to their personal domain. We can conclude from thisthat when you make an inference with a threat theme, you will feel eitheranxious or concerned, but without knowing anything more, the inference onits own will not help you know whether your emotion is anxiety or concern.

As you will see in the following chapters, when you experience one of thefollowing pairs of emotions, each emotion pairing is related to a speci®ctheme or themes concerned with your personal domain: anxiety vs. con-cern; depression vs. sadness; guilt vs. remorse; shame vs. disappointment;hurt vs. sorrow; unhealthy anger vs. healthy anger; unhealthy jealousy vs.healthy jealousy, and unhealthy envy vs. healthy envy. I will discuss andillustrate these themes in the relevant chapters.

DISTINGUISHING EMOTIONAL PROBLEMSFROM THEIR HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES

In this section, I discuss in general how you can reliably distinguish emo-tional problems from their healthy alternatives. In the chapters that follow I




discuss in detail how to distinguish the emotional problem in question withits speci®c healthy alternative.

Inference themes and beliefs

We know from the above that inference themes show you which of the eightemotional pairings you are experiencing (e.g. when your inference theme isthreat, you experience either anxiety or concern), but on their own they donot help you to distinguish which emotion you are experiencing within thepairing (i.e. you cannot tell by the inference theme of threat alone whetheryour emotion is anxiety or concern).

We also know that when you hold an irrational belief about an adversity(but we do not know the inference theme of that adversity), your emotionwill be unhealthy, but we don't know which of the eight emotional problemsyou experience. Conversely, we know that when you hold a rational beliefabout an adversity (again we do not know the inference theme of thatadversity), your emotion will be a healthy negative one, but again we don'tknow which of the eight healthy negative emotions you experience.

However, when we combine these two bits of information, we are in abetter position to distinguish speci®c emotional problems from theirhealthy alternatives. For example, if we know that the theme of your adver-sity is threat and you hold an irrational belief about that threat, we are wellplaced to conclude that you are experiencing anxiety. Similarly, if we knowthat the theme of your adversity is threat and you hold a rational beliefabout that threat, we are well placed to conclude that you are experiencingconcern. Putting this more succinctly:

Inference theme Rationality of belief Emotion

Threat Irrational Anxiety

Threat Rational Concern

Associated behaviour

So far, I have mentioned one way of distinguishing between an emotionalproblem and its healthy negative emotion alternative is to take the theme ofwhat the person has feelings about with respect to the adversity that theyare facing and the belief that the person holds that accounts for theemotion. You have learned the following:




Adversity inference theme + irrational belief = emotional problemAdversity inference theme + rational belief = unhealthy negative emotion

Now when you hold a belief about an adversity, you don't just experience anemotion, you also experience a tendency to act in a certain way (known asan action tendency) which you may or may not convert into overt behaviour.

Thus, another way to tell if what you feel in a speci®c situation is anemotional problem or a healthy negative emotion is to examine how youacted or, if you did not take action, to examine your action tendency. Let meillustrate this when a person is trying to ®gure out whether the anger thatthey felt was negative and unhealthy, or negative but healthy.

Geraldine was angry with her boss when he did not recommend her forpromotion, an advancement which she considered that she thoroughly deserved.Geraldine considered that her boss had acted in a very unfair manner towardsher. Geraldine was unsure whether her anger was negative and unhealthy, ornegative but healthy, so she considered how she acted in the situation. This didnot help her because she did not take any action when she discovered the news,nor subsequently. Finally, she considered what she felt like doing, but did not do.Geraldine's action tendency was to scream abuse at her boss and to get revengeagainst him by getting him into trouble with his own boss. Such actiontendencies were clearly hostile in nature and showed Geraldine that her angerwas an emotional problem.

When you hold an irrational belief about an adversity, your behaviour (oraction tendencies) will tend to be dysfunctional and will prevent you fromdealing with the adversity in a constructive manner. Whereas, when youhold a rational belief about an adversity, your behaviour (or action tenden-cies) will tend to be functional and will help you to deal with the adversity ina constructive manner.

Associated thinking

The ®nal way of determining whether you are experiencing an emotionalproblem or a healthy negative emotion about an adversity is to inspectthe thinking that is associated with the emotion. This is different from theinference that you made about the situation that constituted your adversity.Such thinking has not yet been processed by your beliefs. The thinking thatI am referring to here is the thinking that is associated with your emotion.This is the thinking that has been produced when your adversity has beenprocessed by your beliefs. When your adversity has been processed byirrational beliefs, the thinking that results is very likely to be highly distorted




and skewed to the negative in content and ruminative in nature. However,when this adversity has been processed by rational beliefs, the thinking thatresults is very likely to be realistic and balanced in content and non-ruminative in nature. David Burns, a leading cognitive therapist, ®rstoutlined in his book Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy (Burns 1980) alist of thinking errors ± which are by nature highly distorted and skewed tothe negative ± that people make when they have processed adversities withirrational beliefs. I outline and illustrate some of these thinking errors andtheir realistic and balanced alternatives in Appendix 1. You should consultthis list if you are unsure whether the thinking you engage in when you areexperiencing an emotion is realistic and balanced or highly distorted andskewed to the negative.

Let me illustrate all this with reference to another person who is trying to®gure out whether the anger that she felt was negative and unhealthy ornegative, but healthy.

Francine (a co-worker of Geraldine) was also angry with her boss when he didnot recommend her for promotion, an advancement which she considered thatshe thoroughly deserved. Francine considered that her boss had acted in avery unfair manner towards her. Francine was unsure whether her anger wasnegative and unhealthy, or negative but healthy, so she considered how shethought in the situation. She thought about asserting herself with her boss afterplanning what to say. After she had done this she made an appointment to seeher boss and in the days that followed until the meeting, she thought about theissue in passing, but did not ruminate on the issue. Given that Francine'sthinking that went along with her anger was realistic and balanced and non-ruminative in nature, she considered that her anger was a healthy negativeemotion and not an emotional problem.

Let me summarise the points that I have made in this section and theprevious one on behaviour and add it to the material that I presented on p. 11

Adversity inference theme + irrational belief = emotional problem

Unconstructive behaviour andaction tendencies

Highly distorted thinking thatis skewed to the negative andruminative in nature




Adversity inference theme + rational belief = healthy negative emotion

Constructive behaviour andaction tendencies

Realistic and balanced thinkingthat is non-ruminative innature

In the chapters that follow, I employ a similar structure. First, I outline themajor factors that need to be considered when understanding the emo-tional problem under focus. Second, I show you what steps you need totake in order to change each emotional problem to an appropriate healthynegative emotion. Finally, I discuss what you need to do make yourself lessprone to whatever emotional problems you are particularly susceptible to.Throughout each chapter, I illustrate the major points whenever relevant.




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