William Glasser
We choose our behavior, so we can choose better.
Developer of reality therapy and choice theory, holding that behavior is chosen to meet basic needs and that change comes from present choices.
terms
techniques
We almost always have choices, and the better the choice, the more we control our lives.
Who they were
William Glasser was an American psychiatrist who earned his MD at Case Western Reserve. In the early 1960s, working at a VA hospital and a reform school for girls, he developed reality therapy, published in 1965. He later reframed his ideas as choice theory, emphasizing personal responsibility over diagnosis, and founded the William Glasser Institute.
Terms they cared about
Ideas worth knowing
Their techniques
How the work was done
Their big idea
Choice Theory
People choose behavior to meet basic needs; responsibility and present choice drive change.
The approach they founded
Reality Therapy
We choose behavior to meet basic needs — so it leans on responsibility, choice, and present action.
Questions in their spirit
What they’d ask you
Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.
Carry the idea forward
Glasser — What they’d ask you
Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.