Intuitionism Versus Using the Tools of Referenting or Cost-Benefit Analysis
On producer DK’s album Atlantic Rap, Vol. 1 (2023) is the song “Intuition”, featuring lyricists Aida, UFO Fev, Wais P, Mic Picasso, and Ras Kass. On the track, Aida states, “I’m not the type of person that gives up and plays victim. I might be in my feelings in private, but I evict them.”
This line regards part of my approach to personal and professional care for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”). Thus, herein, I’ll provide mental health tools (means to an end) which reflect the subjectively healthy perspective expressed by Aida.
As Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) was formed by the late psychologist Albert Ellis, who reportedly developed the first cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) psychotherapeutic modality in 1955, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding his book, Ask Albert Ellis?: Straight Answers and Sound Advice from America’s Best-Known Psychologist.
REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.
Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):
REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).
Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.
Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world, wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.
In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.
It’s worth noting that, as expressed herein, GLAD narratives cause feelings. Now, I often find it worthwhile to clarify what feelings represent in REBT, rather than in common parlance. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), a feeling is thusly defined:
1. a self-contained phenomenal experience. Feelings are subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations, thoughts, or images evoking them. They are inevitably evaluated as pleasant or unpleasant, but they can have more specific intrapsychic qualities, so that, for example, the affective tone of fear is experienced as different from that of anger.
The core characteristic that differentiates feelings from cognitive, sensory, or perceptual intrapsychic experiences is the link of affect to appraisal. Feelings differ from emotions in being purely mental, whereas emotions are designed to engage with the world.
2. any experienced sensation, particularly a tactile or temperature sensation (e.g., pain, coldness).
I part with the APA’s primary definition of feeling as a mental – yet, not emotional or sensory – experience, as it actually aligns more with a hunch, thought, suspicion, intuition, belief, or so on. Also, when receiving formal REBT training, I was taught that feelings regard one of two results.
A feeling relates to either 1. emotion (i.e., joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, etc.) or 2. sensation (e.g., stiffened jaw). Thus, if the word “feel” (or any derivative thereof) can be replaced with “hunch,” “thought,” or “belief” (or any derivative thereof), it’s not a feeling.
Now, consider that the APA defines emotion as “a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioral, and physiological elements, by which an individual attempts to deal with a personally significant matter or event.” I maintain that this regards feeling, as well.
Ergo, it’s improper to say something such as “It feels like this is pedantry,” because what one typically intends on communicating is “It seems [gives the impression of being] like this is pedantry.” Importantly, there’s a foundation for quibbling with this sort of linguistic misuse.
In REBT, unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant Consequences are rigorously Disputed. However, feelings (i.e., emotions and sensations) aren’t challenged. Thus, proper use of feelings-based language affords a person the opportunity to examine the Beliefs which one uses.
Additionally, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.
To entice a meaningful distinction between the A-C and B-C connections, I’ll draw upon a personal anecdote. In the above photo, I was assigned to the Marine Security Guard (MSG) detachment in Lima, Peru while enlisted in the United States (U.S.) Marine Corps.
One of the duties fulfilled by MSGs is to function as members of a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team or tactical unit, which in the military mostly regards a SRT (Special Reaction Team) that responds to the highest-risk situations within a military base or compound.
Notably, both SWAT team and SRT members are associated with law enforcement. Yet, MSG tactical teams supported the diplomatic mission of the U.S. Department of State and, unbeknownst to me prior to becoming an MSG, the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Thus, MSGs were tasked with the tactical security of U.S. embassies and consulates, though we weren’t police. In any event, I engaged in quite a bit of shooting range firearms training as an MSG. Concerning this matter, I thusly stated in a blogpost entitled Grossweiner’s Law:
Marines were taught the axiom “one shot, one kill,” presumably as a matter of reserving ammunition. Also, shooting with a rifle or pistol was rendered to a fairly straightforward method: Breathe in, breathe out, wait for a natural pause, focus on the front sight tip, and squeeze.
Although it may seem odd to hear that [mental health] techniques for calming oneself during stressful moments also work well in regard to the taking of a life by way of firearms, yet over the years this has been my case. Of this, I said in a post entitled Yippee!:
Noteworthy, the most proficient I’ve ever been with mindful breathing was when training how to discharge a weapon. To be exceedingly clear, I’m talking about mindfulness as a means of stopping a human threat through the legal termination of life.
The training I received as an MSG allowed me to slowly engage targets from a distance, as well as dynamically fire upon objectives at close range. This is where Aida’s claim (“I might be in my feelings in private, but I evict them”) regards intuition, which the APA thusly defines:
[I]mmediate insight or perception, as contrasted with conscious reasoning or reflection. Intuitions have been characterized alternatively as quasi-mystical experiences or as the products of instinct, feeling, minimal sense impressions, or unconscious forces.
To distance myself from hubris (exaggerated pride or self-confidence), I admit ignorance (a lack of knowledge, education, or awareness) regarding whether or not intuition truthfully describes objective reality. Perhaps it’s an actual real-world force, perhaps not. I simply don’t know.
However, that to which I can attest is that when practicing SWAT and SRT-type drills, I found value in Aida’s claim (“I might be in my feelings in private, but I evict them”). While experiencing sensations and emotions (i.e., feelings) when shooting, I learned to suppress them.
By making a conscious effort to put unhelpful thoughts, sensations, and emotions out of my mind, in order to control and inhibit the expression of unacceptable impulses and feelings, no quasi-mystical experience, as in instinct or unconscious forces, took over. I was in control!
Some may refer to this as “intuition,” as in the song “Intuition” by DK. Still, as an MSG on a shooting range, I gained intuitive knowledge, which the APA defines as “knowledge that appears to be based on subjective judgment or gut feeling rather than on specific learning.”
In a meditative state, I learned to anticipate which targets to engage when multiple objects were presented, how to transition to and from various small arms and light weapons platforms, and quickly decipher the difference between shoot/no shoot objectives – all seemingly intuitively.
I thus attained intuitive judgment, which the APA defines as “a decision reached on the basis of subjective feelings that cannot easily be articulated and may not be fully conscious.” Juxtapose intuitive knowledge and intuitive judgment with intuitionism, which the APA thusly defines:
1. the belief that knowledge is obtained primarily by means of intuition.
2. the tendency of people to prefer to think, reason, and remember by processing inexact memory representations rather than by working logically from exact representations.
I remain agnostic (unwilling to commit to an opinion about something) regarding whether or not intuition absolutely is or isn’t a truthful claim about reality, as I’m unwilling to fully endorse the worldview of intuitionism. Now, I’ll draw a distinction between the A-C and B-C connections.
From an A-C view, I engaged multiple objectives with various small arms and light weapons platforms (Action), as bullet holes were left on paper and metal targets (Consequence). From a material world point of view, I can clearly identify this cause-and-effect relationship.
Nevertheless, from a B-C perspective, matters in the immaterial world (i.e., psychological realm) aren’t as clear-cut as are A-C connections. For the sake of argument, I invite you to consider how client X self-disturbed when learning that I didn’t endorse this person’s view of intuitionism.
I rejected intuitionism (Action) and client X expressed the Belief, “People who value logic and reason more than intuition are worthless [G], and I can’t tolerate their close-mindedness [L], because it’s appalling [A], so maybe I shouldn’t seek mental health care from Deric [D]!”
When using this unaccommodating Belief, client X self-disturbed into the condition of negative, though unhealthy disgust (Consequence). From that moment forward, one could’ve set a proverbial countdown timer as to when client X would self-discharge from my REBT services.
Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.
Client X withdrew from mental health services with me, largely because I – apparently close-mindedly – rejected endorsement of intuitionism. Remarkably, I don’t completely disregard intuition, as described herein. Now, of this topic, Ellis stated (pages 36 and 37):
REBT uses a special cognitive technique to help people make decisions. It is called referenting or cost-benefit analysis. For example, to make a decision as to which job to take, you make a list of all the benefits of taking it and rate each benefit from one to ten, in accordance with how you rate it and feel about it.
You also make a list of all the disbenefits you will most likely receive from it and rate each disbenefit from one to ten, again in accordance with how you rate it and feel about it. Your ratings are partly intuitive – meaning, you guess at them and their outcome.
So intuition or guess-work based on personal feelings is probably always included in decision-making. Even when you make a decision in favor of one job or another (or about almost anything else) by doing a cost-benefit analysis, you make your final decision by intuition, in that you guess how you will feel and act after you make your decision.
But you don’t absolutely know what your thoughts, feelings, and actions are or will eventually be. Even when you decide that two and two equal four, you not only go by mathematical convention but also how you feel about this convention. So, yes, REBT allows you to use your intuition when evidence is scanty or the motives of others are unclear.
Because I maintain that the words we use matter, I regard feelings as either (1) sensations) or (2) emotions. Therefore, I reject Ellis’ framing of intuition as being akin to how one feels. Rather, I accept his allusion to intuition as a guess (to form an opinion of from little or no evidence).
This is often how people like client X misuse the term feel, relating to intuition, when actually regarding guesswork. As an example, “I feel like you’re closeminded,” or, “I intuit that you’re closeminded,” is more accurately represented by stating, “I guess that you’re closeminded.”
In any instance, I appreciate Ellis’ advocacy for the tools of referenting or cost-benefit analysis. According to one CBT source (page 123):
Referenting is a type of cost–benefit analysis that helps clients identify the positive and negative short-term and long-term consequences of a particular way of thinking, feeling, or behaving. For example, a counselor working with an individual struggling with whether to come out to his or her parents could generate the short-term versus long-term pros and cons of this disclosure.
The tool of referenting may be informed by intuition. Nonetheless, it further makes use of logic and reason in order to arrive at an outcome that aligns with one’s subjective interests and goals. Now, consider that the APA thusly defines cost-benefit analysis:
1. an analytic procedure that attempts to determine and compare the economic efficiency of different programs. Costs and benefits are reduced to their monetary value and expressed in a cost–benefit (or benefit–cost) ratio. Compare cost-effectiveness analysis. See also cost-offset analysis.
2. in behavioral ecology, a method of predicting which behavioral strategies are likely to be adaptive by comparing the potential costs and potential benefits of each possible behavior. Those behaviors that will lead to greater benefits relative to costs will be those that survive through natural selection.
3. see cost–reward analysis.
Pertaining to this blogpost, APA definition number two of cost-benefit analysis is a useful tool that may also be informed by intuition. All the same, it additionally makes use of logic and reason in order to identify which choices align with one’s subjective interests and goals.
Significantly, in practice, referenting and cost-benefit analysis are ostensibly synonymous tools. In retrospect, I probably used some degree of intuition when engaging targets on a shooting range when serving as an MSG. Still, I also used a form of referenting and cost-benefit analysis.
Now, shoot/no shoot training requires judgement. While employing SWAT and SRT tactics in Lima, as depicted in the photo above, I used an Uzi to engage paper and metal targets. Hostile objectives (i.e., shoot) were staggered with friendly targets (i.e., no shoot), as one source states:
In a high-stress encounter, your prefrontal cortex is doing a lot of work. The amygdala triggers the fight, flight, or freeze [or fawn] response. Adrenaline rushes, and things can get extremely difficult.
With training, your ability to deal with high-stress situations gets easier. When your fight, flight, or freeze [or fawn] gets activated, you can experience a cognitive overload. […]
We can ease the cognitive load through training. As we practice motor skills, we develop motor memory and automate the action. If you practice drawing, you’ll automate the action, freeing up cognitive load to deal with the threat.
Training your draw, shooting, and engaging is all a critical part of the shoot/no shoot process because it frees up cognitive space. The more you can think, the more information you can process, which leads to making good judgments.
I maintain that the “good judgments” referenced by the aforementioned source regard the “intuition or guess-work” to which Ellis alluded. After all, fallible human beings don’t have perfect knowledge. Thus, we may make “good judgements” through “intuition or guess-work.”
While practicing shoot/no shoot drills, I used referenting or cost-benefit analysis when deciding whether or not to engage hostile objectives (i.e., shoot) which were staggered with friendly targets (i.e., no shoot). Some intuition factored into the process, as did logic and reason.
However, intuitionism (i.e., knowledge is obtained primarily by means of intuition and processing inexact memory representations rather than by working logically from exact representations) would’ve resulted in the disabling of friendly targets (i.e., figurative death).
Favorably, I used a high level of logic and reasoning! Now, I invite you to consider using the tools of referenting or cost-benefit analysis, which may be informed by intuition, and also think critically about whether or not intuitionism aligns with your subjective interests and goals.
If you value the latter, then you may not want to serve on a SWAT team or SRT. Besides, quasi-mystical experiences aren’t necessarily what cause effective shooting, or whatever non-firearms endeavors in which you engage. Ergo, I offer you referenting and cost-benefit analysis.
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
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Hollings, D. (2026, June 6). High and dry: Steering a proverbial ship around unhelpful assumptions. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/high-and-dry-steering-a-proverbial-ship-around-unhelpful-assumptions
Hollings, D. (2026, May 24). Higher Learning and class struggle: If there is no struggle there is no progress. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/higher-learning-and-class-struggle-if-there-is-no-struggle-there-is-no-progress
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Hollings, D. (2025, September 22). Hubris. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/hubris
Hollings, D. (2026, May 16). I’m finding it hard to believe we’re in Heaven or Hell: Agnostic. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/i-m-finding-it-hard-to-believe-we-re-in-heaven-or-hell-agnostic
Hollings, D. (2026, July 6). It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact: Am I taking crazy pills? Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/it-s-not-an-opinion-it-s-a-fact-am-i-taking-crazy-pills
Hollings, D. (2024, April 27). Ideal-world vs. real-world. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/ideal-world-vs-real-world
Hollings, D. (2025, January 26). Ignorance. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/ignorance
Hollings, D. (2024, May 24). Imagery. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/imagery
Hollings, D. (2024, October 21). Impermanence and uncertainty. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/impermanence-and-uncertainty
Hollings, D. (2026, April 8). Impermanence and uncertainty: I don’t know where tomorrow will take me. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/impermanence-and-uncertainty-i-don-t-know-where-tomorrow-will-take-me
Hollings, D. (2025, July 22). Impressions. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/impressions
Hollings, D. (2026, April 26). Impulse. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/impulse
Hollings, D. (2024, February 14). Insufferable vs. undesirable. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/insufferable-vs-undesirable
Hollings, D. (2024, May 27). Intellectual vs. emotional insight. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/intellectual-vs-emotional-insight
Hollings, D. (2026, July 10). It’s not the thing itself that troubles you, but only your judgment of it. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/it-s-not-the-thing-itself-that-troubles-you-but-only-your-judgment-of-it
Hollings, D. (2025, December 23). Keep calm and carry on. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/keep-calm-and-carry-on
Hollings, D. (2026, June 8). Knock knock: A fallible human being is gonna knock up on your door. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/knock-knock-a-fallible-human-being-is-gonna-knock-up-on-your-door
Hollings, D. (2025, October 13). Knowledge, wisdom, understanding. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/knowledge-wisdom-understanding
Hollings, D. (2025, January 14). Level of functioning and quality of life. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/level-of-functioning-and-quality-of-life
Hollings, D. (2023, September 19). Life coaching. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/life-coaching
Hollings, D. (2026, May 17). Listening to reason through argument: Is the rhetoric of whataboutism persuasive? Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/listening-to-reason-through-argument-is-the-rhetoric-of-whataboutism-persuasive
Hollings, D. (2023, September 8). Lived experience. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/lived-experience
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Hollings, D. (2022, December 2). Low frustration tolerance. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/low-frustration-tolerance
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Hollings, D. (2024, March 4). Mental, emotional, and behavioral health. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/mental-emotional-and-behavioral-health
Hollings, D. (2025, November 16). Mental health, mental illness, and mental disorder. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/mental-health-mental-illness-and-mental-disorder
Hollings, D. (2026, March 31). Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice: I guess we had a good run. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/mike-nick-nick-alice-i-guess-we-had-a-good-run
Hollings, D. (2026, February 16). Moral panic: The irrationality of slogans such as “believe women” and “believe victims”. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/moral-panic-the-irrationality-of-slogans-such-as-believe-women-and-believe-victims
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Hollings, D. (2025, August 2). My philosophy. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/my-philosophy
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Hollings, D. (2026, June 9). Nonsense: It’s plainly pride. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/nonsense-it-s-plainly-pride
Hollings, D. (2026, April 4). Objective reality. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/objective-reality
Hollings, D. (2023, September 3). On feelings. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/on-feelings
Hollings, D. (2026, September 18). On feelings… again. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/on-feelings-again
Hollings, D. (2023, April 24). On truth. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/on-truth
Hollings, D. (2026, April 19). Outcome: Victim mentality and playing the victim. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/outcome-victim-mentality-and-playing-the-victim
Hollings, D. (2025, April 9). Perception, action, and will. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/perception-action-and-will
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