Retman

RETMAN is a comics’ character, associated to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Through it, REBT tries more efficiently address children, adolescents and the general public. This form of therapy approaches the treatment of emotional disorders and the promotion of mental health by modifying maladaptive/irrational behaviors and cognitions (thoughts).

The first RETMAN concept was thought up at the Albert Ellis Institute, US, in the 80s (Calvin Merrifield and Rebecca Merriefield: Call Me Retman and Have a Ball, 1979) inspired by the name Rational Emotive Therapy (that is how this form of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy was referred to then). The prototype for the superhero was Albert Ellis himself. As “RET-Man”, Ellis is arrested by the police but not before helping a depressed jilted lover give up his thoughts of suicide in favor of more rational thinking. However, because of the high production costs at the time, the project was abandoned after the publication of a comic.

The concept was resumed in 2008, with the approval of the Albert Ellis Institute by a team of Romanian psychologists and graphic designers led by Prof. Daniel David, with a modern technology. For the first time they also investigated the efficiency of the concept in promoting psychological health and in the treatment of psychological disorders in children and adolescents (see "Meet RETMAN" ). The team developed the RETMAN concept in an innovative way, creating an entire system that includes: (1) therapeutic comics; (2) therapeutic stories; (3) therapeutic cartoons; and (4) the therapeutic system RoboRETMAN.

The Retman technology is being used by (selection) The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic, UMF, Cluj-Napoca, the “PsyTech” University Psychological Clinic at Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, kindergartens and private clinical psychology/counseling/psychotherapy practices in Romania. It is also used on the REThink Project, a research grant with the goal to design, develop, and evaluate a therapeutic video game accessible over the Internet, meant to be used primarily as a standalone application to promote emotional resilience in children and adolescents.

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Wikipedia