The Dependency subscale of the Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT) was scored as a rational-emotive “irrationality” and as a religious “rationality.” Rational-emotive understandings of dependency appeared to recommend as mental health ideals a Machiavellian manipulativeness, an alienated normlessness, and avoidance of an empathic concern for and a communal orientation toward others. Dependency as a religious rationality was related to greater social responsibility, emotional empathy, and a communal orientation and to lower levels of interpersonal manipulativeness, alienation, and depression. IBT subscales seemed inadequately characterized as uniform indices of a pathogenic irrationality. Overall, these data supported recent communitarian arguments that an excessive individualism can be socially corrosive and that practical rationalities are difficult to disentangle from specific value commitments.
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