60 Facts About Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis was an American psychologist and psychotherapist who founded rational emotive behavior therapy.

Albert Ellis held MA and PhD degrees in clinical psychology from Columbia University, and was certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Albert Ellis founded, and was the President of, the New York City-based Albert Ellis Institute.

Albert Ellis is generally considered to be one of the originators of the cognitive revolutionary paradigm shift in psychotherapy and an early proponent and developer of cognitive-behavioral therapies.

Albert Ellis' father, Harry, was a broker, often away from home on business trips, who reportedly showed only a modicum of affection to his children.

Albert Ellis recounted that she was often sleeping when he left for school and usually not home when he returned.

Albert Ellis purchased an alarm clock with his own money and woke and dressed his younger brother and sister.

Albert Ellis was sickly as a child and suffered numerous health problems throughout his youth.

Albert Ellis was hospitalized with tonsillitis, which led to a severe streptococcal infection requiring emergency surgery.

Albert Ellis reported that he had eight hospitalizations between the ages of five and seven, one of which lasted nearly a year.

Albert Ellis's parents provided little emotional support for him during these years, rarely visiting or consoling him.

Albert Ellis stated that he learned to confront his adversities as he had "developed a growing indifference to that dereliction".

Albert Ellis had exaggerated fears of speaking in public and during his adolescence, he was extremely shy around women.

Albert Ellis entered the field of clinical psychology after first earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from what was then known as the City College of New York Downtown in 1934.

Albert Ellis began a brief career in business, followed by one as a writer.

Albert Ellis's lay counseling in this subject convinced him to seek a new career in clinical psychology.

In 1942, Albert Ellis began his studies for a PhD in clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, which trained psychologists mostly in psychoanalysis.

Albert Ellis began publishing articles even before receiving his PhD; in 1946 he wrote a critique of many widely used pencil-and-paper personality tests.

Albert Ellis concluded that only the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory met the standards of a research-based instrument.

In 1947, he was awarded a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Columbia, and at that time Albert Ellis had come to believe that psychoanalysis was the deepest and most effective form of therapy.

Albert Ellis sought additional training in psychoanalysis and then began to practice classical psychoanalysis.

Shortly after receiving his PhD in 1947, Albert Ellis began a Jungian analysis and program of supervision with Richard Hulbeck, a leading analyst at the Karen Horney Institute.

The writings of Karen Horney, Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack Sullivan would be some of the influences in Albert Ellis's thinking and played a role in shaping his psychological models.

Albert Ellis acknowledged that his therapy was "by no means entirely new", as in particular Paul Charles Dubois's "rational persuasion" had prefigured some of its main principles; Albert Ellis stated he had read him some years after inventing his therapy, but had studied Emile Coue since a young age.

Albert Ellis was now advocating a new more active and directive type of psychotherapy.

Albert Ellis believed that through rational analysis and cognitive reconstruction, people could understand their self-defeatingness in light of their core irrational beliefs and then develop more rational constructs.

In 1954, Albert Ellis began teaching his new techniques to other therapists, and by 1957, he formally set forth the first cognitive behavioral therapy by proposing that therapists help people adjust their thinking and behavior as the treatment for emotional and behavioral problems.

Two years later, Albert Ellis published How to Live with a Neurotic, which elaborated on his new method.

In 1960, Albert Ellis presented a paper on his new approach at the American Psychological Association convention in Chicago.

Albert Ellis regularly held seminars where he would bring a participant up on stage and treat them.

Albert Ellis contributed to Paul Krassner's magazine The Realist; among its articles, in 1964 he wrote if this be heresy.

Albert Ellis is primarily known for his development of rational emotive behavior therapy.

Albert Ellis published his first major book on it in 1962.

Albert Ellis advocated the importance of accepting yourself just because you are alive, human, and unique - and not giving yourself a global rating, or being influenced by what others think of you.

In 1979 and during the next two decades, one part of Albert Ellis' research was an exploration of behavioral integrity through applied experimental psychology, focusing on reliability, honesty, and loyalty as psychosocial behavior.

Albert Ellis famously debated religious psychologists, including Orval Hobart Mowrer and Allen Bergin, over the proposition that religion often contributed to psychological distress.

Albert Ellis noted that religious codes and religious individuals often manifest religiosity, but added that devout, demanding religiosity is obvious among many orthodox psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, devout political believers, and aggressive atheists.

Albert Ellis was careful to state that REBT was independent of his atheism, noting that many skilled REBT practitioners are religious, including some who are ordained ministers.

Albert Ellis was a lifelong advocate for peace and an opponent of militarism.

Albert Ellis praised libertarian economist Walter Block's book, Defending the Undefendable.

Many schools of psychological thought became influenced by Albert Ellis, including rational behavior therapy created by a student of his, Maxie Clarence Maultsby Jr.

Albert Ellis had such an impact that in a 1982 survey, American and Canadian clinical psychologists and counsellors ranked him ahead of Freud when asked to name the figure who had exerted the average influence on their field.

Also in 1982, in an analysis of psychology journals published in the US it was found that Albert Ellis was the most cited author after 1957.

Albert Ellis's work extended into areas other than psychology, including education, politics, business, and philosophy.

Albert Ellis eventually became a prominent and confrontational social commenter and public speaker on a wide array of issues.

Albert Ellis held workshops and seminars on mental health and psychotherapy all over the world until his 90s.

Until he fell ill at the age of 92 in 2006, Albert Ellis typically worked at least 16 hours a day, writing books in longhand on legal tablets, visiting with clients, and teaching.

In 2004, Albert Ellis was taken ill with serious intestinal problems, which led to hospitalization and the removal of his large intestine.

Albert Ellis returned to work after a few months of supportive care.

Albert Ellis was reinstated to the board in January 2006 after winning civil proceedings against the board members who removed him.

On June 6,2007, lawyers acting for Albert Ellis filed a suit against the Albert Ellis Institute in New York state court.

Albert Ellis eventually returned to his residence on the top floor of the Albert Ellis Institute where he died on July 24,2007, in his wife's arms.

Albert Ellis had authored and co-authored more than 80 books and 1200 articles during his lifetime.

In 2019 his wife, Debbie Joffe Albert Ellis, updated the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy book, and the second edition of that book was published.

Albert Ellis was such a figure, known inside and outside of psychology for his astounding originality, his provocative ideas, and his provocative personality.

Albert Ellis bestrode the practice of psychotherapy like a colossus.

Albert Ellis used anecdotes from his personal life to explain how the insights of REBT occurred to him and how they helped him cope with personal problems such as shyness, anger, and chronic illness.

Albert Ellis used anecdotes from client sessions to illustrate how his therapy worked.

Albert Ellis had three children with Karyl after their divorce, when she was married to her husband Tony.

Albert Ellis was often criticised for his language and his aggressive behaviour, such as in his debate with Ayn Rand follower Nathaniel Branden.