15 Facts About Nathaniel Branden

Nathaniel Branden was born Nathan Blumenthal in Brampton, Ontario to Dinah and Joseph Blumenthal, who were Jewish immigrants from Russia.

Nathaniel Branden grew up alongside three sisters, Florence, Elayne, and Reva.

In 1968, Rand publicly broke with Nathaniel Branden and published an article denouncing him and accusing him of a variety of offenses, such as philosophic irrationality and unresolved psychological problems.

Nathaniel Branden defined self-esteem formally as "the disposition to experience oneself as competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and as worthy of happiness", and proposed that, while others can nurture and support self-esteem in an individual, self-esteem relies upon various internally generated practices.

Nathaniel Branden distinguished his approach to self-esteem from that of many others by his inclusion of both confidence and worth in his definition of self-esteem, and by his emphasis on the importance of internally generated practices for the improvement and maintenance of self-esteem.

Sentence completion, a method that figured prominently in Nathaniel Branden's mode of therapy, is an example of this dual focus.

Nathaniel Branden married Barbara Weidman in 1953, with Rand and Rand's husband Frank O'Connor in attendance.

The affair lasted until the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, after which, according to Nathaniel Branden, Rand became depressed, and the affair, practically speaking, ended.

Nathaniel Branden reported that in this period Rand began seeking a resumption of their affair; his own marriage, meanwhile, was deteriorating, although he and Barbara were becoming closer as friends.

Nathaniel Branden then met and fell in love with a young model, Patrecia Scott.

In mid-1965, Nathaniel Branden told Barbara of the affair and the two separated.

In 1968, four years into the affair, Barbara Nathaniel Branden informed Rand of it.

Nathaniel Branden subsequently married businesswoman Estelle Devers in December 1978.

Nathaniel Branden died on December 3,2014, from complications of Parkinson's disease.

Nathaniel Branden's books have been translated into 18 languages, with more than 4 million copies in print.