Ellis, Albert 1913–2007

(Albert Isaac Ellis)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 27, 1913, in Pittsburgh, PA; died of kidney and heart failure, July 24, 2007, in New York, NY. Psychologist, counselor, educator, administrator, and author. Ellis revolutionized the field of psychotherapy and supplanted Sigmund Freud in a 1982 survey of clinical psychologists as the most influential contributor to his field. Ellis, in fact, rejected Freud's emphasis on sex and childhood trauma as primary causes of mental problems and also his conviction that effective treatment required years and years of psychoanalysis. He criticized such long-term therapy as a treatment that made patients feel better without helping them to become better. Ellis's own solution, which he called rational emotive behavioral therapy (or cognitive behavioral therapy), was much faster and more direct, as well as confrontational and blunt, even to the point of obscenity. He considered neurosis a form of "whining," to use his own word, and exhorted patients to quit complaining and take action. Ellis had a similarly direct, action-oriented, and uninhibited approach to the topic of sex, and his encouragement, combined with the profanities he used for effect, made his teaching and writings spectacularly popular and heavily publicized. He was, not surprisingly, censured by many of his colleagues in the 1950s, even called a crackpot. Over the years, however, most of his teachings came to be accepted, many were adopted by leading professionals, and he was regarded with the highest respect. Ellis began his career not with a medical degree, but with a doctorate in psychology. He worked as a personnel manager and a state government psychologist. In 1959 he created the Institute for Rational Living (now the Albert Ellis Institute), where he worked until 2005 and lived until his death. He taught classes at Rutgers University, New York University, and other institutions and held weekly public seminars at his New York, New York, facility into his nineties. Ellis earned many awards in his long career. He was named "humanist of the year" by the American Humanist Association and "distinguished sex researcher" by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex. He won a distinguished psychologist award from the Academy of Psychologists in Marital and Family Therapy and an American Psychological Association award for distinguished professional contributions to knowledge. Throughout his long career, Ellis also managed to write more than one hundred books, many of which became best sellers. One of his most popular titles was Sex without Guilt (1958). Other popular books were less suggestive, including How to Prevent Your Child from Becoming a Neurotic Adult (1966), How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable about Anything—Yes, Anything! (1988), Optimal Aging: Get Over Getting Older (1998), and The Road to Tolerance (2004).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2nd edition, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, July 25, 2007, p. 12.

Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2007, p. B8.

New York Times, July 25, 2007, pp. A1, A16; August 2, 2007, p. A2.

Washington Post, July 25, 2007, p. B7.