Albert Ellis is one of the most influential and well known psychologists in the world of clinical psychology, especially due to the fact that he is the author or developer of what is known as Rational Emotional Therapy . But although this is his best known contribution, in reality his work was much more prolific, including various works relating to sexuality, religion or the practice of psychological therapy in general.

Ellis’ contributions and research were and continue to be highly relevant within the practice of psychology, with a particular focus that has inspired many other models.

Knowing the life of this author can be very interesting both for those who are dedicated to clinical psychology and for those who are interested in knowing one of the most outstanding figures in this field, which is why throughout this article we will see a brief biography of Albert Ellis .

A short biography of Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis was born on September 27, 1913 in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , the first of three brothers born to a couple of Jewish origin. His relationship with his parents was cold and distant, with his father a poorly successful businessman who spent very little time at home and his mother someone cold and distant with a possible bipolar disorder.

Ellis himself thought that in his childhood he and his siblings had been neglected by their parents, and he had to take care of his younger siblings. Although this situation initially caused him great pain, he eventually learned to be indifferent to the situation. The family economy was precarious and especially at the time of the Great Depression , something that forced the minors to work in order to survive.

Ellis’ health was delicate from childhood, suffering from five years of kidney problems that required hospitalization, in addition to severe infections that made him spend up to seven years visiting hospitals regularly . This seriously affected his socialization, since he could not participate in intense games.

Academic training and entry into the world of work

After completing his basic training, Ellis enrolled at New York University to study in the field of economics and commerce , specifically to study Business Administration in 1934. After that, he would start to work as a businessman and work with his younger brother in opening a trouser patch and trim business.

In his memoirs Ellis relates that all his life he was afraid to come in contact with women, something that made him decide at the age of nineteen to start trying to force himself to talk to anyone he found sitting on the benches of the Bronx Botanical Garden, in order to overcome his fear.

In 1936 he met the actress Karyl Corper , with whom he had a stormy but intense relationship that would culminate in a wedding. However, in 1938 and a year after their wedding the couple would ask for an annulment, although they would maintain a good relationship and even the author would donate his sperm to her to have children.

He was appointed personnel director in 1938 in a well-known company, while using his free time to write works in various literary and theatrical genres. Although he had a large number of works, he could not get them published, so he decided to deviate to the academic world.

Beginning of interest in psychology and sexuality

At that time he also began to show interest in love, eroticism and sexuality, writing various articles and even a book entitled The Case for Promiscuity which however would not be published.

All this led him to become interested in sexology and clinical psychology . This interest, which grew thanks to the works of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalytic theory, led him to enroll in the College of Professors at Columbia University. There he graduated in 1943, and then began to work in private practice.

He would later do his doctorate in Clinical Psychology . Although initially he wanted his thesis to deal with the subject of love in university students, he finally had to change it due to the censorship and controversy generated.

Instead he did it on the personality questionnaires, which he criticized harshly and would indicate that for him alone the Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory was scientifically valid. He completed his doctorate in 1947, while living and continuing clinical practice in his Bronx apartment. He tried to work as a professor of psychology, but at that time in his life he was not accepted. He also participated in Kinsey’s experiments and research on human sexuality.

Its relationship with psychoanalysis

Throughout his training Ellis acquired a great admiration for psychoanalysis , which led him to analyze himself with Richard Hülsenbeck for several years and to train at the Karen Horney Institute. There he also discovered a concept that would later prove useful in the development of his own therapy: debits. His career also took off: he was approached by Rutgers University and New York University to teach in the late 1940s, and gradually became head of clinical psychology at the New Jersey Diagnostic Center.

However, the little effectiveness that the method seemed to have on his patients with psychoanalysis and the influence of authors who had split from that branch to generate their own school (such as Adler, Horney or Sullivan) ended up making him change to a position somewhat far from that vision and focused on brief therapy. In fact, in 1953 he abandoned psychoanalysis and began to investigate and elaborate his own, more directive, theory.

Rational Emotional Therapy

In his clinic, Ellis began to apply more active and direct techniques when treating his patients , which improved more than with other types of approaches. It would be in 1955 when Ellis would completely leave psychoanalysis to try to focus on changing people’s unadaptive ideas and build more rational alternatives.

He would begin rational emotional behavioral therapy, initially called rational therapy in 1955, and would begin to show his theory at the American Psychological Association. The fact that it focused on cognition and beliefs (in a fundamentally psychoanalytic era) meant that it was generally undervalued at the academic level in its early days. His theory indicates that our behaviour is determined by the presence of an activating event that generates an emotional reaction based on the previous activation of a belief system. Thus, the cause of the behaviour or emotion is not the event itself but the belief system that it awakens.

In 1956 with dancer Rhoda Winter Russell, a union that ended in divorce a few years later. His first major publication, in which he would explain his vision and therapy, appears in 1959 under the title How to live with a neurotic . That same year he founded the Albert Ellis Institute, in a building in Manhattan that he would compare in 1965. In addition to his original therapy, Ellis also developed a series of Friday night workshops that would become a great source of satisfaction for him.

His interest in sex and his contact with Kinsey continued over the years, so that he would also publish various books on the subject, including “Sex Without Guilt”. He also initially considered homosexuality a pathology, but over the years this vision was modified and he began to consider it a sexual orientation.

He also participated and collaborated with professionals such as Aaron Beck in aspects such as beliefs and cognition. The rise of the cognitive-behavioral current propelled his career as he received more support from your theory, and over time he changed the name of his therapy to the current rational-emotive therapy. He also worked on issues such as integrity and religion for the next two decades, and founded the “School of Life” for children in 1970.

He lived as a couple with Janet Wolfe from 1965 to 2002, when she decided to end their relationship. After this breakup and with the passage of time he would begin a relationship with psychologist Debbie Joffe , with whom he married in 2004. Throughout his life he has been considered, together with Rogers and Freud, one of the most influential figures in the field of psychology, as well as having received many distinctions at a professional level.

  • You may be interested in: “Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy (REBT) by Albert Ellis”

Last years and death

Despite his great prestige, this did not prevent him from facing various difficulties in his final years. Among them was the attempt by the Institute’s board of directors to cease his participation in the board and his professional practice within the same centre (the directors claiming that the author had a confrontational, eccentric and wasteful style that jeopardized the proper functioning of the institute), although in 2006 the Supreme Court decided to reinstate him on the board of directors of the Institute that bore his name.

During the spring of that same year 2006 Ellis had to be admitted to hospital for pneumonia , a hospitalization that would last up to fourteen months (during which he continued to write and give interviews). After more than a year of hospitalization, Albert Ellis asked to be taken home, at the top of the Albert Ellis Institute. He died on July 24, 2007, in his wife’s arms from heart and kidney failure.

Albert Ellis’ legacy is immense: his rational emotional therapy, in addition to being used even today, can be considered a precursor to the great cognitive-behavioral developments. He also appears to be linked to a large number of professionals with whom he maintained contact and with whom he contributed in multiple studies.

Bibliographic references:

  • Chavez, A.L. (2015). Albert Ellis (1913-2007): The life and work of a cognitive therapist. Rev.PSicol, 5 (1): 137-146. Catholic University of São Paulo.
  • Ellis, A. (2010) All out: an autobiography. USA: Prometheus Books.
  • Lega, L & Velten, E. (2007). Albert Ellis: An authorized biography. New York: Insight Media.