“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.”
― Albert Ellis
Wikipedia:
| Born | September 27, 1913 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
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| Died | July 24, 2007 (aged 93) New York, New York, USA |
| Residence | United States of America |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Clinical psychology, philosophy and psychotherapy |
| Known for | Formulating and developing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy |
Albert Ellis (September 27, 1913 – July 24, 2007) was an American psychologist who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). He held M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology from Columbia University and American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). He also founded and was the President of the New York City-based Albert Ellis Institute for decades. He is generally considered to be one of the originators of the cognitive revolutionary paradigm shift in psychotherapy and the founder of cognitive-behavioral therapies. Based on a 1982 professional survey of USA and Canadian psychologists, he was considered as the second most influential psychotherapist in history (Carl Rogers ranked first in the survey; Sigmund Freud was ranked third).
Notable awards
- 2003 award from the Association for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (UK)
- Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award
- Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 1996 Outstanding Clinician Award
- American Psychological Association 1985 award for Distinguished professional contributions to Applied Research
- American Humanist Association 1971 award for “Humanist of the Year”
- New York slate Psychological Association 2006 Lifetime Distinguished Service Award
- American Counseling Association1988 ACA Professional Development Award
- Honesty and Confidablity Test National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists’ Outstanding Contributions to CBT Award
- Awarded the American Psychological Achievement For Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology
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Videos
Albert Ellis: A Guide to Rational Living – Thinking Allowed DVD w/ Jeffrey Mishlove
21 Ways to Stop Worrying by Dr Albert Ellis, 1991 (audio)
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Quotes
“There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well . And the world must be easy.”
― Albert Ellis–
“Even injustice has it’s good points. It gives me the challenge of being as happy as I can in an unfair world.”
― Albert Ellis–
“The art of love… is largely the art of persistence. ”
― Albert Ellis–
“Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they’re alive and human.”
― Albert Ellis–
“The emotionally mature individual should completely accept the fact that we live in a world of probability and chance, where there are not, nor probably ever will be, any absolute certainties, and should realize that it is not at all horrible, indeed—such a probabilistic, uncertain world.”
― Albert Ellis–
“Life is indeed difficult, partly because of the real difficulties we must overcome in order to survive, and partly because of our own innate desire to always do better, to overcome new challenges, to self-actualize. Happiness is experienced largely in striving towards a goal, not in having attained things, because our nature is always to want to go on to the next endeavor.”
― Albert Ellis, The Art & Science of Rational Eating–
“If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they’ll kill themselves laughing.”
― Albert Ellis–
“Spirit and soul is horseshit of the worst sort. Obviously there are no fairies, no Santa Clauses, no spirits. What there is, is human goals and purposes as noted by sane existentialists. But a lot of transcendentalists are utter screwballs.”
― Albert Ellis–
“If human emotions largely result from thinking, then one may appreciably control one’s feelings by controlling one’s thoughts – or by changing the internalized sentences, or self-talk, with which one largely created the feeling in the first place.”
― Albert Ellis, Rational Psychotherapy and Individual Psychology–
You largely constructed your depression. It wasn’t given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it.
Albert Ellis–
We teach people that they upset themselves. We can’t change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today.
Albert Ellis–
By not caring too much about what people think, I’m able to think for myself and propagate ideas which are very often unpopular. And I succeed.
Albert Ellis–
I think the future of psychotherapy and psychology is in the school system. We need to teach every child how to rarely seriously disturb himself or herself and how to overcome disturbance when it occurs.
Albert Ellis–
For that again, is what all manner of religion essentially is: childish dependency.
Albert Ellis
