Albert Ellis - Early Theoretical Contributions To Psychotherapy

Early Theoretical Contributions To Psychotherapy

Of psychologists, the writings of Karen Horney, Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm and Harry Stack Sullivan would arguably be some of the greatest influences in Ellis's thinking and played a role in shaping his psychological models. Ellis credits Alfred Korzybski, his book, Science and Sanity, and general semantics for starting him on the philosophical path for founding rational therapy. In addition modern and ancient philosophy and his own experiences heavily influenced his new theoretical developments to psychotherapy.

From the late 1940s onwards Ellis worked on REBT and by January 1953 his break with psychoanalysis was complete, and he began calling himself a rational therapist. Ellis was now advocating a new more active and directive type of psychotherapy. In 1955 he presented Rational Therapy (RT). In RT, the therapist sought to help the client understand — and act on the understanding — that his personal philosophy contained beliefs that contributed to his own emotional pain. This new approach stressed actively working to change a client's self-defeating beliefs and behaviours by demonstrating their irrationality, self-defeatism and rigidity. 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 Ellis began teaching his new techniques to other therapists, and by 1957 he formally set forth the first cognitive behavior therapy by proposing that therapists help people adjust their thinking and behavior as the treatment for emotional and behavioural problems. Two years later Ellis published How to Live with a Neurotic, which elaborated on his new method. In 1960 Ellis presented a paper on his new approach at the American Psychological Association (APA) convention in Chicago. There was mild interest, but few recognized that the paradigm set forth would become the zeitgeist within a generation. At that time the prevailing interest in experimental psychology was behaviorism, while in clinical psychology it was the psychoanalytic schools of notables such as Freud, Jung, Adler, and Perls. Despite the fact that Ellis' approach emphasized cognitive, emotive, and behavioral methods, his strong cognitive emphasis provoked the psychotherapeutic establishment with the possible exception of the followers of Adler. Consequently, he was often received with significant hostility at professional conferences and in print. He regularly held seminars where he would bring a participant up on stage and treat them. His treatments were famed for often being delivered in a rough, confrontational style.

Despite the relative slow adoption of his approach in the beginning, Ellis founded his own institute. The Institute for Rational Living was founded as a non-profit organization in 1959. By 1968 it was chartered by the New York State Board of Regents as a training institute and psychological clinic.