Dr. Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) died yesterday in New York at the old age of 93.I was a psychology major in undergrad at Loyola and was immediately smitten with RET when I first read about it in my clinical pych. class.
Believing, contrary to the Freudians, that neurosis was "just a high class term for whining," Dr. Ellis used confrontational methods to force his patients to examine their irrational thoughts that led to irrational actions.
We are all self-interested actors, but sometimes don't choose the best actions to achieve the outcomes we desire. Ellis' method, rather than looking back to childhood conflicts for years on end (as the dominant Freudians pushed for at the time) cut right to our current actions and the thoughts behind those actions.
Oddly enough, I had just picked up another of Ellis' books recently. His contribution to "talk therapy" should not be overlooked by history.
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