Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy

Front Cover
Carol Publishing Group, 1994 - Philosophy - 479 pages
Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, a seminal work in twentieth-century psychology, was the first book on rational-emotive therapy. Written for psychotherapists, it soon became one of the most important and most quoted books in the field. Although intended for professionals, it has since become a widely popular and indispensable self-help book. This updated and revised edition reflects new findings by Dr. Albert Ellis and his colleagues, Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy started the cognitive-behavior movement in psychotherapy. When Dr. Ellis began practicing this groundbreaking new therapy in 1955, his was a little-heard voice. Two main forms of psychotherapy, both passive, then dominated the field: Freudian psychoanalysis, with its interminable listening to troubled people's complaints and supposedly unraveling their unconscious "complexes" and purportedly healing them of childhood traumas; and Carl Rogers's client-centered therapy, which forbade therapists from using any active-directive techniques to show clients what really troubled them or what to do about it. Other forms of therapy, such as Adlerian, Gestalt, Jungian, and behavior therapy, existed but had few followers. Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy helped change all this. Including Dr. Ellis's major papers, it was the pioneering work in cognitive-behavior therapy and presented a revolutionary, powerful, brief, and effective psychological treatment that was deeper and more intensive than either psychoanalysis or the therapy of Rogers and his followers. Dr. Ellis's new approach caught the imagination of practitioners all over the world, and by the late 1960s he was joined by Aaron Beck, William Glasser, DonaldMeichenbaum, and a host of other therapists who primarily followed his theories and practices. By the 1970s, Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and cognitive-behavior therapy were supported by scores of experimental studies and were being used by innumerable mental health practitioners. Today, REBT continues to be increasingly popular and effective. Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy helped so many therapists and laypeople over the years that a new edition might have seemed unnecessary. But psychotherapy, including REBT, moves on, and Dr. Ellis has expanded his original theory and practice and has added a large number of cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques to its innovative multimodal approach. This revised edition therefore includes all the important original theories and practices, as well as significant number of corrections and changes derived from clinical experience and experimentation, featuring a revision of its famous ABC's on human neurosis. A great many of the therapeutic techniques have been perfected since 1955, and the teachings of unconditional self-acceptance (USA) have been updated.

From inside the book

Contents

The Origins of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
1
Therapy
76
Irrational Beliefs That Influence and Help Maintain
106
Copyright

14 other sections not shown

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About the author (1994)

Albert Ellis was a clinical psychologist and a marriage counselor. He was born on September 27, 1913 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ellis originated the rational-emotive therapy movement, which ignores Freudian theories and advocates the belief that emotions come from conscious thought "as well as internalized ideas of which the individual may be unaware." At first, Ellis' books on marital romance and sexuality were criticized by some as being radical and sensational; however, few realized that Ellis was merely laying the groundwork for modern sex education. Ellis was educated at the City College of New York Downtown and at Columbia University, where he received a Ph.D. in psychology in 1943. He taught for a number of years at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and the Union Graduate School. He was executive director of the Institute for Rational Living, Inc., in New York City. Ellis was the author of Sex and the Liberated Man, Sex Without Guilt, and Sex Without Guilt in the Twenty-First Century. Despite his health issues, Ellis never stopped working with the assistance of his wife, Australian psychologist Debbie Joffe Ellis. In April 2006, Ellis was hospitalized with pneumonia, and had to stay in either the hospital or the rehabilitation facility. He eventually returned to his home --- the top floor of the Albert Ellis Institute. He died there on July 24, 2007 in his wife's arms. Ellis had authored and co-authored more than 80 books and 1200 articles during his lifetime. He was 93 when he died.

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