ALBERT ELLIS: BIOGRAPHY, BASICS, THEORY - PSYCHOLOGY

Albert Ellis (1913 - 2007) was an American psychologist famous for creating a therapeutic approach known as "rational emotional therapy." This was based on the change of beliefs that he considered "irrational", negative or that contributed to the patient's discomfort for other more positive, optimistic and adapted to reality.

Although at first he worked with approaches such as psychoanalysis or humanistic therapy, Albert Ellis soon created his own techniques and ended up rejecting the ideas of Sigmund Freud. Thus, throughout his career he tried to promote the idea that instead of focusing on the traumas of their past, patients should focus on taking action to improve their present and future.

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Ellis is considered one of the best psychologists of all time, in addition to having published a large number of best-sellers throughout his career. In his books, he tried to bring the ideas of the latest advances in the science of the human mind to the general public, with practical steps and advice applicable in people's daily lives.

His rational emotional therapy is the basis of many of the psychological approaches most used today, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy.

Biography

Albert Ellils was born in 1913 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (United States). He was the oldest of three siblings, and often had to take care of the two youngest as his parents did not have much time for them. The psychologist's relationship with his parents was never good, and in his interviews he described them as "emotionally distant" and "not very affectionate."

In his first years of life, Ellis considered himself a shy and quiet child. This changed when he was 19 years old, when he decided to change his behavior and way of being, and set the goal of talking to all the women he met on the street. According to his account, for a month he spoke with more than 130 women.

Despite only getting one date during this entire process, she managed to lose her fear of interacting with the opposite sex. Later, she used this same technique to improve her public speaking skills, something that served her well throughout her career.

During his life, Albert Ellis was married several times. His longest relationship, with the director of the Albert Ellis Institute, lasted 37 years; Although it ended in 2002. Later, in 2004, he remarried a psychologist named Debbie Joffe, with whom he was until her death in 2007.

Laboral life

After graduating from high school, Ellis studied Business at the City College of New York. For several years he tried to dedicate himself to this field, and then he got tired and decided to become a novelist, which did not work either. Later, in 1942, he chose to change his field once more and went to Columbia University to study psychology.

At first, Ellis was trained in psychoanalysis, one of the most fashionable currents at that time. However, after obtaining his doctorate in 1947, he soon realized the failings of this therapeutic method (especially its low effectiveness and the large amount of time it took) and began to investigate other alternatives.

Over the next several years, he began to develop his own techniques and theories, initially influenced by the likes of Karen Horney and Alfred Adler. In 1955, he introduced his own form of therapy, which was originally called "rational therapy," and is now known as "rational emotional therapy."

The basis of this form of therapy was that he focused on action, while trying to understand the irrational beliefs that led his patients to experience suffering. Due to his contributions to science, Ellis is considered today as one of the most influential psychologists in all of history.

Basic concepts

One of the most important bases of Ellis's work was his idea that human suffering does not occur due to the external circumstances of our lives. On the contrary, for this psychologist the cause is the mental dialogue that we constantly maintain with ourselves, and the way in which we interpret what happens to us.

According to Ellis, the main problem for most people is that we have irrational ideas about how the world works, causing us a great deal of unnecessary suffering. If we can change the way we interpret what happens to us, most of our psychological discomfort will vanish.

This idea was already developed in some ancient currents of thought, such as Greek Stoicism; but Ellis adapted it to modern times and created a therapeutic approach based on substituting the irrational beliefs of his patients for other ideas more beneficial to their mental health.

Ellis's 13 irrational ideas

In his work, Albert Ellis described what he considered the 13 most common irrational beliefs in the modern population. For this psychologist, these thoughts are the cause of much of the suffering that people experience today.

"I must do things well and get the approval of those who matter to me, or I will become unworthy."
«Other people should treat me well and fairly. If they don't, they are bad.
I must have an easy and pleasant life. Otherwise, I won't be able to enjoy it at all.
«All the people that matter to me must love me and approve of what I do; if this doesn't happen, it will be terrible.
"I must achieve great achievements or I will be worth nothing."
"People who behave negatively should be punished."
"I must have no problem achieving what I propose, or else everything will be terrible."
“When negative things happen to me, it is impossible not to feel bad. To be well, I need everything to be perfect.
"I must always put myself in the worst place and think that everything is going to go wrong."
"I can avoid my responsibilities and face the difficulties of life and still feel fulfilled."
"My past determines how I feel and what I do: it is the most important part of my life."
'Everyone and everything should be better than they are; And if they don't improve, that would be terrible.
"I can be completely happy doing as little as possible and just enjoying life."

The three groups of irrational beliefs

On many occasions, all these beliefs have been grouped into three groups: those that affect oneself, those that have to do with others, and those related to the world and life in general.

Thus, almost all rational beliefs have to do with one of three aspects. They can imply that one must act in a concrete way and that others approve in order to be well.

On the other hand, they can also have to do with the idea that everyone else must act in a fair, pleasant and considerate way for our emotions to be positive; and that if they don't, they should be punished.

The last group of irrational beliefs described by Albert Ellis has to do with the idea that life should be easy and pleasant so that we can get what we want without having to strain or feel uncomfortable.

These irrational ideas form the basis of both the therapeutic approach created by Ellis, as well as other more modern currents such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy.

Theory

Rational emotional therapy is based on the idea that the most important thing to achieve well-being is not to focus on the past and to release the "traumas" that may have happened to us throughout our lives, as proposed by psychoanalysis. On the contrary, to be well it is necessary to change the way we understand the world and take meaningful action.

Therefore, the therapy proposed by Albert Ellis is based precisely on these two points. On the one hand, the patient must be able to modify his beliefs about himself, the people around him, his own life and the world. At the same time, you have to start behaving differently than you have been up to now.

For example, if a patient wants to achieve greater success in his relationships, not only will he have to modify his ideas about this area of his life, but he will also have to start acting in different ways, which lead him to achieve his goals by respect.

ABC model

In addition to this, one of Ellis's main contributions to the field of psychology was his theory of what causes suffering. In his time, behaviorism (one of the most important currents in the field of mental health) said that human beings react automatically to the stimuli that are in their lives.

On the contrary, Albert Ellis believed that between the appearance of a stimulus and the response that is given to it, there is an intermediate component that has to do with the way in which we interpret what has happened to us. Based on this idea, he created his ABC model:

- The A came from Activating Event, or "trigger event"; that is to say, of what happens to us. According to Ellis, everything that happens to us is in principle neutral at this point.

- Then, the B has to do with our beliefs, or beliefs. When something happens to us, we interpret it based on our way of seeing the world and our particular way of thinking.

- Finally, from the mixture of what happens to us with what we think, C appears as «consequences». Depending on how we have interpreted the situation, an emotional reaction or another will appear.

Thus, Ellis thought that no situation by itself is capable of causing us unhappiness, but that it has to be accompanied by a belief that makes us see it as something negative. This idea, despite being counterintuitive, is still considered valid in many modern therapeutic approaches.

Therapeutic technique

To better understand rational emotional therapy, you need to know exactly how it works. Generally, the process consists of three steps: identifying your own irrational beliefs and thoughts, refuting them, and being able to recognize them when they reappear.

Identify irrational beliefs and thoughts

The first step in a rational emotional therapy process is to identify the irrational thoughts, beliefs and feelings that cause emotional distress in the patient.

In many cases, these beliefs appear in the form of "absolutes," as for example in expressions that begin with "should," "have to," or "need to."

Most irrational beliefs have to do with your own behavior (which is held to extremely high standards), with that of others, or with the way the world should work.

One way to identify such a thought is to figure out whether saying it out loud or reflecting on it automatically produces discomfort.

The problem with irrational beliefs is that they prevent us from facing life's challenges in a healthy way, and they increase the discomfort that we have to suffer in our day to day life. Therefore, the next step involves exchanging them for other more useful thoughts.

Fight irrational thoughts

Once the patient's main irrational beliefs have been identified, they need to be confronted. This can be done in many ways, although in principle Ellis chose to carry out this step in the most honest, logical and direct way possible.

The idea of this step is to get the person to rethink their way of seeing the world, and to give a more logical alternative to their thoughts in order to get them to change their way of feeling and acting. This step has been very refined in later times, as for example with the creation of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Recognize own thought patterns

Of course, the process of changing your beliefs cannot be completed in one day. For this reason, the last step in rational emotional therapy is to train the patient to detect irrational beliefs that he has already identified once they reappear.

When this occurs, the patient must be able to refute his own thoughts to himself, in order to reduce his suffering and change the way he acts.

In addition, it is also recommended that the person work directly on their emotions and actions, to achieve an even more positive effect with this process.

References

"Albert Ellis" in: Famous Psychologists. Retrieved on: June 12, 2019 from Famous Psychologists: famouspsychologists.org.
"Albert Ellis biography" in: VeryWell Mind. Retrieved on: June 12, 2019 from VeryWell Mind: verywellmind.com.
"Albert Ellis" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: June 12, 2019 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.
"The Irrational Ideas of Albert Ellis" in: Exploring Your Mind. Retrieved on: June 12, 2019 from Exploring Your Mind: exploringyourmind.com.
"Rational emotive behavior therapy" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: June 12, 2019 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.

ALBERT ELLIS: BIOGRAPHY, BASICS, THEORY - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024