NONSTATIONARY DATA SHOULD NOT BE “CORRECTED”

Ellis (1979), in his study of interaction patterns in groups, discovered that his data did not satisfy the assumptions of a simple Markov model. In particular, he found that his data failed to satisfy the assumption of stationarity. In response to this, Ellis employed a new composite matrix procedure to generate a single set of predicted one-step transition probabilities. This essay argues that this procedure (1) does not generate one-step probabilities, (2) does not produce legitimately interpretable results, and (3) is a fundamentally inappropriate response to the discovery of nonstationary data. The composite matrix procedure used by Ellis is discussed and appropriate responses to the discovery of nonstationary interaction data are proposed.     

Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Personal Reflection

This article provides an overview of the contributions to this special issue celebrating Dr. Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Members of The Albert Ellis Institute’s International Training Standards and Policy Review Committeee (ITS-PRC) were invited to reflect on the personal and professional influences Dr. Ellis had on each of them. In addition, several of the contributors offer their praise as well as critiques of both Albert Ellis and his theory, as well as recommendations for future directions.     

Albert Ellis: Unsung hero of positive psychology

The contributions of Albert Ellis to the understanding of human happiness including his suggestions for living a happier life have not been represented in the field of positive psychology. This article presents Ellis’ theoretical constructs associated with his conception of happiness (dual nature of human psyche, self-actualization, purpose and goals of life and short- and long-term happiness). Eleven of Ellis’ rational principles of living (e.g. self-interest, self-direction, self-acceptance, commitment to absorbing activities, hedonism) are presented. When consistently applied in practice, they may help people to experience frequent positive affect, less frequent and intense negative emotions and high life satisfaction. It will show how Ellis’ ABC-DE scientific method can be used with individuals to lessen unhappiness. Suggestions are provided for research into associations between rationality and happiness as well as the impact of different rationality-based interventions on happiness.     

Albert Ellis: An Efficient and Passionate Life

In this interview Albert Ellis discusses his early days, the women in his life, and his personal characteristics and offers personal reflections on his professional career.     

Unconventional Therapist: Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis is one of counseling's most prolific authors, having written more than 40 books and 500 articles, most on the topic of Rational Emotive Therapy (RET). As RET's progenitor, he has been a moving force in the current renaissance of interest in the cognitive behavior movement. In this interview Ellis discusses his theory and its application and aspects of his personal and family life.     

Putting the “B” in ret: It had to be

Editor's Note: The history of RET will show that in the early 1990s, Albert Ellis modified the name of his therapy to rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Ellis gives much of the credit and responsibility for the name change to Ray Corsini—the highly-regarded anthologist of modern-day systems of counseling and psychotherapy. Dr. Corsini was kind enough to contribute his own view as to why the name change was warranted. The lively debate concerning the inclusion of the word “behavior” in rational-emotive therapy will be taken up in the next issue ofJRECBT with reactions of Gerald Davison, Cyril Franks, Arnold Lazarus and Albert Ellis.     

Howard Andrew Knox and the origins of performance testing on Ellis Island, 1912-1916

Howard Andrew Knox was Assistant Surgeon at the immigration station at Ellis Island, New York, between April 1912 and May 1916. In response to public disquiet that the physicians at Ellis Island were failing to prevent mentally retarded people from entering the country, Knox and his colleagues assembled a collection of performance tests that could be administered to potential immigrants with little knowledge of the English language. They were subsequently used in clinical practice and in educational, psychological, and social research. Because of the early work done at Ellis Island, it is nowadays taken for granted that any adequate measure of intelligence must include both verbal and performance subtests.     

Dr. Albert Ellis—In His Own Words—On Success

Albert Ellis, Ph.D. gives his formula for success, along with his unique and extremely candid take on some of the obstacles he encountered along the way in his amazing quest to take Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)—the original cognitive behavioral approach—from its initial status as renegade to its current mainstream status.     

A Study of Volunteer Clients Who Experienced Live Sessions of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in Front of a Public Audience

This is a study of the responses of 100 selected subjects who gave their reactions to experiencing a live session of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) with Albert Ellis in front of a public audience. Ninety-seven of the respondents found their session helpful; only 13 felt uncomfortable discussing their problems in public; 99 of them felt that Dr. Ellis focused on their main problem; 94 of them reported that they somewhat or very much used Dr. Ellis's suggestions; 90 of them felt that the members of the audience suggestions were helpful; and 93 of them said that they would like to work with Dr. Ellis again at a public therapy session. Limitations of this study are discussed.     

Albert Ellis at 85: Personal Reflections

Coinciding with his 85th birthday, Michael Bernard interviewed Albert Ellis focusing on more personal than professional issues. Topics addressed in the interview include: a) morning mood, b) management of physical ailments, c) spirituality, d) recent pleasant moments, e) mentors, and f) regrets.     

The nature of the reading deficit in developmental dyslexia: a reply to Ellis

Ellis (1979) credits me with the view that “developmental dyslexia might be regarded as a genetic form of deep dyslexia” and then proceeds to argue that my grounds for this view are ill-founded. He offers an alternative proposal, that developmental dyslexia may be likened to (acquired) surface dyslexia. In this paper I will attempt to answer Ellis' (1979) criticisms and provide a critique of his alternative proposal.     

Ellis and Epictetus: Dialogue vs. Method in Psychotherapy

Some recent commentators have found problems in the scientific status of Ellis's REBT, which seem not to be present in Beck's CBT. We argue that this may be partly because they drew differently from the traditions of thought available to them, which appears most clearly in their first published articles. Beck's articles were more in the modern medical tradition, whose history forms part of the search for method leading to abstract knowledge and control that has been so powerful a feature of Western culture. Ellis was more discursive in style and drew more explicitly on the dialogic tradition, in which obstacles to self-awareness and freedom are removed by enlisting the power of reason through question and answer. Socrates and Epictetus are the classical representatives of this tradition, and Ellis's first article shows clear signs of being modelled on Epictetus. Later, however, though continuing in this tradition in his personal style and popular self-help books, Ellis also developed abstract models and methods that belong to the medical tradition. His dual allegiance has made him vulnerable to criticism from both sides.     

The therapeutic relationship in Rational-Emotive Therapy: Some preliminary data

This study assessed the therapeutic relationship between psychotherapy clients and Albert Ellis and other Rational-Emotive Therapists. Clients at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy completed the relationship questionnaire (Truax, & Carkhuff, 1967). The results suggest that RET therapists do develop positive therapeutic relationships. Clients receiving RET endorsed significantly higher scores on most therapeutic relationship subscales compared to subjects in the initial articles introducing the therapeutic relationship scale. There were no differences in therapeutic relationship scores by gender of the therapist. Also, there was no correlation between the relationship scores and the number of sessions completed, which suggests the therapuetic relationship develops early. Both clients of senior and junior therapists received higher relationship scores than did clients of Dr. Ellis. This disconfirms the argument that RET practices cannot lead to a therapuetic relationship and Ellis' therapeutic relationship is a result of his fame and could not be duplicated by other therapists using RET.The authors wish to thank the Board of Trustees of Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy for their financial support of this study.     

An extrapolation of the Dryden Projections for the future of REBT

Further analysis of the Dryden Projections suggests that there will be six subsequent name changes beyond 2031 to what is now known as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). The last name change will take place in 2555, which will coincide with the 600th anniversary of Ellis's first practicing Rational Therapy. The data suggests that Ellis will have an epiphany of near religious proportions. Gematria was deemed the best system to convert ordinal to equal interval data and was therefore selected for use in this study.He maintains a private practice in Havertown, PAThe author wishes to express his appreciation to Windy Dryden for his pioneering work and development of new research techniques associated with the Dryden Projections, without which this present study could not have been conducted.     

Dispute Irrational Beliefs and Teach Rational Beliefs: An Interview with Albert Ellis

In this interview, Ellis acknowledges that irrational beliefs have a higher biological basis than rational beliefs and that they are not at opposite ends of the same continuum. Ellis agrees that irrational beliefs are more involved in mental health problems while rational beliefs contribute to the psychology of success. The strength of conviction in both rational and irrational beliefs including self-acceptance and self-downing is explored. Ellis equates the conviction with which rational beliefs need to be held to influence emotions and behaviors with “faith.” He acknowledges the importance of faith built on facts rather than religiosity. Ellis agrees that ridding strongly motivated individuals of self-depreciation may lead to a decrease in their high frustration tolerance and, ultimately, their drive for and achievement of success. Ellis supports adding an “F” to the ABCDE model—forcefully agreeing with and applying new rational beliefs. Ellis discusses the need to develop a literature on therapeutic techniques and methods for helping people to apply rational beliefs more strongly to different areas of their lives. Ellis highlights the perils of self-efficacy positive psychology interventions if people’s innate tendency towards self-depreciation is ignored. The interviewer concludes the interview expressing the view that if we listen to Ellis, “we” need to re-think the ways we teach people of all ages to think rationally knowing that the rational re-statement of previously disputed irrational beliefs is only one of many different teaching methods. This interview was conducted in January, 2005, at the Albert Ellis Institute. At the time of the interview, Dr. Ellis was in good health. In this interview held over two separate sessions, a series of questions prepared by the interviewer were presented to Albert Ellis that were designed to stimulate discussion on differences between rational and irrational beliefs and on the issue of whether once irrational beliefs have been disputed, more time and REBT methods need to be devoted to helping clients strengthen their conviction in and application of rational beliefs.     

Some remarks on Scheiblechner's treatment of isop models

Scheiblechner (1995) proposes a probabilistic axiomatization of measurement called ISOP (isotonic ordinal probabilistic models) that replaces Rasch's (1980) specific objectivity assumptions with two interesting ordinal assumptions. Special cases of Scheiblechner's model include standard unidimensional factor analysis models in which the loadings are held constant, and the Rasch model for binary item responses. Closely related are the doubly-monotone item response models of Mokken (1971; see also Mokken & Lewis, 1982; Sijtsma, 1988; Molenaar, 1991; Sijtsma & Junker, 1996; and Sijtsma & Hemker, in press). More generally, strictly unidimensional latent variable models have been considered in some detail by Holland and Rosenbaum (1986), Ellis and van den Wollenberg (1993), and Junker (1990, 1993). The purpose of this note is to provide connections with current research in foundations and nonparametric latent variable and item response modeling that are missing from Scheiblechner's (1995) paper, and to point out important related work by Hemker, Sijtsma, Molenaar, & Junker (1996, 1997), Ellis and Junker (in press) and Junker and Ellis (1997). We also discuss counterexamples to three major theorems in the paper. By carrying out these three tasks, we hope to provide researchers interested in the foundations of measurement and item response modeling the opportunity to give the ISOP approach the careful attention it deserves. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant DMS-94.04438. I thank the Editor and three anonymous referees for careful readings that improved the completeness of this note.     

Mental Illness: Fact or Myth? Revisiting the Debate Between Albert Ellis and Thomas Szasz

Although it is widely accepted that mental illnesses affect millions of people worldwide, there is still disagreement among scholars about the facts of mental illness. The orthodox position is that mental illness is a fact; critics argue that it is a myth. Thomas Szasz was perhaps the most influential critic of mental illness while Albert Ellis was one of the most influential psychotherapists of the twentieth century. Yet, they disagreed about the facts of mental illness. Ellis argued that mental illness is a fact; Szasz argued that mental illness is a metaphor that we have mistaken for a fact. Both men were practicing psychotherapists: Ellis developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and treated mentally ill clients as irrational thinkers; Szasz developed Autonomous Psychotherapy and treated clients as existential game-players who choose, or have been coerced into, the role of sick patient. Szasz vehemently disagreed with Ellis’s view that some people with serious mental illnesses should be institutionalized and treated against their will. While Ellis argued that mental illness is a convenient label for people who are a danger to themselves and others, Szasz argued that mental illness is a metaphor for moral problems in living and involuntary institutionalization and treatment are crimes against humanity. This paper, then, revisits the debate between Ellis and Szasz on the vexed topic of mental illness.     

Symptom substitution: A rational-emotive perspective

Theorists who endorse the concept of symptom substitution reject treatments of psychopathology that do not address the underlying causes of symptoms. They hypothesize that such treatments lead to worsening or relapsing of original symptoms, or the substitution of new for old symptoms. In contrast to behavioristic approaches that dispute this hypothesis, Ellis accepts the concept of symptom substitution. Unlike the psychodynamic positions which are credited with the concept, however, rational-emotive therapy (RET) focuses on changing underlying irrational philosophies and beliefs. Symptom substitution is believed to be prevented in RET by teaching clients to dispute irrational thinking in an ongoing way.The author gratefully acknowledges Leonard G. Rorer for his assistance in the preparation of this article.