(In)famous Sexpert Dies at 93
One of my heroes died this last week. Albert Ellis was a crazy bugger (and he would take no objection to me saying that, I don't think) who was outspoken and blunt about sex and therapy. He would confront you head on and beat you out of your depression, unrealistic beliefs, and other debilitating behaviors in a hardcore session of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) which later developed into Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Ellis died of kidney and heart failure according to the NY Times, but I would rather just call it old age since he was 93.
A quote from the Times:
"Dr. Ellis had such an impact that in a 1982 survey, clinical psychologists ranked him ahead of Freud when asked to name the figure who had exerted the greatest influence on their field."
Ellis' REBT ignores all that Freudian shite that we hardly ever see any results from and goes straight to the problem. It focuses on people's reaction to situations and their personal mental process. It isn't the situation that causes the distortion of emotions in the person, but the person's thought process of the event. Therefore, we can change that thought process and the interpretation of the event so as to get more positive (or neutral) results and emotions. Ellis' idea that irrational ideas create more cognitive dissonance has been studied and supported by many researchers.
Some examples of interpreting the problems differently would be: "What evidence do you have to support this belief? In what other ways could this situation be interpreted? What is the worst thing that could happen? If this happened, what could you do?"
CBT developed from it and told us to stop using critical self-talk like, "I'm such and idiot!" or "I'm so fat/out of shape!" When we make these comments they have a similar effect on us that they do when other people say them to us. CBT teaches us to instead of saying "I'm such and idiot" say, "Whoops, now I know how to do that for next time." Or "I can't deal with this problem" to "How can I deal with this problem?" CBT is now the primary form of therapy used by psychiatrists.
Ellis is also credited with some great work on sex research and has tons of books out there on the subject. I will end this with a clip from his Sex Without Guilt in the 21st Century, it's a good book (though I wish it had a bibliography and notes to the text). I would still recommend it to others.
“On an individual basis, there are several things which you may do to overcome any irrational and destructive fears of sex that you may have.
“First: admit that you are sexually fearful, and do not try to hide you fear beneath a mask of false sophistication. You can honestly acknowledge that you have sex problems, instead of cavalierly attempting to dismiss them.
“Second: you can obtain considerable factual information about sex, particularly in relation to your own fears. You can learn from modern sex manuals and from talks with a physician or therapist, some of the facts about masturbation, sexual inadequacy, sex deviation, and other aspects of human sexuality which you may ignorantly fear.
“Third: You can do some of the sex acts of which you are irrationally afraid. Experiment with coital or extracoital techniques which you ‘know’ are normal and healthy, but which you still bigotedly believe are ‘bad’ or ‘wicked.’
“Fourth: You can begin to consistently indoctrinate yourself against some of your senseless sex fears instead of continually reinforcing yourself with them. You can show yourself, over and over again, that acts like masturbation are not wrong, childish, or harmful. You can tell yourself that sex behavior that does not needlessly and definitely harm yourself or others is good, harmless, and beneficial, and should preferably be practiced as you want.
“Fifth: If you try the foregoing techniques of helping yourself overcome your anxieties and you still have them, do not hesitate to go for psychological help. The chances are, in such a case, that they are neurotic and may be significantly alleviated by psychotherapy.”
(via Cory Silverberg)
The larger quote is from Ellis' Sex Without Guilt in the 21st Century
The information about REBT and CBT came from a former textbook of mine, What is Psychology by Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo and from the Wikipedia articles linked above.
Ellis died of kidney and heart failure according to the NY Times, but I would rather just call it old age since he was 93.
A quote from the Times:
"Dr. Ellis had such an impact that in a 1982 survey, clinical psychologists ranked him ahead of Freud when asked to name the figure who had exerted the greatest influence on their field."
Ellis' REBT ignores all that Freudian shite that we hardly ever see any results from and goes straight to the problem. It focuses on people's reaction to situations and their personal mental process. It isn't the situation that causes the distortion of emotions in the person, but the person's thought process of the event. Therefore, we can change that thought process and the interpretation of the event so as to get more positive (or neutral) results and emotions. Ellis' idea that irrational ideas create more cognitive dissonance has been studied and supported by many researchers.
Some examples of interpreting the problems differently would be: "What evidence do you have to support this belief? In what other ways could this situation be interpreted? What is the worst thing that could happen? If this happened, what could you do?"
CBT developed from it and told us to stop using critical self-talk like, "I'm such and idiot!" or "I'm so fat/out of shape!" When we make these comments they have a similar effect on us that they do when other people say them to us. CBT teaches us to instead of saying "I'm such and idiot" say, "Whoops, now I know how to do that for next time." Or "I can't deal with this problem" to "How can I deal with this problem?" CBT is now the primary form of therapy used by psychiatrists.
Ellis is also credited with some great work on sex research and has tons of books out there on the subject. I will end this with a clip from his Sex Without Guilt in the 21st Century, it's a good book (though I wish it had a bibliography and notes to the text). I would still recommend it to others.
“On an individual basis, there are several things which you may do to overcome any irrational and destructive fears of sex that you may have.
“First: admit that you are sexually fearful, and do not try to hide you fear beneath a mask of false sophistication. You can honestly acknowledge that you have sex problems, instead of cavalierly attempting to dismiss them.
“Second: you can obtain considerable factual information about sex, particularly in relation to your own fears. You can learn from modern sex manuals and from talks with a physician or therapist, some of the facts about masturbation, sexual inadequacy, sex deviation, and other aspects of human sexuality which you may ignorantly fear.
“Third: You can do some of the sex acts of which you are irrationally afraid. Experiment with coital or extracoital techniques which you ‘know’ are normal and healthy, but which you still bigotedly believe are ‘bad’ or ‘wicked.’
“Fourth: You can begin to consistently indoctrinate yourself against some of your senseless sex fears instead of continually reinforcing yourself with them. You can show yourself, over and over again, that acts like masturbation are not wrong, childish, or harmful. You can tell yourself that sex behavior that does not needlessly and definitely harm yourself or others is good, harmless, and beneficial, and should preferably be practiced as you want.
“Fifth: If you try the foregoing techniques of helping yourself overcome your anxieties and you still have them, do not hesitate to go for psychological help. The chances are, in such a case, that they are neurotic and may be significantly alleviated by psychotherapy.”
(via Cory Silverberg)
The larger quote is from Ellis' Sex Without Guilt in the 21st Century
The information about REBT and CBT came from a former textbook of mine, What is Psychology by Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo and from the Wikipedia articles linked above.
Labels: Current Events, Sex
posted by W.P. Martin at
6:41 PM
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