Knowra Albert Ellis Albert Ellis Albert Ellis (1913–2007) was an American psychologist who developed rational emotive behavior therapy, an influential psychotherapy that challenges irrational beliefs and their emotional consequences.
Rational emotive behavior therapy : A psychotherapy developed by Albert Ellis that identifies and disputes irrational beliefs to reduce distress and promote effective action. Ellis formulated this therapy and spent decades teaching and refining it.
Disputation (rational emotive behavior therapy) : The process of questioning irrational beliefs for their logic, evidence, and practical consequences in rational emotive behavior therapy. Ellis made active questioning the route from rigid beliefs toward more flexible alternatives.
Psychoanalysis : A theory and treatment tradition that explores unconscious processes, early relationships, and conflict through dialogue and interpretation. Ellis moved away from lengthy psychoanalytic treatment toward active, present-focused belief change.
Cognitive behavioral therapy : A family of psychotherapies that addresses interactions among thoughts, emotions, and behavior to relieve psychological distress. Ellis’s therapy is a major precursor and continuing branch of this broader family.
ABC model : A framework in rational emotive behavior therapy linking an activating event, beliefs about it, and emotional or behavioral consequences. This model expresses Ellis’s central claim that beliefs mediate emotional responses to events.
Cognitive restructuring : A therapeutic method for identifying and revising thoughts that contribute to distress or unhelpful behavior. Ellis’s disputation is an early, direct form of this broader therapeutic method.
Karen Horney : A German-American psychoanalyst known for theories of neurosis, interpersonal relationships, and the influence of culture on personality. Horney’s work on neurotic demands and “shoulds” anticipated themes Ellis developed in his therapy.
Aaron Beck : An American psychiatrist who developed cognitive therapy, a structured psychotherapy that examines patterns of thought linked to distress. Beck developed a distinct cognitive therapy alongside Ellis’s influential approach.
Irrational belief : A rigid, absolutist belief that promotes distress or self-defeating behavior, such as demanding that events must go one’s way. Ellis targeted these demands as a main source of avoidable emotional suffering.
Exposure therapy : A treatment that reduces fear and avoidance through planned, repeated contact with feared situations or sensations. Ellis paired belief-challenging with exercises that tested fears through action.
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