Sunday, October 21, 2007

Albert Ellis, Role Model

Here's a dose of Albert:

My first contact with Al served to reinforce his image in my mind as the Lenny Bruce of psychotherapy. I was a doctoral student attending my 1st APA convention in 1980 or 81s. Al was one of four presenters on a symposium on the interface of religion and psychotherapy. The presenter before Al delivered an eloquent plea for the inescapable confluence of spirituality and psychotherapy. Quite moving and uplifting. Al then stood up and said as his opening line: “Religion and psychotherapy: I say fuck it!” Half the crowd gasped in horror and half of the crowd roared its approval. An atheist suggesting that a belief in God was an irrational idea.

Al Ellis: Courageous and Integrative Empiricist by John C. Norcross, Ph.D.