“For those famous psychotherapists who have the knowledge, charisma, and creativity to create a whole new approach to psychotherapy, the question of how they live their own lives and integrate their own therapeutic principles into the art of living is a source of continual curiosity. In this book, and in his inimitable way, Albert Ellis reminisces on over 90 years of his life and provides very frank but deep insight into his fears, anxieties, and failings, and how he dealt with them using the principles of change he pioneered. All psychotherapists, and anyone who has ever sought psychotherapy, will benefit greatly from this entertaining and insightful book.”
—David H. Barlow Ph.D, ABPP, professor of psychology
and psychiatry, and director, Center for Anxiety
and Related Disorders, Boston University
This candid autobiography, the last work by renowned psychologist Albert Ellis, is a tour de force of stimulating ideas, colorful descriptions of memorable people and events, and straightforward, no-nonsense talk. Ellis, the creator of one of the most successful forms of psychotherapy—Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)—recounts the memorable episodes of his life; discusses how he coped with emotional problems at different stages of life; describes his love life; and subjects his own self-description to a ruthlessly honest critique.
The heart of Ellis’s book is his analysis of the psychological leitmotifs that have appeared again and again throughout his life. He describes the aim of this autobiography as follows:
“As far as I can, I shall present my bad and good, stupid and intelligent, weak and strong points. Why? Because, following H. G. Wells’s recommendation, I want to go as all-out as I can. I want to acknowledge my idiocies—and use REBT to feel sorry about but unashamed of them. I want to make the point—again a central tenet of REBT—that all humans are fabulously fallible—including, of course, me. We have no real choice about this, but we can unconditionally accept ourselves—our so-called essence or being—with our fallibility. That will momentously help us, probably encourage us to acquire unconditional self-acceptance (USA) and possibly inspire other people to give it to themselves, too.”
With a concluding chapter by Ellis’s wife, Debbie Joffe-Ellis, describing the final years of his life,
All Out! is the definitive summation of the life and work of one of psychology’s most successful thinkers and practitioners.
Binding:
Hardcover668 pages
ISBN: 978-1-59102-452-1
Shipping Weight: 2lbs
Author Bio:
Albert Ellis, PhD (1913-2007), practiced psychotherapy, marriage and family counseling, and sex therapy for over sixty years. He was the author of more than seventy-five books, including many popular best sellers. Other books by Albert Ellis available from Prometheus Books are: The Myth of Self-Esteem, The Road to Tolerance, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: It Works for Me—It Can Work for You; Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy; and (with Raymond J. Yeager) Why Some Therapies Don’t Work: The Dangers of Transpersonal Psychology.
