Albert Ellis (1913 - 2007) was one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century and one of the most prominent figures in the field of psychology after his break with the psychodynamic school.
He was the creator of one of the theories that have revolutionised the foundations and methodology in the treatment of emotional and psychological problems, and has earned a place of honour among the greatest psychologists. Today we talk about Albert Ellis and TREC.
Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT)
His theory (the Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy) is well known and although many psychologists do not share its principles, others are joining this line, finding in it a good basis to continue developing their profession and the appropriate treatment for each disorder, according to the current demands in the field of clinical psychology.
Albert Ellis was born in Pittsburg in 1913 and studied at Columbia University (New York), which specialised in training professionals in the Psychoanalysis. There he obtained his doctorate in 1947. Ellis soon realised the limitations of Sigmund Freud's theory and, disappointed by the few results he obtained with his patients, he gradually abandoned psychoanalytic theory to start working on his own theory.
By 1953, he had made a complete break with psychoanalysis and began to develop a type of psychotherapy that he would call Rational Emotive Therapya type of psychotherapy of orientation cognitive-behavioural.
TREC: what is it?
But, What is Rational Emotive Therapy? It is known that Ellis was educated in the field of literature. His studies included philosophy, which was to serve as a primary basis for the later development of his theory.
Ellis considered that his theory could be summed up in the phrase of the famous Greek Stoic philosopher Epithetus, who stated that "People are not altered by the facts, but by what they think about the facts".
Ellis developed his theory by exemplifying it as follows this chart:
Albert Ellis considered that behavioural and emotional problems could have their genesis from its three sources: thought, emotional and behavioural.. He emphasised how thoughts play a role in psychological disturbances.
Ellis (1995) stated that people are largely responsible for their disturbed feelings, which are generated either consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, they themselves have all the resources at their disposal to be able to modify their thoughts and bring lasting and stable states into their lives.
The link between thought and emotion
According to Ellis, this demonstrates how thought and emotion are related. Ellis claimed that what causes emotional disturbance or difficulty is not what happens at point A, but that people create a belief structure at point B and reinforce these beliefs in a negative and often harmful way, which manifests itself in behavioural or emotional reactions: point C, according to Ellis (1962).
This body of theory and the therapy that grew out of it prompted a lot of criticism from some professionals in the field of psychiatry. and psychology itself, claiming that it was guilty of an excess of "rationalism" which caused the theory to be perceived as not very viable and unscientific.
However, time led to numerous studies and research on cases where TREC had been applied, obtaining high reliability and excellent results. That is why the TREC, since it was created by Albert Ellis until today is at the forefront of psychotherapies.
The studies that Ellis developed throughout his life bore fruit. Nowadays, in his institute located in the city of New York, he continues to work in the training of psychotherapists, through talks, attention to people with family and personal problems, and with studies that day after day make the science of psychology develop new tools for a century as demanding as the one we live in.
Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy has a clear mission, as stated by Saranson (2006) in his book Abnormal psychopathology, the problem of maladaptive behaviourwhere he refers to Ellis and Dryden (1977): people have to question their fundamental (in most cases irrational) beliefs, and then replace them with more constructive (rational) ones.
TREC has not only been applied in the clinical field, but there are several writings on the intervention in the following settings labour y educational. A psychotherapy that offers many opportunities in the study of the human being, emotions, thinking and mental health.