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From: mcs on 11 Oct 2005 11:24
most mental conditions and most of life can't be summed up in 92 books
especially if it corrutped. Families and lack of good families ,
dysfucntional familes account for many many problems.The only way to correct
those things is to overwrite the script and sometimes that takes a long
time. I get the impression that Ellis therapy doesn't like to go back, well
sometimes you got to or you don't have a chance in hell in healing and
moving on. Corrupted religions and drugs , alcohol and bad environment, bad
choice of friends, diet all contribute to mental health.
<Micah.Perkins(a)integris-health.com> wrote in message
news:1129042219.231608.267100(a)o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>I am not sure if this article has all of its facts straight.
> Ellis is 92 and his health is rapidly declining.
> He may be in disagreements with the institute board, but I am not sure
> if it is as bitter as what this article implies.
> But, who knows.
> We will see.
> We are discussing this a lot on another list server as well-
> The REBT-CBT Forum on Yahoo.
> Micah
>


From: Philip Peters on 11 Oct 2005 14:34
Micah.Perkins(a)integris-health.com wrote:
> I am not sure if this article has all of its facts straight.
> Ellis is 92 and his health is rapidly declining.
> He may be in disagreements with the institute board, but I am not sure
> if it is as bitter as what this article implies.
> But, who knows.
> We will see.
> We are discussing this a lot on another list server as well-
> The REBT-CBT Forum on Yahoo.
> Micah

I know. I'm a subscriber.
There was a longer artivle in the NYT which is probably more
trustworthy. Here it is. If you read the last sentence which is typical
it seems clear that Ellis hasn't lost his marbles.

Philip


October 11, 2005
A Psychologist, 92, Is at Odds With the Institute He Founded
By BENEDICT CAREY and DAN HURLEY

In a drama worthy of a field that thrives on conflict, a bitter feud
has erupted between Albert Ellis, one of the most provocative and
influential figures in modern psychology, and the Upper East Side
psychotherapy institute he founded almost a half-century ago.

Dr. Ellis, 92, has filed a lawsuit against the Albert Ellis Institute,
after the institute kicked him off its board of directors and canceled
his popular Friday evening seminars.

Dr. Ellis and his defenders claim that the nonprofit institute has
fallen into the hands of psychologists who are moving it away from the
revolutionary therapy techniques pioneered by Dr. Ellis in the 1960's
and 1970's.

The lawsuit, reported on Sunday by The New York Post, charges that the
board acted improperly in removing Dr. Ellis and seeks his
reinstatement, as well as unspecified damages. But Daniel Kurtz, a
lawyer for the institute, said that the board acted out of economic
necessity: payouts to Dr. Ellis for medical and other expenses were
jeopardizing the institute's tax-exempt status and its viability, he said.

Dr. Ellis, who lives above the institute on East 65th Street, has been
in declining health since an infection that nearly killed him several
years ago and has daily nursing care.

In the last year, the dispute has turned personal. Some board members
have said they were uncomfortable with Dr. Ellis's confrontational
style and eccentricities, and saw him as a liability, said Andy
Hopson, a volunteer consultant hired by the institute at Dr. Ellis's
urging.

And some of Dr. Ellis's supporters have hinted that the institute's
current managers are little more than overpaid self-promoters, intent
on turning the institute into an outlet for pop psychology in the
style of Dr. Phil, according to Mike Abrams, a psychologist in private
practice in New Jersey who has worked with Dr. Ellis.

The board also fired Dr. Ellis's assistant, whom he has now married, a
fact that he has interpreted as additional evidence of personal
animosity on the part of board members.

In an interview from his bedside yesterday, Dr. Ellis said that
neither money nor his health was the most important issue in the dispute.

It is natural for any psychological institute to change and adapt with
the times, he said, "but it's unusual for them to change and go
completely against the main principles" of its founder "and still call
it the Albert Ellis Institute, and say they're doing the therapy,
which they are not."

The history of psychology is replete with personality clashes between
charismatic gurus and their students, perhaps the most famous being
the break between Sigmund Freud and his disciples Carl Jung and Alfred
Adler in the early 1900's.

But historians say that the current quarrel is unusual, given the
relationship between Dr. Ellis and the institute.

"I can't think of anything else where somebody had a theory and a
practice and an institute in their name and that there was a coup
going on internally over it," said David Baker, a professor of
psychology at the University of Akron and director of the Archives of
the History of American Psychology there. "This sounds nasty."

Dr. Baker said of Dr. Ellis: "He's always been provocative. He may not
be willing to change with the times, and the times change - that's
something we know from the lessons of history."

In a typical Friday evening session, Dr. Ellis - stooped in recent
years, with a wisp of white hair and large black glasses - would
advise, cajole and entertain groups of 100 or more students,
psychologists and others looking for answers, often lacing his
comments with obscenities for effect.

"Do you know why your family is trying to control you?" he barked at
one attendee at a seminar last year. "Because they're out of their minds!"

Most therapists thought Dr. Ellis was off-track when he founded the
institute in 1959 and used it as a platform to promote a revolution in
psychotherapy.

At the time, psychotherapy drew its methods and inspiration from
Freudian theory, which held that mental distress could be traced to
unconscious conflicts rooted in early childhood. In a radical
departure, Dr. Ellis insisted that therapists spend less time probing
distant childhood experiences and concentrate instead on what was
happening in people's lives at the moment.

In his own practice, he had observed that people's conscious personal
philosophies and beliefs - the need to be appreciated, the fear of
never finding anyone to love - often drove them to despair and
distraction.

Dr. Ellis devised a method for exposing and defusing these habits,
called rational emotive behavior therapy. Around the same time, a
psychiatrist, Dr. Aaron Beck, now at the University of Pennsylvania,
developed similar techniques, and the two men are considered the
fathers of cognitive behavior therapy. Subsequent research has shown
that the therapy is as effective as medication - and sometimes more so
- in treating depression, relieving anxiety and ameliorating other
types of distress.

Dr. Ellis was a board member at the institute for 46 years and hired
most of its employees. But his personal style began to wear on some in
management years ago, according to psychologists who have worked at
the clinic. "I have worked with Dr. Ellis for years, and truly he is a
first-class genius," Dr. Abrams said, "but that genius does not cross
into every domain, and management is not his strength. I've told him
that to his face."

By early 2004, with Dr. Ellis in declining health, the board began to
negotiate with him about his future role at the institute, Mr. Kurtz
said. The two sides could not come to agreement about Dr. Ellis's
payment or title, Mr. Kurtz said, and in July, institute officials
canceled the Friday evening sessions that had been a staple there for
30 years.

Dr. Ellis's lawyer, Michael de Leeuw, said: "Either these people
really believe he is losing it, which he is not - in which case their
lack of sympathy and fairness is appalling - or it's a palace coup.

"They have created a lot of animus. It's not what anyone would want to
do to a guy who's 92 and the founder of a major school of psychology,
especially one from whom they have all been directly enriched."

Mr. Kurtz said that the board's action in no way challenged the
importance of Dr. Ellis's contributions but that those contributions
were ultimately irrelevant to the ouster.

"We had someone who was working part time by any standard and who
received financial benefits in the range of $500,000 to $600,000; it
was just an outrageous situation," he said, referring mostly to
medical benefits.

Mr. Kurtz, an expert in the laws governing nonprofits, said that in
the nonprofit world, "there's something called founder's syndrome, and
this is an extreme case of that: he sees this as something he can use
as he wishes, and he can't."

Michael Broder, the director of the Institute, said yesterday that the
action by the board was not personal and was within the law. Dr.
Ellis's lawyers responded that Dr. Broder himself earned more than
$200,000 last year and that Dr. Ellis's expenses were legitimate,
especially given his modest salary - less than $50,000 a year - and
his years of devotion to the institute.

Mr. Hopson said that the personal friction between Dr. Ellis and top
managers was evident.

"It became apparent to me very quickly in my interviewing process that
the relationship between Dr. Broder and Dr. Ellis was tenuous at
best," he said. "Dr. Ellis didn't trust Dr. Broder and was frustrated
that even though he was president of the board, Dr. Broder often
ignored his directives."

Mr. Hopson said that Dr. Ellis also believed that Dr. Broder was
manipulating the board.

"He frequently lamented to me that he didn't trust Dr. Broder," Mr.
Hopson said.

In his new identity as a therapist unaffiliated with the Albert Ellis
Institute, Dr. Ellis said he has been seeing a few clients. He said he
does not hate those who removed him from the institute, nor is he
angry about it.

"I think it's unfair, but they have the right as fallible, screwed-up
humans to be unfair, that's the human condition," he said.

>
From: Meryl on 11 Oct 2005 18:18
This is so sad;(
M

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:47:10 +0200, Philip Peters
<philip(a)p-peters.demon.nl> wrote:

>
>So much for *rational behavior*.
>It's a sad story. Note the derogatory tone of the article in the well
>respected newspaper (hehe).
>
>P.
> From NY Post:
>
>STAR SHRINK, 92, IS PSYCHED OUT
>By DAVID HAFETZ
>
>October 9, 2005 -- An eccentric shrink whose theories have come to shape
>modern psychotherapy is ensconced in an apartment atop the East 65th
>Street institute he founded while he battles a bitter coup.
>
>Albert Ellis, 92, whose work has been hailed by everyone from the
>Clintons to Mayor Bloomberg to Nicole Kidman, was booted Sept. 18 from
>the board of the nonprofit Albert Ellis Institute. He also was barred
>from the Friday-night "stand-up" psychotherapy sessions he has conducted
>before crowds of as many as 200 for more than 30 years.
>
>A lawyer for the board says Ellis' expenses are "preposterous" and
>putting the institute's future at risk.
>
>Ellis says he's been defamed, and his lawyer claims people at the
>institute are trying to create the impression that Ellis is "losing it."
>
> From his apartment in the mansion that houses the institute, Ellis has
>fired back with two lawsuits against the institute and four trustees.
>The suit accuses the trustees of acting illegally to remove him and
>"wrest and solidify control of the Ellis Institute and its benefits for
>themselves."
>
>In the mid-'50s, Ellis proposed that therapy focus not on excavating
>childhood but on confronting and dismissing irrational expectations
>people have for their lives ? such as "I must succeed" or "I must be
>loved." His rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) led the American
>Psychological Association to name him the second most influential
>psychotherapist, placing him above Freud.
>
>Eccentric and foulmouthed, Ellis practiced a stop-your-whining form of
>therapy, some say. "All humans are out of their f---ing minds ? every
>single one of them," he has said.
>
>
>But now the master shrink has to wear special headphones because he is
>nearly deaf. He also suffered a gastrointestinal infection that nearly
>killed him two years ago.
>
>After pouring decades of work and money, including proceeds from his 75
>books, into the institute, Ellis and trustees have been locked in
>increasingly bitter negotiations over paying his medical expenses, which
>include round-the-clock nursing care. The negotiations also involve
>rights to Ellis' books and papers.
>
>On Aug. 25, Ellis wrote an e-mail to one trustee ? Rory Stuart, a jazz
>guitarist and the son of Ellis' publisher ? addressing "derogatory"
>comments.
>
>"I want the public to see that I am not regarded by the institute as off
>the charts, over the hill, incompetent and a detriment to myself," Ellis
>wrote. He urged trustees to show the institute "remains fully dedicated
>to REBT."
>
>According to his lawyers, rumors were being spread that the ailing Ellis
>was "losing it" and had beaten an audience member at a workshop with his
>cane.
>
>At recent meetings, the trustees have yelled and said things like,
>"That's not good REBT, Al," said Ellis' lawyer, Robert Juceam.
>
>"They need help," Juceam said.
>
>In one lawsuit, Ellis singles out Michael Broder, a Philadelphia
>psychologist who was trained by Ellis and now serves as the institute's
>executive director, for allegedly "conducting a vendetta . . . because
>of professional and personal disagreements."
>
>A lawyer for the institute, Daniel Kurtz, said board members were trying
>to ensure the institute "has a future."
>
>Kurtz said the institute had paid Ellis "excess benefits," including
>more than $500,000 after he was hospitalized in 2004 and left incapacitated.
>
>"This isn't Dr. Ellis' old-age pension ? that's illegal," Kurtz said.
>
>Kurtz said it was "preposterous" for Ellis to receive such large
>compensation from the institution, which he said has an annual budget of
>under $2 million.
>
>He said the board, which had also voted to reclaim money from Ellis, had
>risked an investigation and loss of the institute's tax-exempt status.
>
>Ellis' lawyers say the money ? which they put at closer to $400,000 ?
>came from a trust fund that trustees, including Broder, had set up to
>help him. The lawyers say Ellis is committed to repaying the institute
>if the benefits were improper.
>
>Juceam said Ellis had provided the institution with "50 years of unpaid
>services," receiving a tiny salary ? it recently was boosted to $47,000
>? while raising money, supervising training and running workshops. They
>also say his room has a leaky roof and peeling paint.
>
>Juceam said the lawsuits "are not a picnic" for his elderly client, who
>often counsels patients to quit whining about their problems.
>
>At a July workshop, he reportedly told one stressed person, "At least
>you can eat and sleep and hopefully f--- at the end of the day."
From: Meryl on 11 Oct 2005 18:23
Thanks Philip,
Workplace politics is rife.
M

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 20:34:29 +0200, Philip Peters
<philip(a)p-peters.demon.nl> wrote:

>Micah.Perkins(a)integris-health.com wrote:
>> I am not sure if this article has all of its facts straight.
>> Ellis is 92 and his health is rapidly declining.
>> He may be in disagreements with the institute board, but I am not sure
>> if it is as bitter as what this article implies.
>> But, who knows.
>> We will see.
>> We are discussing this a lot on another list server as well-
>> The REBT-CBT Forum on Yahoo.
>> Micah
>
>I know. I'm a subscriber.
>There was a longer artivle in the NYT which is probably more
>trustworthy. Here it is. If you read the last sentence which is typical
>it seems clear that Ellis hasn't lost his marbles.
>
>Philip
>
>
>October 11, 2005
>A Psychologist, 92, Is at Odds With the Institute He Founded
>By BENEDICT CAREY and DAN HURLEY
>
>In a drama worthy of a field that thrives on conflict, a bitter feud
>has erupted between Albert Ellis, one of the most provocative and
>influential figures in modern psychology, and the Upper East Side
>psychotherapy institute he founded almost a half-century ago.
>
>Dr. Ellis, 92, has filed a lawsuit against the Albert Ellis Institute,
>after the institute kicked him off its board of directors and canceled
>his popular Friday evening seminars.
>
>Dr. Ellis and his defenders claim that the nonprofit institute has
>fallen into the hands of psychologists who are moving it away from the
>revolutionary therapy techniques pioneered by Dr. Ellis in the 1960's
>and 1970's.
>
>The lawsuit, reported on Sunday by The New York Post, charges that the
>board acted improperly in removing Dr. Ellis and seeks his
>reinstatement, as well as unspecified damages. But Daniel Kurtz, a
>lawyer for the institute, said that the board acted out of economic
>necessity: payouts to Dr. Ellis for medical and other expenses were
>jeopardizing the institute's tax-exempt status and its viability, he said.
>
>Dr. Ellis, who lives above the institute on East 65th Street, has been
>in declining health since an infection that nearly killed him several
>years ago and has daily nursing care.
>
>In the last year, the dispute has turned personal. Some board members
>have said they were uncomfortable with Dr. Ellis's confrontational
>style and eccentricities, and saw him as a liability, said Andy
>Hopson, a volunteer consultant hired by the institute at Dr. Ellis's
>urging.
>
>And some of Dr. Ellis's supporters have hinted that the institute's
>current managers are little more than overpaid self-promoters, intent
>on turning the institute into an outlet for pop psychology in the
>style of Dr. Phil, according to Mike Abrams, a psychologist in private
>practice in New Jersey who has worked with Dr. Ellis.
>
>The board also fired Dr. Ellis's assistant, whom he has now married, a
>fact that he has interpreted as additional evidence of personal
>animosity on the part of board members.
>
>In an interview from his bedside yesterday, Dr. Ellis said that
>neither money nor his health was the most important issue in the dispute.
>
>It is natural for any psychological institute to change and adapt with
>the times, he said, "but it's unusual for them to change and go
>completely against the main principles" of its founder "and still call
>it the Albert Ellis Institute, and say they're doing the therapy,
>which they are not."
>
>The history of psychology is replete with personality clashes between
>charismatic gurus and their students, perhaps the most famous being
>the break between Sigmund Freud and his disciples Carl Jung and Alfred
>Adler in the early 1900's.
>
>But historians say that the current quarrel is unusual, given the
>relationship between Dr. Ellis and the institute.
>
>"I can't think of anything else where somebody had a theory and a
>practice and an institute in their name and that there was a coup
>going on internally over it," said David Baker, a professor of
>psychology at the University of Akron and director of the Archives of
>the History of American Psychology there. "This sounds nasty."
>
>Dr. Baker said of Dr. Ellis: "He's always been provocative. He may not
>be willing to change with the times, and the times change - that's
>something we know from the lessons of history."
>
>In a typical Friday evening session, Dr. Ellis - stooped in recent
>years, with a wisp of white hair and large black glasses - would
>advise, cajole and entertain groups of 100 or more students,
>psychologists and others looking for answers, often lacing his
>comments with obscenities for effect.
>
>"Do you know why your family is trying to control you?" he barked at
>one attendee at a seminar last year. "Because they're out of their minds!"
>
>Most therapists thought Dr. Ellis was off-track when he founded the
>institute in 1959 and used it as a platform to promote a revolution in
>psychotherapy.
>
>At the time, psychotherapy drew its methods and inspiration from
>Freudian theory, which held that mental distress could be traced to
>unconscious conflicts rooted in early childhood. In a radical
>departure, Dr. Ellis insisted that therapists spend less time probing
>distant childhood experiences and concentrate instead on what was
>happening in people's lives at the moment.
>
>In his own practice, he had observed that people's conscious personal
>philosophies and beliefs - the need to be appreciated, the fear of
>never finding anyone to love - often drove them to despair and
>distraction.
>
>Dr. Ellis devised a method for exposing and defusing these habits,
>called rational emotive behavior therapy. Around the same time, a
>psychiatrist, Dr. Aaron Beck, now at the University of Pennsylvania,
>developed similar techniques, and the two men are considered the
>fathers of cognitive behavior therapy. Subsequent research has shown
>that the therapy is as effective as medication - and sometimes more so
>- in treating depression, relieving anxiety and ameliorating other
>types of distress.
>
>Dr. Ellis was a board member at the institute for 46 years and hired
>most of its employees. But his personal style began to wear on some in
>management years ago, according to psychologists who have worked at
>the clinic. "I have worked with Dr. Ellis for years, and truly he is a
>first-class genius," Dr. Abrams said, "but that genius does not cross
>into every domain, and management is not his strength. I've told him
>that to his face."
>
>By early 2004, with Dr. Ellis in declining health, the board began to
>negotiate with him about his future role at the institute, Mr. Kurtz
>said. The two sides could not come to agreement about Dr. Ellis's
>payment or title, Mr. Kurtz said, and in July, institute officials
>canceled the Friday evening sessions that had been a staple there for
>30 years.
>
>Dr. Ellis's lawyer, Michael de Leeuw, said: "Either these people
>really believe he is losing it, which he is not - in which case their
>lack of sympathy and fairness is appalling - or it's a palace coup.
>
>"They have created a lot of animus. It's not what anyone would want to
>do to a guy who's 92 and the founder of a major school of psychology,
>especially one from whom they have all been directly enriched."
>
>Mr. Kurtz said that the board's action in no way challenged the
>importance of Dr. Ellis's contributions but that those contributions
>were ultimately irrelevant to the ouster.
>
>"We had someone who was working part time by any standard and who
>received financial benefits in the range of $500,000 to $600,000; it
>was just an outrageous situation," he said, referring mostly to
>medical benefits.
>
>Mr. Kurtz, an expert in the laws governing nonprofits, said that in
>the nonprofit world, "there's something called founder's syndrome, and
>this is an extreme case of that: he sees this as something he can use
>as he wishes, and he can't."
>
>Michael Broder, the director of the Institute, said yesterday that the
>action by the board was not personal and was within the law. Dr.
>Ellis's lawyers responded that Dr. Broder himself earned more than
>$200,000 last year and that Dr. Ellis's expenses were legitimate,
>especially given his modest salary - less than $50,000 a year - and
>his years of devotion to the institute.
>
>Mr. Hopson said that the personal friction between Dr. Ellis and top
>managers was evident.
>
>"It became apparent to me very quickly in my interviewing process that
>the relationship between Dr. Broder and Dr. Ellis was tenuous at
>best," he said. "Dr. Ellis didn't trust Dr. Broder and was frustrated
>that even though he was president of the board, Dr. Broder often
>ignored his directives."
>
>Mr. Hopson said that Dr. Ellis also believed that Dr. Broder was
>manipulating the board.
>
>"He frequently lamented to me that he didn't trust Dr. Broder," Mr.
>Hopson said.
>
>In his new identity as a therapist unaffiliated with the Albert Ellis
>Institute, Dr. Ellis said he has been seeing a few clients. He said he
>does not hate those who removed him from the institute, nor is he
>angry about it.
>
>"I think it's unfair, but they have the right as fallible, screwed-up
>humans to be unfair, that's the human condition," he said.
>
>>
From: mcs on 12 Oct 2005 23:48
feed the trolls Philip . actually I think I was in eight times possibly
more, can't remember too many pills. Did me a world of wonder and so did
cognitive therapy for people who are anxious. what a joke. There are some
things that have to change physically to correct anxiety and guess what, you
are not going to get what they are from me. You guys deserve to hear your
own craziness.
"Philip Peters" <philip(a)p-peters.demon.nl> wrote in message
news:434bd106$0$11076$e4fe514c(a)news.xs4all.nl...
> mcs wrote:
>
>> oh how suprising. As someone who came from six hospital stays and seeing
>> parents and families often crazier then the patients , criticizing their
>> kids while they were in denial ( sounds like Elidiot who we still don't
>> know why panics) , this little story pretty much describes crazy people
>> not knowing why theyare crazy and when a few things go wrong all hell
>> breaks out.. To deny family influences or to not complain about real
>> consequences of actions in family or environment or even in friends,
>> shows a corrupted concept. Everyone wants a neat package to buy into.
>> Unfortuantely everything is connected.
>
> What has this nonsense (including Elliott ;-) to do with anything?
> It seems a 7th hospital stay would be in order for you. Oh no, wait, you
> already had your lobotomy.
>
> P.
>
>> 3
>> "Philip Peters" <philip(a)p-peters.demon.nl> wrote in message
>> news:434b982e$0$11080$e4fe514c(a)news.xs4all.nl...
>>
>>>So much for *rational behavior*.
>>>It's a sad story. Note the derogatory tone of the article in the well
>>>respected newspaper (hehe).
>>>
>>>P.
>>>From NY Post:
>>>
>>>STAR SHRINK, 92, IS PSYCHED OUT
>>>By DAVID HAFETZ
>>>
>>>October 9, 2005 -- An eccentric shrink whose theories have come to shape
>>>modern psychotherapy is ensconced in an apartment atop the East 65th
>>>Street institute he founded while he battles a bitter coup.
>>>
>>>Albert Ellis, 92, whose work has been hailed by everyone from the
>>>Clintons to Mayor Bloomberg to Nicole Kidman, was booted Sept. 18 from
>>>the board of the nonprofit Albert Ellis Institute. He also was barred
>>>from the Friday-night "stand-up" psychotherapy sessions he has conducted
>>>before crowds of as many as 200 for more than 30 years.
>>>
>>>A lawyer for the board says Ellis' expenses are "preposterous" and
>>>putting the institute's future at risk.
>>>
>>>Ellis says he's been defamed, and his lawyer claims people at the
>>>institute are trying to create the impression that Ellis is "losing it."
>>>
>>>From his apartment in the mansion that houses the institute, Ellis has
>>>fired back with two lawsuits against the institute and four trustees. The
>>>suit accuses the trustees of acting illegally to remove him and "wrest
>>>and solidify control of the Ellis Institute and its benefits for
>>>themselves."
>>>
>>>In the mid-'50s, Ellis proposed that therapy focus not on excavating
>>>childhood but on confronting and dismissing irrational expectations
>>>people have for their lives ? such as "I must succeed" or "I must be
>>>loved." His rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) led the American
>>>Psychological Association to name him the second most influential
>>>psychotherapist, placing him above Freud.
>>>
>>>Eccentric and foulmouthed, Ellis practiced a stop-your-whining form of
>>>therapy, some say. "All humans are out of their f---ing minds ? every
>>>single one of them," he has said.
>>>
>>>
>>>But now the master shrink has to wear special headphones because he is
>>>nearly deaf. He also suffered a gastrointestinal infection that nearly
>>>killed him two years ago.
>>>
>>>After pouring decades of work and money, including proceeds from his 75
>>>books, into the institute, Ellis and trustees have been locked in
>>>increasingly bitter negotiations over paying his medical expenses, which
>>>include round-the-clock nursing care. The negotiations also involve
>>>rights to Ellis' books and papers.
>>>
>>>On Aug. 25, Ellis wrote an e-mail to one trustee ? Rory Stuart, a jazz
>>>guitarist and the son of Ellis' publisher ? addressing "derogatory"
>>>comments.
>>>
>>>"I want the public to see that I am not regarded by the institute as off
>>>the charts, over the hill, incompetent and a detriment to myself," Ellis
>>>wrote. He urged trustees to show the institute "remains fully dedicated
>>>to REBT."
>>>
>>>According to his lawyers, rumors were being spread that the ailing Ellis
>>>was "losing it" and had beaten an audience member at a workshop with his
>>>cane.
>>>
>>>At recent meetings, the trustees have yelled and said things like,
>>>"That's not good REBT, Al," said Ellis' lawyer, Robert Juceam.
>>>
>>>"They need help," Juceam said.
>>>
>>>In one lawsuit, Ellis singles out Michael Broder, a Philadelphia
>>>psychologist who was trained by Ellis and now serves as the institute's
>>>executive director, for allegedly "conducting a vendetta . . . because of
>>>professional and personal disagreements."
>>>
>>>A lawyer for the institute, Daniel Kurtz, said board members were trying
>>>to ensure the institute "has a future."
>>>
>>>Kurtz said the institute had paid Ellis "excess benefits," including more
>>>than $500,000 after he was hospitalized in 2004 and left incapacitated.
>>>
>>>"This isn't Dr. Ellis' old-age pension ? that's illegal," Kurtz said.
>>>
>>>Kurtz said it was "preposterous" for Ellis to receive such large
>>>compensation from the institution, which he said has an annual budget of
>>>under $2 million.
>>>
>>>He said the board, which had also voted to reclaim money from Ellis, had
>>>risked an investigation and loss of the institute's tax-exempt status.
>>>
>>>Ellis' lawyers say the money ? which they put at closer to $400,000 ?
>>>came from a trust fund that trustees, including Broder, had set up to
>>>help him. The lawyers say Ellis is committed to repaying the institute if
>>>the benefits were improper.
>>>
>>>Juceam said Ellis had provided the institution with "50 years of unpaid
>>>services," receiving a tiny salary ? it recently was boosted to $47,000 ?
>>>while raising money, supervising training and running workshops. They
>>>also say his room has a leaky roof and peeling paint.
>>>
>>>Juceam said the lawsuits "are not a picnic" for his elderly client, who
>>>often counsels patients to quit whining about their problems.
>>>
>>>At a July workshop, he reportedly told one stressed person, "At least you
>>>can eat and sleep and hopefully f--- at the end of the day."
>>
>>

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