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From: GFX on 16 Oct 2005 05:16
I hate to say it, but I honestly don't know anything about the Ellis
institute, and only knew that he was the REBT guy. It does seem though,
just from a very general perspective that, given the salaries of some people
who contribute precious little to anything or anyone - if this doctor (who
has probably had impact on thousands of people's lives) got 500 grand, that
is really not such a terrible thing in the grand scheme. Just my two cents;
I'm not really a "money-person"...

G


"Philip Peters" <philip(a)p-peters.demon.nl> wrote in message
news:434c05b6$0$11066$e4fe514c(a)news.xs4all.nl...
> 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.
>
>>


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