All Out!: An Autobiography

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Albert Ellis, the renowned creator of one of the most successful forms of psychotherapy — Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) — tells all in this candid autobiography. Ellis recounts the memorable episodes of his life from his earliest years to the present; 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." Describing his emotional makeup as a paradoxical combination of high-frustration tolerance and low-frustration tolerance, Ellis says that the former quality allowed him to become a well-known and often-acclaimed achiever. But sometimes low-frustration tolerance got the better of him, and then he became his own worst saboteur, preventing himself from doing what he really wanted. Some "alluring and gruesome examples" of his low-frustration tolerance are provided. A tour de force of stimulating ideas, colorful descriptions of memorable people and events, and straightforward, no-nonsense talk, All Out! is the definitive summation of the life and work of one of psychology’s most successful thinkers and practitioners.