Click to Play Albert Ellis, Ph.D. Died July 24, 2007, New York City Dr. Ellis, who was 93 years old, died of natural causes. At the time of his death, he was President Emeritus of the Albert Ellis Institute in New York City. As a practicing psychoanalyst from 1947 to 1953, Dr. Ellis grew increasingly doubtful about the efficacy of that form of psychotherapy, concerned that no amount of talk would help his clients if they failed to take action against their habitual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. By late 1953, he had stopped calling himself a psychoanalyst and begun developing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), an action-oriented therapy aimed at making emotional and behavioral change through challenging self-defeating thoughts." Ellis was 90 years old when I interviewed him. He was working from his room, co-writing a book with James Walter, Jr. I asked him questions about war, the Bush administration, and 9/11.