"Most people would have given up when faced with all the criticism I've received over the years"
About this Quote
Ellis is doing something more strategic than a humblebrag: he is reframing criticism as proof of contact with reality. “Most people would have given up” isn’t just resilience talk; it’s a quiet jab at the cultural habit of treating disapproval as a stop sign. The line smuggles in a therapeutic premise: emotional pain doesn’t have to be a command. You can feel the sting and still keep building.
The context matters. Albert Ellis didn’t merely practice psychology; he marketed a contrarian system. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy was a direct challenge to the mid-century psychoanalytic establishment, and he argued with the zeal of someone who expected pushback. In that world, criticism wasn’t incidental noise; it was part of the price of proposing a new map for the mind. Ellis is also hinting at something clinicians rarely say out loud: professional authority is negotiated in public, through reputation, rebuttal, and stubborn output.
The subtext lands in the word “received.” He casts criticism as incoming data, not a verdict. That’s classic Ellis: separate event from interpretation, strip the drama, keep the agency. At the same time, there’s a protective edge. By preemptively claiming that “most people” couldn’t handle it, he inoculates himself against the next wave of detractors, positioning persistence as the moral high ground and his critics as predictable.
It works because it’s both personal and methodological: a self-portrait that doubles as a lesson in disputing the tyranny of other people’s opinions.
The context matters. Albert Ellis didn’t merely practice psychology; he marketed a contrarian system. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy was a direct challenge to the mid-century psychoanalytic establishment, and he argued with the zeal of someone who expected pushback. In that world, criticism wasn’t incidental noise; it was part of the price of proposing a new map for the mind. Ellis is also hinting at something clinicians rarely say out loud: professional authority is negotiated in public, through reputation, rebuttal, and stubborn output.
The subtext lands in the word “received.” He casts criticism as incoming data, not a verdict. That’s classic Ellis: separate event from interpretation, strip the drama, keep the agency. At the same time, there’s a protective edge. By preemptively claiming that “most people” couldn’t handle it, he inoculates himself against the next wave of detractors, positioning persistence as the moral high ground and his critics as predictable.
It works because it’s both personal and methodological: a self-portrait that doubles as a lesson in disputing the tyranny of other people’s opinions.
Quote Details
| Topic | Never Give Up |
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