Albert Ellis On Psychotherapy.net
Great interview with Albert Ellis, one of the founders of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Here's an excerpt:

HEERY: Now, that issue, death. There is death, so how do you bring that into the picture for yourself.

ELLIS: Death is exactly the same state you were in before you were conceived. Do you remember that, before you were conceived?

HEERY: Some people say they remember it. I don't remember it in the moment.

ELLIS: They're crazy, they're neurotic.

HEERY: They're neurotic, those people, all those people who remember what happened?

ELLIS: And therapists help them be neurotic to remember that crap.

HEERY: That's crap, okay...

ELLIS: So do you really remember the state before you were conceived? Do you?

HEERY: Do I personally right this very minute? Not right this very minute, no.

ELLIS: The answer is you're being dishonest. You know, and if you don't remember…

HEERY: Well, I'm dishonest, and this very minute I don't remember. That's my honest answer in this minute.

ELLIS: No, you don't remember, but everybody I ask says they don't remember the state they were in before they were conceived. I've heard it thousands of times. So I say that's exactly in all probability the state you're going to be in after you're dead. Dead as a duck. You're not going to feel anything, you're not going to be in pain or anything. Now why be afraid of that?

HEERY: Are you afraid of it?

ELLIS: Of course not.

HEERY: It's just going to happen, right?

ELLIS: So it's going to happen. Tough shit.

...they live for a certain while and make up gods, devils, Santa Clauses, and an afterlife, which is utter shit of the worst sort. Even the Buddhists make up an afterlife and they're pretty good as religions go. And they're afraid to die, die, die, when they're going to anyway.

HEERY: We don't know when, we might as well enjoy being here while we can.

ELLIS: If I worried about death I wouldn't enjoy being here. I’d worry, worry, worry, oh, I'm going to die. So humans are all FBs, fucking babies, who…

HEERY: Well, you're one of those people.

ELLIS: …who, they live for a certain while and make up gods, devils, Santa Clauses, and an afterlife, which is utter shit of the worst sort. Even the Buddhists make up an afterlife and they're pretty good as religions go. And they're afraid to die, die, die, when they're going to anyway.

HEERY: You said a minute ago that humans are fucking babies. You're one of those humans. Are you a fucking baby?

ELLIS: Well, actually I overgeneralized. They're babies who act fuckingly much of the time, but no overgeneralization. If you overgeneralize as humans always do, then you label and labeling is not great. But people act as fucking babies much of the time all their lives, and I show them how to grow up, be themselves and not give too much of a shit for what other people think of them. But at the same time to give UOA, to give unconditional other acceptance to all humans just because they're human, period.

There's an interesting bit near the end, too, on why Ellis thinks meditation can often do more harm than good. I love the way he refuses to be "polite" and calls the interviewer on all her lazy thinking, and gets into how too many therapists want to be liked, which is detrimental to their patients. I realized, like Al, I don't care if people who write me like me, so it allows me to be honest. Some girl wrote me back today marveling that I told her the "in-your-face truth." Why is that a surprise? Was she looking for the bullshit instead?