He came to psychology almost by happenstance, after friends began turning to him for guidance. But Albert Ellis would become one of the most important figures in modern psychology, once ranked by his peers as more influential than Sigmund Freud.

Ellis, who helped establish cognitive behavior therapy, died Tuesday from kidney and heart failure after a long illness, said his wife, Debbie Joffe Ellis. He was 93.

“He helped countless people, and a large number of people he helped now help other people,” his wife said. “And in that, there’s no question that he has influenced the world in an intensely positive way. In this crazy, violent world, he was a compass for truth.”

In the 1950s, Ellis invented what he called rational emotive behavior therapy, or R.E.B.T., which stresses that patients can improve their lives by taking control of self-defeating thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

“We all owe a great debt to Dr. Ellis,” said Robert O’Connell, executive director of the Albert Ellis Institute on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “His students and clients will remember him for his tremendous insight and dedication as a psychotherapist.”

A 1982 survey of clinical psychologists ranked Ellis as the second-most influential in the field - ahead of Freud and behind Carl Rogers, founder of humanistic psychology.

Ellis, who was born in Pittsburgh and raised in New York, wrote or co-wrote more than 60 books, including “A Guide to Successful Marriage,” “How to Live With a Neurotic” and “A New Guide to Rational Living.”

After receiving a doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia University, Ellis started a private practice specializing in sex and marriage therapy. R.E.B.T. grew out of his own experiences and the teachings of Greek, Roman and modern philosophers.

While Freud’s school focused intensely on childhood and the unconscious to explain the source of neuroses, Ellis’ brand of talk therapy asked patients to take immediate action to confront irrational thoughts.

His work, along with that of others including Dr. Aaron Beck, is considered the foundation of cognitive behavior therapy. Ellis was also known for his irreverent lecture style and salty language.

Early in his career, Ellis drew criticism from some in the psychological and psychiatric establishment for his critical views about Freud and psychoanalysis.

“There is virtually nothing in which I delight more,” he said, “than throwing myself into a good and difficult problem.”

Ellis initially tried writing fiction, and when he couldn’t get anything published he turned exclusively to nonfiction, promoting what he called the “sex revolution.”

In the late 1930s, as he collected material to make a case for “sexual liberty,” his friends began regarding him as an expert on the subject. They often asked for advice, and Ellis discovered that he liked counseling.

In recent years, Ellis was involved in legal battles with the institute he founded more than four decades ago, accusing its board of improperly removing him and canceling his popular Friday seminars. The board said the ouster came out of economic necessity.

Last year, a New York judge ruled that the board had wrongly removed Ellis without proper notice and reinstated him. He returned to the institute in June, O’Connell said.

Though the fight saddened Ellis deeply, and he said the institute refused to let him teach there, he reinstated his Friday night workshops in the building next door, his wife said.

“Nothing stopped him,” she said. “Wherever he had an opportunity to contribute, he did, no matter the circumstances.”

He was married twice before; the first marriage ended in annulment, the second in divorce. He is survived by his wife.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.