Nathaniel Branden

Nathaniel Branden, né Nathan Blumenthal (born 9 April 1930 in Brampton, Ontario, Canada), is a psychotherapist and writer best known today for his work in the psychology of self-esteem. A one-time associate of novelist Ayn Rand, Branden had a prominent role in promoting Rand's philosophy, Objectivism.

Early life and education

Branden received a BA in psychology from the University of California Los Angeles, an MA from New York University, and in 1973, a Ph.D. in psychology from the California Graduate Institute, then an unaccredited, state-approved school whose graduates may be licensed by the State to practice psychology.

Role in the Objectivist movement

In 1950, after having become a fan of Ayn Rand's novels and exchanging letters and phone calls with her, the 19-year-old Branden met Rand. The pair went on to develop an eighteen-year personal and professional relationship. Eventually, Rand and the much younger Branden had a romantic affair. While both were married to other people at the time, both of their respective spouses consented to the affair before it started. According to Barbara Branden, however, "the affair was agonizingly painful," both to her and Rand's husband.

For many years Branden was considered to be a leading figure in the Objectivist movement; indeed, many perceived him as being second only to Rand herself. He was the leader of a group of Rand's closest associates known as The Collective, which also included his wife Barbara Branden, Leonard Peikoff and Alan Greenspan. At the time, Rand considered him to be a soul mate of hers and designated him her "intellectual heir." In 1958 Branden founded the Nathaniel Branden Institute to promote Objectivism through lectures and educational seminars around the United States. The NBI became enormously successful, and soon had representatives all over the US and around the world. During the period of her affair with Branden, Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, which she considered to be her magnum opus. She named one of the minor characters in the book "Nathaniel" after Branden. He was a heroic 19th Century railroad builder, an ancestor of the book's main protagonist whom she seeks to emulate and whose picture she keeps on her wall throughout the book.

In 1965 Branden separated from his wife. In 1968, the close relationship between Rand and Branden came to an abrupt end when Rand discovered that Branden had been having a sexual relationship with a third woman, actress Patrecia Scott, without Rand's knowledge, for more than four years. While Rand had grown skeptical of Branden's feelings, she had also grown skeptical of his general intellectual "drift" along with the weakening commitment to Objectivism that Branden would admit to in later interviews. Rand then expelled Branden from the Objectivist movement. She published a letter in The Objectivist repudiating Branden for these reasons, including his dishonesty, but she did not mention their affair. Branden published a response in which he, too, did not disclose an affair, but in which he publicly accused Rand of desiring such an affair with him. He claimed that their age difference was "an insuperable barrier," for him, to such an affair. The two never reconciled, and Branden remained persona non grata to the mainline Objectivist movement, particularly the group that would go on to form the Ayn Rand Institute.

In 1989 Branden published his account of this time in his life. The memoir was entitled Judgment Day. Then in 1999, Branden re-published a revised edition, entitled My Years with Ayn Rand. Branden's account provides an inside view of Ayn Rand as a person, the development of Objectivism, its inner circle, and the tumultuous relationships between Ayn Rand and her associates. Branden supported David Kelley's notion of Objectivism as an "open system" in a 1999 article he wrote, "Who Owns Objectivism?" Branden has since rejected certain elements of the Objectivist philosophy, particularly what he considers its strictly cognitivist view of psychology, and his memoirs chronicle many of what he charges to be emotionally repressive elements of Rand, some of which he argues show up in her fiction. He has likewise argued that followers' obsession with Rand herself led to an unhealthy cult of personality within the movement, damaging the common sense of both Rand and other Objectivists. Branden has also been known to talk freely of his interest in matters that Rand would have considered epistemological "mysticism," such as ESP, and has had a publicized relationship with Ken Wilber. However, while Branden has claimed that Wilber is " one of the most brilliant minds I have ever encountered," he also states that "[i]f you are familiar with Ken's ideas, you know that he and I have our disagreements, much as I admire his work. Ken is a mystic. I am not."

Branden has retained his support for the fundamentals of the Objectivist ethics. In his book "Honoring the Self" (Branden, 1983), he devotes Chapter 12 to a defense of Ayn Rand's metaethical theory, saying that, "the foundation of her ethics is an unassailable contribution" (Branden 1983, p205). As a psychologist Branden has elucidated the crucial role of self-esteem in psychological health, and has outlined the volitional practices he has observed to be essential to achieving and maintaining self-esteem. As a therapist, he developed a sentence completion test, a psychotherapeutic tool proposed as useful for making unconscious thoughts and feelings conscious, and to transform limiting beliefs and attitudes. Currently, he tends to use a blend of sentence completion exercises, exercises derived from energy therapy, humor, and "just plain talking" in his therapy practice. Nathaniel Branden continues to write and practice psychotherapy in Los Angeles, California, as well as present seminars and workshops on self-esteem. He is affiliated with the United States Libertarian Party, though he was unenthusiastic about it in the 2004 election. Branden has retained most of his laissez-faire capitalist views, though some of these have changed since the split with Rand: for example, he says he "will leave the door open for emergency situations that I just can’t imagine being resolved in a free market context [like natural disasters and epidemics]. If they could be, then they should be. But the fact of emergencies should not be made as justification for violating individual rights, so as you can see, it’s a very tiny difference." In addition to changing his views on Objectivism, he now views Objectivists differently: "Philosophical principles are no substitute for thinking, yet many Objectivists act as if they were."

Personal life

In the 1970's, Branden moved to California and married Scott (a divorce with Barbara having occurred before his break with Ayn). In 1977, Scott unexpectedly died at home due to what was thought to be an epileptic seizure presumably triggered by sunlight off the water in the pool while feeding their dog. Branden married a third time in 1978, wedding businesswoman Devers Israel. They later divorced. He subsequently married his fourth wife, Leigh Horton. Branden retained a relationship—sometimes friendly, sometimes acrimonious—with his first wife, Barbara, who wrote a successful book, The Passion of Ayn Rand, which detailed Branden's relationship with Rand and the bitter breakup. The book was made into a motion picture in 1999 starring Helen Mirren as Rand and Eric Stoltz as Branden.

Books

• Who Is Ayn Rand? (with Barbara Branden) (1962)
• The Virtue of Selfishness (with Ayn Rand) (1964)
• Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (with Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan, and Robert Hessen) (1966)
• The Psychology of Self-Esteem (1969)
• Breaking Free (1970)
• The Disowned Self (1971)
• The Psychology of Romantic Love (1980)
• The Romantic Love Question & Answer Book (with Devers Branden) (1982)
• Honoring the Self (1983)
• If You Could Hear What I Cannot Say (1985)
• How To Raise Your Self Esteem (1987)
• Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand (1989)
• The Power of Self-Esteem (1992)
• The Art of Self Discovery (1993)
• The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem (1994)
• Taking Responsibility (1996)
• The Art of Living Consciously (1997)
• A Woman's Self-Esteem (1998)
• Nathaniel Branden's Self-Esteem Every Day (1998)
• Self-Esteem at Work (1998)
• My Years with Ayn Rand (1999) (revised edition of Judgment Day)
• 32nd Anniversary Edition of Psychology of Self-Esteem (2001)
• The Vision of Ayn Rand (2009) (book version of his "Basic Principles of Objectivism" lecture series)

Branden's books have been translated into 18 languages, with more than 4 million copies in print.

See also

• Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
• Objectivist movement
• Libertarianism
• Libertarianism and Objectivism

External links

• NathanielBranden.com
• Nathaniel Branden biography on Leading Thinkers Board at Best Practice Institute
• The Libertarian Alternative - Ayn Rand and Objectivism (Interview with Nathaniel Branden on Google video, 2006)
• Booknotes interview with Branden on Judgement Day: My Years with Ayn Rand, July 2, 1989.