Maxie Clarence Maultsby Jr. (April 24, 1932 Pensacola, Florida – August 28, 2016 Alexandria, Virginia) was an American psychiatrist, author of several books on emotional and behavioral self-management, Elected Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists.
He is the founder of the method of psychotherapy called Rational Behavior Therapy, the emotional self-help technique called Rational Self-Counseling, and the New Self-Help Alcoholic Relapse Prevention Treatment Method. He was an Emeritus Professor at the College of Medicine at Howard University in Washington D.C.
In 1970 Maultsby joined the medical faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and only one year later became an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry there, as well as the Director of the Adult Psychiatric Outpatient Program at the University of Kentucky.
In 1973 Maultsby founded the Training and Treatment Center for Rational Behavior Therapy, an institute which helped formalize the increasingly influential psychiatric approach created by Maultsby called Rational Behavior Therapy. Maultsby was the Director of the Training and Treatment Center from its origination until 1987. During this time Maultsby worked with Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and in 1974 co-published with him the Technique for Using Rational Emotive Imagery, a treatise that combined and elucidated their research results, which demonstrated that many individuals can learn to manage their emotions through a process of rational evaluation, and by relearning mental behavior, can overcome self-destructive thoughts and condition themselves for mental responses that result in a happier and more rewarding life.[
In the mid-1980s Maultsby cooperated with O. Carl Simonton, M.D., a radiation oncologist and pioneer of psycho-oncology. Their work together resulted in the introduction of Maultsby’s cognitive-behavioral self-help tools as a modification of the Rational Self-Analysis technique to work with cancer patients and their families.
In 1987 he left the Training and Treatment Center for Rational Behavior Therapy and his academic position at Kentucky to briefly serve as Director of the Bryan Psychiatric Hospital in Columbia, SC, and shortly after become the Medical Director of Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services in Las Vegas, NV. Maultsby became the Chair of Howard University’s Department of Psychiatry in 1989, and was given the title of Emeritus Professor there in 2004. In 2011, Maultsby also became a Professor in the Psychiatry Residence Training Program, at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, under the Department of Mental Health in Washington D.C.