The “ABCs” of REBT I: A preliminary study of errors and confusions in counselling and psychotherapy textbooks.

In this study, a random sample of twenty counselling and psychotherapy textbooks were studied with respect to the errors and confusions made by the authors of these textbooks with respect to the “ABCs” of REBT. A total of 240 of such errors/confusions were found with most being made about beliefs at “B”, particularly about irrational beliefs. A variety of errors and confusions were also made about (i) the relationship between “B” and “C” (including whether or not such a relationship is causal), (ii) the relationship between irrational beliefs and disturbed responses at “C”, (iii) “A” and (iv) “emotional “Cs”. Twenty errors were even made about the name of the therapy! It was suggested that one way of addressing this state of affairs would be for the Albert Ellis Institute to commission a group of REBT experts to write a document especially for authors of counselling and psychotherapy textbooks and for publishers of these works that specifies clearly and accurately agreed wisdom about the “ABCs” of REBT. The weaknesses of the current study were noted and suggestions for future research made.