REBT , Philosophy and Philosophical Counselling

Abstract

One of the more philosophical forms of counselling (as opposed to forms of philosophical counselling) is Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), a popular form of cognitive therapy developed in the nineteen-fifties by the American psychologist Albert Ellis. It’s currently championed in the UK by Windy Dryden, a prolific and wellknown writer on psychotherapy and counselling. Although it claims to be philosophical, it can in fact be criticised from a philosophical perspective of being of guilty a number of conceptual confusions. In the first part of this paper I will provide an overview of REBT, at the same time signposting ten such possible confusions. These confusions are perhaps not altogether surprising, since REBT has on the whole been developed primarily by psychologists rather than philosophers. Recently, however, philosophers have begun to take an active interest in developing new, philosophically more sophisticated versions of REBT. The most notable such theorist is perhaps Elliot Cohen, author of a chapter of Essays on Philosophical Counselling developing a 'logic-based' approach to REBT. In the second part of the paper I will consider Cohen's approach. Although this paper is in many ways critical of traditional REBT, its primary aim is not to argue against REBT but, more constructively, to further inter-disciplinary debate.