Aaron Beck
Also known as Aaron T. Beck, Aaron Temkin Beck
American psychiatrist regarded as the father of cognitive therapy and CBT.
At a glance
Roles
Main ideas
Thoughts are less hidden than Freud thought, Automatic thoughts, The cognitive triad …
See all 5Criticism
Built on clinical impressions, Mechanisms less tested
See all 2Books to start with
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders, Cognitive Therapy of Depression, Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders …
See all 4Connections
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders, Cognitive Therapy of Depression and 5 others
See all 7
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Beck trained as a psychoanalyst, then found his depressed patients' problems lay in conscious thoughts.
- He named these spontaneous negative thoughts automatic thoughts.
- He found they reveal deeper core beliefs about self, world and future.
- He built cognitive therapy to test and change these thoughts, and the Beck Depression Inventory to measure depression.
Why it matters
- His model of automatic thoughts and core beliefs underlies CBT and the schema therapy that grew out of it.
Key facts
- Born
- 18 Jul 1921, Providence, Rhode Island1
- Died
- 1 Nov 2021, Philadelphia, aged 1001
- Known for
- Cognitive therapy; the Beck Depression Inventory (1961)1
- Worked at
- University of Pennsylvania department of psychiatry from 19541
- Founded
- Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, with his daughter Judith Beck, in 19941
- Output
- More than 600 journal articles and 25 books1
- Award
- Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, 20061
Roles
Main ideas
-
Thoughts are less hidden than Freud thought2
Doing free association in the late 1950s, he noticed patients' distressing thoughts were not as unconscious as Freud had theorised.
-
Automatic thoughts1
Depressed patients had streams of negative thoughts that seemed to arise on their own; unexamined, they were taken as true.
-
The cognitive triad1
These thoughts were negative ideas about oneself, the world and the future.
-
Core beliefs1
Frequent automatic thoughts reveal core beliefs, formed over a lifetime and felt to be true.
-
Testing, not telling1
He preferred helping clients test their thoughts empirically, citing the Socratic method and the Stoic Epictetus.
Criticism
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
-
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders1
His general statement of the cognitive model across disorders.
-
Cognitive Therapy of Depression1
With Rush, Shaw and Emery; the first treatment manual.
-
Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders1
With Freeman and Davis; extends the model to long-standing patterns.
-
The Anxiety and Worry Workbook1
With David A. Clark; a self-help workbook.
Connections
Writes
Related
- Jeffrey YoungPersonDid postdoctoral studies with him at the University of Pennsylvania
- Marsha LinehanPersonAllen Frances named them the two most influential clinical innovators in mental health
- Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior...and Feel Great AgainBookWrote the foreword
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.