Aaron Beck

Professional Life
Aaron T. Beck was born on July 18, 1921, in Rhode Island. He graduated from Brown University in 1942 and was an exemplary student, achieving magna cum laude and earning the William Gaston Prize for Excellence in Oratory and the Francis Wayland Scholarship. He continued his studies at Yale Medical School and earned his medical degree from there in 1946. Beck spent most of his career studying psychoanalysis, and in the 1960’s, began exploring other therapeutic techniques. While at the University of Pennsylvania, Beck struggled to find a way to help his depressed clients better capture their emotions. He realized that many of his depressed clients experienced recurring negative thoughts and that as long as they believed these thoughts to be true, they would continue to have symptoms of depression. He theorized that in order to change the symptoms, he must change their distorted thinking. This belief led to the development of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In an effort to better gauge the symptoms of depressed individuals, Beck developed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. He founded the Beck Institute in Pennsylvania and has been recognized by many professional organizations for his contributions to psychology.

Beck is the recipient of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his creation of cognitive therapy. In addition, he is an Honorary President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Beck spent much of his career at the University of Pennsylvania and along with his daughter Judith, advocated for the application of cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of depression and other mood problems.

Contribution to Psychology
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that focuses on changing negative thought patterns to affect change. This goal-oriented approach is a proven effective treatment for many psychological issues, including mood problems, eating issues, substance use problems, anxiety, and depression. CBT is delivered individually and also in group settings, allowing clients to collaborate with each other and their therapists for their own treatment.

Over the years, CBT has evolved to encompass a wide variety of disciplines, including exposure therapy, art therapy, brief therapy, and others. CBT strives to keep the client aware of the present while enlightened to the past. Rather than reliving past traumas or exploring childhood issues, CBT encourages a client to understand how the past affects present behaviors and thoughts. Armed with this knowledge, a client is then able to begin to transform learned reactions that cause problems in their present lives. CBT works on changing negative thought patterns into healthy ones that result in positive, constructive behaviors.

Books by Aaron Beck

• The Diagnosis and Management of Depression (1967)
• Depression: Causes and Treatment (1972)
• Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975)
• Cognitive Therapy of Depression (with John Rush, Brian Shaw, & Gary Emery, 1979)
• Cognitive Therapy in Clinical Practice: An Illustrative Casebook (with Jan Scott & Mark Williams, 1989)
• The Integrative Power of Cognitive Therapy (with Brad Alfred, 1998)
• Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence (1999)
• Scientific Foundations of Cognitive Theory and Therapy of Depression (with David Clark, 1999)
• Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders (with Arthur Freeman, 2003)
• Cognitive Therapy with Inpatients: Developing A Cognitive Milieu (with Jesse Wright, Michael Thase, & John Ludgate, 2003)
• Cognitive Therapy With Chronic Pain Patients (with Carrie Winterowd & Daniel Gruener, 2003)
• Anxiety Disorders And Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective (with Gary Emergy & Ruth Greenberg, 2005)
• Schizophrenia: Cognitive Theory, Research, and Therapy (with Neil Rector, Neal Stolar, & Paul Grant, 2008)
• Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practice (with David Clark, 2010)