Aaron T. Beck

Aaron Temkin Beck
Born	(1921-07-18) July 18, 1921 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Residence	United States
Nationality	United States
Fields	Psychiatrist
Institutions	University of Pennsylvania, Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Suicide
Alma mater	Brown University, Yale Medical School
Known for	his research on psychotherapy, psychopathology, suicide, and psychometrics
Influenced	Martin Seligman, Judith S. Beck
Notable awards	Grawemeyer Award in Psychology (2004) Lasker Award (2006)

Aaron Temkin Beck (born July 18, 1921) is an American psychiatrist and a professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.^[1][2] He is regarded as the father of cognitive therapy,^[1][2] and his pioneering theories are widely used in the treatment of clinical depression. Beck also developed self-report measures of depression and anxiety including Beck Depression Inventory (BDI),^[3] Beck Hopelessness Scale,^[4] Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Youth Inventories.^[5] Beck is noted for his research in psychotherapy, psychopathology, suicide, and psychometrics, which led to his creation of cognitive therapy and the BDI, one of the most widely used instruments for measuring depression severity. Beck collaborated with Maria Kovacs, PhD, in the development of the Children's Depression Inventory, which used the BDI as a model.^[6][7] Beck's work at the University of Pennsylvania inspired Martin Seligman to refine his own cognitive techniques and exercises, and later work on learned helplessness.^[8] Beck is the President Emeritus of the non-profit Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy^[9] and the Honorary President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy,^[10] which certifies qualified cognitive therapists.

Background and personal life

Beck was born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, the youngest child of four siblings to Russian Jewish immigrants. Beck was married in 1950 to the Honorable Phyllis W. Beck, who was the first woman judge on the appellate court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.^[11] They have four adult children, Roy, Judy, Dan, and Alice.^[12] Beck's daughter, Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., is a prominent cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) educator and clinician, who wrote the basic text in the field. She is President of the non-profit Beck Institute.^[13]

Education

Beck attended Brown University, graduating magna cum laude in 1942.^[14] At Brown he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, was an associate editor of The Brown Daily Herald, and received the Francis Wayland Scholarship, William Gaston Prize for Excellence in Oratory, and Philo Sherman Bennett Essay Award.^[12] Beck attended Yale Medical School, graduating with an M.D. in 1946.

Honorary degrees

Beck has received honorary degrees from Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Assumption College, and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.^[12][15][16]

Career

Early work

Beck served as assistant chief of neuropsychiatry at Valley Forge Army Hospital in the United States Military following graduation from medical school.^[17] Following his residencies and fellowship, he became an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in 1954.^[18]

CBT, psychotherapy, and psychiatry

Beck is the founder and President Emeritus of the non-profit Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, and the director of the Psychopathology Research Unit (PRU), which is the parent organization of the Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Suicide.^[19] In 1986, he was a visiting scientist at Oxford University.^[1] He has been professor emeritus at Penn since 1992,^[19] and an adjunct professor at both Temple University and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.^[1]

Beck developed cognitive therapy in the early 1960s as a psychiatrist at Penn. He had previously studied and practiced psychoanalysis. As a researcher and scientist, Beck designed and performed experiments to test psychoanalytic concepts of depression. Fully expecting research would validate these fundamental precepts, he was surprised to find the opposite. This research led him to begin to look for other ways of conceptualizing depression. Working with depressed patients, he found that they experienced streams of negative thoughts that seemed to pop up spontaneously. He termed these cognitions “automatic thoughts,” and discovered that their content fell into three categories: negative ideas about themselves, the world, and the future. Limited time spent reflecting on automatic thoughts would lead patients to treat them as valid.^[20]

Beck began helping patients identify and evaluate these thoughts and found that by doing so, patients were able to think more realistically, which led them to feel better emotionally and behave more functionally.^[20] He discovered key ideas in CBT, explaining that different disorders were associated with different types of distorted thinking.^[20] Distorted thinking has a negative effect on our behaviour no matter what type of disorder, he found.^[20] Beck explained that successful interventions will educate a person to understand and become aware of their distorted thinking, and how to challenge its effects.^[20] He discovered that frequent negative automatic thoughts reveal a person's core beliefs. He explained that core beliefs are formed over lifelong experiences; we “feel” these beliefs to be true.^[20]

Since that time, Beck and his colleagues worldwide have researched the efficacy of this form of psychotherapy in treating a wide variety of disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, drug abuse, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and many medical conditions with psychological components. Cognitive therapy has also been applied with success to individuals with anxiety disorders, schizophrenia,^[21] and many other medical and psychiatric disorders. Some of Beck's most recent work has focused on cognitive therapy for schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and for patients who have had recurrent suicide attempts.

Beck has published more than 600 professional journal articles, and authored or co-authored 25 books.^[19] He has been named one of the "Americans in history who shaped the face of American Psychiatry," and one of the "five most influential psychotherapists of all time"^[22] by The American Psychologist in July 1989.

Beck is the Honorary President of the non-profit Academy of Cognitive Therapy, an organization of more than 500 cognitive therapists, worldwide. As part of its mission, the Academy supports continuing education and research in cognitive therapy, provides a valuable resource in cognitive therapy for professionals and the public at large, and actively works toward the identification and certification of clinicians skilled in cognitive therapy. Among his activities, Beck is involved in research studies at Penn, and conducts biweekly Case Conferences at Beck Institute for area psychiatric residents, graduate students, and mental health professionals.^[23] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.^[24]

Notable events

The American Psychoanalytic Institute rejected Beck's membership application, "on the grounds that his mere desire to conduct scientific studies signaled that he’d been improperly analyzed", a decision that still makes him angry.^[25]

In recent years, cognitive therapy has been disseminated outside academic settings, including throughout the United Kingdom, and in a program developed by Beck and the City of Philadelphia.^[26]

Selected awards and honors

Works

Selected books

• Beck, A.T. (1967). The diagnosis and management of depression. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-7674-4
• Beck, A.T. (1972). Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-7652-7
• Beck, A.T. (1975). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. Madison, CT: International Universities Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8236-0990-1
• Beck, A.T., Rush, A.J., Shaw, B.F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN 0-89862-000-7
• Beck, A.T. (1989). Love is never enough: How couples can overcome misunderstandings, resolve conflicts, and solve relationship problems through cognitive therapy. New York, NY: Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-06-091604-6
• Scott, J., Williams, J.M., & Beck, A.T. (1989). Cognitive therapy in clinical practice: An illustrative casebook. New York, NY & London, England: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-00518-3
• Alford, B.A., & Beck, A.T. (1998). The integrative power of cognitive therapy. New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN 1-57230-396-4
• Beck, A.T. (1999). Prisoners of hate: The cognitive basis of anger, hostility, and violence. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-019377-8
• Clark, D.A., & Beck, A.T. (1999). Scientific foundations of cognitive theory and therapy of depression. New York, NY: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-18970-7
• Beck, A.T., Freeman, A., & Davis, D.D. (2003). Cognitive therapy of personality disorders. New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN 1-57230-856-7
• Wright, J.H., Thase, M.E., Beck, A.T., & Ludgate, J.W. (2003). Cognitive therapy with inpatients: Developing a cognitive milieu. New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN 0-89862-890-3
• Winterowd, C., Beck, A.T., & Gruener, D. (2003). Cognitive therapy with chronic pain patients. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8261-4595-7
• Beck, A.T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R.L. (2005). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective. New York, NY: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00587-X
• Beck, A.T., Rector, N.A., Stolar, N., & Grant, P. (2008). Schizophrenia: Cognitive theory, research, and therapy. New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-60623-018-3
• Clark, D.A., & Beck, A.T. (2010). Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-60623-434-1

Selected Articles

• Beck, A.T., & Haigh, E. A.-P. (2014). Advances in Cognitive Theory and Therapy: The Generic Cognitive Model. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Review of Clinical Psycholgy. DOI 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032813-153734

See also

• Albert Ellis
• David D. Burns
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Cognitive therapy

References

External links

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