Aaron T. Beck

Brief Biography

Aaron Temkin Beck was born in 1921 in Providence, Rhode Island. His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine.

Aaron’s father was a printer, while his mother’s parents ran a successful tobacco wholesale business. The Beck family was prominent within the Providence Jewish community.

Beck received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in 1942 from Brown University in Providence.

Beck then attended Yale Medical School, initially intending to practice medicine as an internist. He received his MD from Yale in 1946.

After graduation, in 1946, Beck entered a six-month residency program in pathology at Rhode Island Hospital, followed by a three-year residency in neurology at Cushing Veterans Administration Hospital in Framingham, Massachusetts.

During his residency in neurology, Beck participated in a six-month rotation in psychiatry. It was at this time that he became fascinated by the phenomenon of mental illness.

In 1950, after completing all of his residency requirements, Beck became a Fellow in Psychiatry at the Austen Riggs Center, a private mental hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he worked for the next two years.

At Austen Riggs, Beck worked with the psychoanalytic ego psychologist, David A. Rapoport.

Between 1952 and 1954, Beck fulfilled his Korean War–era military service obligation as a reservist, working for a while as Assistant Chief of Neuropsychiatry at Valley Forge Army Hospital.

In 1954, Beck accepted a position in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in Philadelphia, where he spent the rest of his career.

The same year, Beck also undertook training as a psychoanalyst at the Philadelphia Institute of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Beck is famous as the father of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—a form of therapy for depression and personality disorders based on changing the patient’s perception of reality.

Beck has stated that his breakthrough to understanding the therapeutic value of confronting head-on the patient’s misperceptions of reality occurred when he came to understand that depression is caused by feelings of loss, rejection, and lack of a viable future, as opposed to the mainstream Freudian psychoanalytic doctrine of the day which held that depression results from suppressed and internalized aggression and hostility.

In 1992, Beck retired from Penn with the title of Professor Emeritus. The same year, he founded the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapywith his daughter, Judith S. Beck.

Beck published more than 600 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as authoring, co-authoring, or co-editing some 25 academic and popular books.

Beck died in 2021 at the age of 100.

Notable Quotes

Note: The original sources of the following quotations attributed here to Aaron T. Beck are provided where known. If no specific source is mentioned, then the attributed quotation may be assumed to derive from or (perhaps via paraphrase) be inspired by Beck’s many academic and popular writings.

Cognition

The function of cognition is to enable the organism to adapt to its environment, and if it is inflexible and maladaptive, then it’s not fulfilling its function.

Our moods are shaped by our cognitions. So if we can change our cognitions, we can change our moods.

Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive therapy seeks to alleviate psychological stresses by correcting faulty conceptions and self-signals. By correcting erroneous beliefs we can lower excessive reactions.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

Communication

What has stripped their conversation of its richness and enjoyments? First, despite the apparent success of their numerous discussions, they may have arrived at the solutions to family problems at a great cost to the relationship. In many relationships, a whole sequence of little kinks gradually adds up to produce stress. These kinks may also be a sign of important differences between the partners in their outlook and values—differences that their surface agreements never resolve. Thus, the free flow of conversation is inhibited by the threat of intrusions of unresolved conflicts. Perfectly tuned conversations are interrupted by signals of possible discord that introduce static into the communications. Second, although the partners may get along when they are dealing with practical problems, their conversation may be devoid of references to the more pleasurable aspects of the relationship. The partners have not learned to demarcate problem-solving discussions from pleasant conversations. Thus, when one partner starts a conversation with a loving comment, the other may decide that this is a good time to bring up some conflict. As a result, there is a dearth of conversation that revolves simply around expressions of caring, sharing, and loving.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

The intercommunication system also includes the expectations and demands that people place on themselves and others—something that has been labeled “the tyranny of the shoulds.” It is important to recognize these injunctions and prohibitions because rigid expectations or compulsive attempts to regulate the behavior of others are bound to lead to disappointment and frustration.

Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence (1999).

Depression

Depression is an illness that affects the body, mood, thoughts, behavior, and relationships. It is not the same as being unhappy or in a blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or wished away. People with depression can’t just “snap out of it” and feel better.

The essence of depression is the inability to construct a future.

Once a person experiences an episode of depression, the chances of another episode occurring are much higher. It’s like a chronic medical condition; it requires ongoing monitoring and treatment.

The cost of survival of the lineage may be a lifetime of discomfort.

Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective (1985).

Some authors have conceptualized depression as a “depletion syndrome” because of the prominence of fatigability; they postulate that the patient exhausts his available energy during the period prior to the onset of the depression and that the depressed state represents a kind of hibernation, during which the patient gradually builds up a new story of energy.

Depression: Causes and Treatment (1972; second edition, 2009).

Since the chain reaction is circular, the depression becomes progressively worse. The various symptoms–sadness, decreased physical activity, sleep disturbance—feeds back into the psychological system. Hence, as he experiences sadness, his pessimism leads him to conclude, “I shall always be sad.”

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

Diagnostic Systems

There presently exist three recognized conceptualizations of the antisocial construct: “antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)” as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013); “dissocial personality disorder” in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10)(World Health Organization, 1992); and “psychopathy “as formalized by [Robert D.] Hare with the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL-R) (Hare, 2003). A conundrum for therapists is that these conceptualizations are overlapping but not identical, emphasizing different symptom clusters.

Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders (1990; third edition, 2014).

[T]he distinctions among the three antisocial conceptualizations are such that findings based on one diagnostic group are not necessarily applicable to the others and produce different prevalence rates in justice-involved populations. Adding a further layer of complexity, therapists will encounter patients who possess a mixture of features from all three diagnostic systems rather than a prototypical presentation of any one disorder.

Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders (1990; third edition, 2014).

When the authorities disagree among themselves regarding the correct approach to psychological problems, where does the troubled person turn for help? In view of the opposed and apparently irreconcilable views represented by the different schools, he faces a serious dilemma: He is trapped between choosing a therapist blindly and trusting to luck or trying to cope with his psychological difficulties by himself.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders(1975).

The history of psychiatry shows that many ideas and concepts that once had attained the status of incontrovertible facts were later discarded as nothing more than myths or superstitions. We are forced to the realization that the study of the nature and treatment of the neuroses–or emotional disorders–does not rest on any proven theorems or generally shared assumptions.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

Egocentricity

Egocentricity is a problem, however, when it becomes exaggerated and is not balanced by such social traits as love, empathy, and altruism, the capacity for which is probably also represented in our genome. Interestingly, very few of us think to look for egocentricity in ourselves, although we are dazzled by it in others.

Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence (1999).

Groups

Although these domains appear to be remote from each other, the themes underlying anger and hatred in close relationships appear to be similar to those manifested by antagonistic groups and nations. The overreactions of friends, associates, and marital partners to presumed wrongs and offenses are paralleled by the hostile responses of people in confrontation with members of different religious, ethnic, or racial groups.

Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence (1999).

[H]owever, the reflexive image of the Enemy creates destructive hatred between individuals and between groups. Although these individuals or groups may feel liberated from restraints against attacking the supposed adversary, such people have actually surrendered their freedom of choice, abdicated their rationality, and are now the prisoners of a primal thinking mechanism.”

Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence (1999).

When people identify their own individualistic and sociophilic strivings with the goals of the group, they are subject not only to the benefits of group identification but also to its dark side: xenophobia, chauvinism, prejudice, and intolerance. They also exhibit the same thinking toward other groups that they show toward individuals within their group who have offended them. This involves such errors as overgeneralization and dichotomous thinking, as well as the fixation on “single-cause” explanations—seeing the outgroup as the sole cause of their distress, otherwise known as scapegoating.

Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence (1999).

Insanity

It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.

Marriage

Your spouse is your closest relative and is entitled to depend on you as a committed ally, supporter, and champion.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

Although love is a powerful incentive for husbands and wives to help and support each other, make each other happy and create a family, it is not in itself the essence of the relationship, because it does not provide the personal qualities and aptitudes that are vital to sustain it and make it grow.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

Sometimes a spouse, in trying to relieve a partner’s distress, accomplishes just the opposite.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

In evaluating your relationship, you will find it useful to keep in mind your goals in marriage and how you can best achieve them.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

The manners that apply specifically during courtship come to be replaced over the course of marriage by a different set of manners, embodying the residual pettiness, complaining, and faultfinding of childhood.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

First, strive for a solid foundation of trust, loyalty, respect, and security. Your spouse is your closest relative and is entitled to depend on you as a committed ally, supporter, and champion.   Second, cultivate the tender, loving part of your relationship: sensitivity, consideration, understanding, and demonstrations of affection and caring. Regard each other as confidante, companion, and friend.   Third, strengthen the partnership. Develop a sense of cooperation, consideration, and compromise. Sharpen your communication skills so that you can more easily make decisions about practical issues, such as division of work, preparing and implementing a family budget, and planning leisure-time activities.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

When married people develop such an intense but inappropriate fixation to somebody other than their mate, they may be driven to jeopardize or even destroy a reasonable marital relationship. In the heat of passion, they seem incapable of attaching any real weight to the potentially disastrous consequences of their infatuation—the possible breakup of their marriage. They cannot “turn off” their infatuation even if they want to! Yet, when enough time has elapsed without their seeing “the other woman (or man),” they generally find that their infatuation dies down.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

If your spouse is collaborating with you, you both might want to start with making changes in communication, . . . reducing anger, . . . and introducing new methods of solving problems. . . . If you are able to cooperate to determine more precisely what your spouse legitimately wants or doesn’t want, likes or dislikes, you are in a better position to make those changes. . . .

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

Another problem posed by excessive reliance on acceptance, admiration, or love is that we do not possess a reliable gauge that another person is, indeed, rejecting, reproaching, or critical of us.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

It is impossible for a person to be loved totally, at all times by all his friends. The degree of love and acceptance fluctuates considerably.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

Negative Thinking Patterns

Negative thinking patterns can be immensely deceptive and persuasive, but they are also predictable and manageable.

The maladaptive beliefs and attitudes of depressed patients not only predispose them to become depressed but also prevent them from recovering.

Stop it, and give yourself a chance.

The tendency to compare oneself with others further lowers self-esteem. Every encounter with another may be turned into a negative self-evaluation.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

If our thinking is bogged down by distorted symbolic meanings, illogical reasoning and erroneous interpretations, we become, in truth, blind and deaf.

Love Is Never Enough: How Couples Can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationship Problems Through Cognitive Therapy (1988).

Personal Strength

The stronger person is not the one making the most noise but the one who can quietly direct the conversation toward defining and solving problems.

Psychoanalysis

Classical psychoanalysis regards conscious thoughts as a disguised representation of unconscious conflicts that are presumably causing the problem. The patient’s own explanations are regarded as spurious rationalizations, his coping mechanisms as defenses. Consequently, his conscious ideas, his reasoning and judgements, his practical solutions to problems are not taken at face value: they are treated as stepping-stones to deeper, concealed components of the mind.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

Rules

[T]o be of greater use, the rules need to be remolded so that they are more precise and accurate, less egocentric, and more elastic . When rules are discovered to be false, self-defeating, or unworkable, they have to be dropped from the repertoire.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).

Substantive Abuse

As applied to substance abuse, the cognitive approach helps individuals to come to grips with the problems leading to emotional distress and to gain a broader perspective on their reliance on drugs for pleasure and/or relief from pleasure and/or relief from discomfort.

Suicide

The therapist should not evade probing for the reasons the patient regards suicide as the only escape from his misery or intolerable life situation. The patient generally has considered alternative solutions but has discarded them as useless. The therapist should re-examine these alternatives with the patient.

Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975).