Aaron Temkin Beck (1921-2021), father of cognitive therapy and one of the most important figures in the history of psychotherapy and clinical psychology, passed away recently, on November 1, 2021. In honor of him, we bring you a brief biography of the author, with the most important milestones in his life story and his most relevant contribution to psychology, that is, his cognitive therapy.
The American Psychological Association ranked Beck as one of the most influential psychotherapists of all time. Furthermore, he has been the only psychiatrist who has published articles in the American Psychiatric Association and in the American Psychological Association.
In 1994 he founded the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Researchwhile he was a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.
During his career, he received awards and honors from medical, psychiatric and psychological associations. One of them was the Lasker Clinical Research Award, in 2006.
Who was Aaron Beck?
Aaron Temkin Beck was an American psychiatrist and psychologist, as well as a professor and chair of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He became known worldwide for developing cognitive therapy, a therapy initially designed for the treatment of depression, which was also applied to many other psychological problems.
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Cognitive therapy has demonstrated great therapeutic efficacy and has good scientific support as a validated therapy. Beck greatly contributed to its recognition as a validated therapy, thanks to his scientific research and findings.
Thus, he is considered the father of cognitive therapy, as well as one of the greatest exponents of 20th century psychology. He was president of Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research.
Origin, childhood and family
Aaron Temkin Beck was born on July 18, 1921 in Providence, Rhode Island, and was the youngest of five children. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants to the US.
Two of his siblings had died before his birth (an older brother in infancy, and another older sister, who died of the flu). As a result, Beck’s mother suffered from depression for several years, and she raised Beck through overprotection.
When he turned seven, Aaron Beck broke his arm in the schoolyard; A broken bone became infected and ended in generalized septicemia, which forced him to stay in the hospital for a long time, losing his promotion to the second grade of school. Beck later recalled that at the time he felt “stupid,” stating “I was held back in the first grade and I always felt like it was because I was stupid.”
Studies
Finally, he was advanced in grade, thanks to the help of his brothers and his self-determination, and for him it was a psychological turning point. He ended up graduating with top grades from Hope High School, and entered Brown University (USA) in the fall of 1938 to study medicine.
He graduated cum laude in 1942 and four years later, in 1946, he would also do so at the Yale School of Medicine. Beck became interested in neurology and decided to specialize in it.
While completing a psychiatry rotation during his residency at the Cushing Veterans Administration Hospital in Framingham, Massachusetts, he became interested in the treatment of mental illness. And that was when he decided to become a psychotherapist.
Phobias and personal growth
Aaron Beck developed several phobias during his childhood; one of them, the phobia of blood and wounds. He attributed it to an unpleasant experience with surgery after breaking his arm. The phobia of blood was an impediment for him when it came to training as a doctor, and he began a fight against that phobia. He managed to overcome it by gradually exposing himself to the elements of the surgical context: the instruments, the sounds of the operating room… And also, keeping his mind occupied while he helped in the surgeries.
Another of his phobias was the fear of suffocation, supposedly caused by different factors: a joke from his brother, who put the pillow over his face, a severe whooping cough he suffered, and the asthma he suffered from.
And other phobias he suffered from: phobia of tunnels, fear of heights and fear of speaking in public. But despite his phobias, Beck managed to overcome them through the approach he developed: cognitive therapy.
His first book
On the other hand, Beck drew on his own experiences to write the first book, The diagnosis and management of depressionwhich was published in 1967. At that time Beck was slightly depressed, and considered writing his book as a kind of self-therapy.
Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
Aaron Beck developed Cognitive Therapy in the early 1960s. Initially, he attempted to test some of his hypotheses about the psychoanalytic aspects involved in depression. He designed and carried out different experiments to test his therapy and his theories. However, although he expected to validate much of his psychoanalytic theories, he was surprised to find just the opposite.
Thus, as a result of his research, he began to look for other ways to understand and explain depression. He worked directly with depressed patients, and this made him realize that these people were characterized by experiencing negative thoughts that appeared in their minds spontaneously.
He called these thoughts “negative automatic thoughts” (PAN’s). He discovered that they could be classified into three categories, depending on their content (the so-called “cognitive triad”, typical of depression):
- Those that refer to oneself.
- Those referring to the future.
- Those referring to the world.
Both cognitive therapy (CT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have been adapted to various age populations: from preschool children to the elderly. In addition, it is a therapy widely used today, individually, in couples therapy, family therapy and group therapy formats.
Personal life
On a personal level, Aaron Beck married Phyllis W. Beck in 1950. The couple had four children: Roy, Dan, Alice and Judy, who gave them eight grandchildren.
One of his daughters, Judith S. Beck, became, like Beck, an influential cognitive behavioral therapist, and also assumed the position of president at his center, the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research. In fact, Beck founded the institute with his daughter in 1994.
Death and legacy
At the time of his death, Aaron Beck was professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He passed away on November 1, 2021 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 100.
His legacy continues to have an undeniable impact on the history of psychology and today, thanks to his great contributions to cognitive therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, as treatments for depression and other psychological disorders.
References
- Beck, A. (1983). Cognitive therapy of depression. Desclée de Brouwer.
- Beck, A.T., Rush, A.J., Shaw, B.F., Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. Guilford clinical psychology and psychotherapy series.
- Beck, A. T. (1975). Cognitive therapy and emotional disorders. Madison, CT: International Universities Press, Inc.