A brief history of Aaron T. Beck, MD, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Open accessAbstract
On July 18 th , 2021, the medical and mental health community around the world will celebrate the 100 th birthday of Aaron T. Beck, MD.Dr. Beck is globally recognized as the father of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and is one of the world's leading researchers in psychopathology.Since he developed CBT in the 1960s and 1970s, this revolutionary treatment has been found to be effective in over 2000 clinical trials for a wide range of mental disorders, psychological problems, and medical conditions with psychological components.A prolific and productive researcher with a career spanning more than 70 years, Dr. Beck has published over 600 articles and authored or co-authored 25 books.He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research and the Gustave O. Lienhard Award from the Institute of Medicine for "outstanding national achievement in improving personal health care services in the United States." He has dedicated his life to alleviating human suffering through the development of an evidence-based psychological therapy and continues his work to this day.CBT is based on the psychological construct that individuals' interpretations of situations influence their reaction (emotional, behavioral, physiological), more so than the situation itself.Further, people's interpretations may be distorted, inaccurate or unhelpful, particularly when psychopathology is present.These interpretations, termed "automatic thoughts", are often linked to maladaptive underlying beliefs that individuals have about themselves, other people, the world, or the future.Dr. Beck found that when he helped his patients evaluate and change their distorted thinking, they felt better and were able to modify their behavior.When he helped them evaluate and change their underlying beliefs, their improvement was long-lasting.
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Cites
Clark, D. M. (1986) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(86)90011-2 · Cited by 2,422 · see citing works
Rush, A. J., Beck, A. T., Kovacs, M., & Hollon, S. (1977) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/bf01173502 · Cited by 913 · cited 1× · see citing works
“In 1977, the results of the first major clinical trial comparing Cognitive Therapy to anti-depressant medication were published (Rush et al., 1977).”
BackgroundCognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: development and evaluation
Ehlers, A., Clark, D. M., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., & Fennell, M. (2005) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2004.03.006 · Cited by 703 · cited 2× · see citing works
“…UK, for example, a group at Oxford used a similar method to devise and test Cognitive Therapy treatment protocols for panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (Clark, 1986; Clark & Wells, 1995; Salkovskis, 1999; Ehlers et al., 2005).”
MethodWhy Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Is the Current Gold Standard of Psychotherapy
David, D., Cristea, I., & Hofmann, S. G. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00004 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 9
- Beck, A. T. (2019). A 60-year evolution of cognitive theory and therapy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(1), 16– 20. 10.1177/1745691618804187 30799751 · DOI
- Beck, A. T., Grant, P., Inverso, E., Brinen, A., & Perivoliotis, D. (2020). Recovery-oriented cognitive therapy for serious mental health conditions. New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.
- Beck, J. S. (2020). Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Third Edition: Basics and Beyond. New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.
- Blackburn, I. M., Bishop, S., Glen, A. I. M., Whalley, L. J., & Christie, J. E. (1981). The efficacy of cognitive therapy in depression: A treatment trial using cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy, each alone and in combination. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 139(3), 181– 189. 10.1192/bjp.139.3.181 7317698 · DOI
- Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. G. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D. Hope, & F. Scheier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.
- Grant, P. M., Bredemeier, K., & Beck, A. T. (2017). Six-month follow-up of recovery-oriented cognitive therapy for low-functioning individuals with schizophrenia. Psychiatric Services, 68, 997– 1002. 10.1176/appi.ps.201600413 28566022 · DOI
- Grant, P. M., Huh, G. A., Perivoliotis, D., Stolar, N. M., & Beck, A. T. (2012). Randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of cognitive therapy for low-functioning patients with schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 69, 121– 127. 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.129 21969420 · DOI
- Knapp, P., Kieling, C., & Beck, A. T. (2015). What do psychotherapists do? A systematic review and meta-regression of surveys. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 84(6), 377– 378. 10.1159/000433555 26402554 · DOI
- Salkovskis, P. M. (1999). Understanding and treating obsessive—compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, S29– S52. 10.1016/S0005-7967(99)00049-2 10402695 · DOI · Paper page
- Authors
- Beck, J. S., & Fleming, S.
- Affiliations
- Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fleming, Sarah
- Venue
- Clinical Psychology in Europe
- Published
- 2021-06-18
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- e6701-e6701
- ISSN
- 2625-3410 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9667129
- OpenAlex
- W3173409198
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Clinical Psychology in Europe (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- PsychOpen Gold (Leibniz Institute for Psychology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- Aaron T. Beck, cognitive behavioral therapy, automatic thoughts, cognitive distortions, maladaptive beliefs, psychopathology, cognitive therapy
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