¶ … cognitive therapy is a widely accepted, empirically validated treatment for a number of conditions, including most especially depression. The theorist who responsible for developing cognitive therapy is Aaron T. Beck, a nonagenarian who is currently the University of Philadelphia Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and a member of The Institute of Medicine. To date, Dr. Beck has been the recipient of countless awards and honors in recognition of his contributions to the field of psychotherapy and he continues to research and write despite his advanced age. This paper provides a biographical description of Dr. Beck, followed by an analysis of an application of his cognitive therapy to depression. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning Dr. Beck and cognitive therapy are presented in the paper's conclusion.
Aaron T. Beck and Cognitive Therapy
Introduction
One of the early pioneers of research into psychoanalytic theories of depression is Aaron Temkin Beck whose empirically validated treatments include cognitive therapy, an increasingly popular intervention for a wide range of psychiatric conditions including depression. A growing body of evidence indicates that many individuals who suffer from unipolar depression in particular can benefit from cognitive therapy, and has demonstrated efficacy on the same level as pharmacological interventions for mild to moderate cases (Hoffman & Nazario, 2015). To gain some fresh insights into the biographical details of Beck and to determine how cognitive therapy achieves these desirable outcomes, this paper reviews the relevant literature followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning Beck and cognitive therapy in the conclusion.
Biographical Description of Theorist
Born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1921, Aaron Temkin Beck was the youngest of the five children born to Elizabeth and Harry Beck who married in 1909 (Spicher, 2008). Although Beck's professional interests in psychology began relatively late in the career, an early childhood experience was clearly a formative influence on his life. For instance, Spicher (2008) reports that, "Beck notes that his mother was quite depressed prior to his birth due to the loss of two of her children" (para. 2). In his autobiography, Aaron T. Beck, the theorist reported that "he believed himself to be a replacement child for his sister" and "he takes joy in the idea that, even at a young age, he was able to cure his mother's depression" (cited in Spicher, 2008, para. 2).
Notwithstanding this early incident, Beck's professional interest in psychiatric interventions did not develop fully for some time but he still racked up numerous awards and honors for his early work, including graduating first in his high school class (Spicher, 2008), a distinguished record in journalism and academia as well as active duty military service during the Korea War (Beck biography, 2015). For instance, during his attendance at Brown University, he served as associate editor of the university newspaper which earned him numerous awards and honors, including the Francis Wayland Scholarship, the Phi Beta Kappa, the Bennet Essay Award, and the Gaston Prize for Oratory (Beck biography, 2015).
As if all of this was not enough to exhaust an undergraduate, Beck's unquenchable thirst for knowledge kept him even busier while he was attending Brown University. For instance, Spicher reports that, "Although his majors were English and Political Science, Beck did not allow himself to be fenced in by course requirements and took classes in a plethora of subjects while at Brown" (2008, para. 4). Following his magna cum laude graduation from Brown University in 1942, Beck attended Yale Medical School where he graduated in 1946 (Beck biography, 2015).
By this point in his academic and professional career, it would seem reasonable to suggest that Beck would have been able to make up his mind about the future direction of his career with some finality, but he remained uncertain about his plans. In this regard, Spicher (2008) notes that, "Even after graduation Beck was still undecided on his specialty. After receiving input from his family, he decided to take an internship at the Rhode Island Hospital where he studied neurology as a specialty" (para. 4).
At Rhode Island Hospital, Beck served a series of rotating internships and a residency in pathology as well as a residency in neurology at the Framingham, Massachusetts Veterans Administration (now Department of Veterans Affairs) Medical Center where he first became actively interested in psychiatry (Beck biography, 2015). This was not Beck's first encounter with the psychiatric field, but his initial experiences were somewhat disillusioning, causing him to delay his active pursuit in the field until later in his career. In this regard, Spicher (2008) advises that, "Though he entered Yale with an interest in psychiatry, he soon lost that interest upon taking his first...
4).
In support of this assertion, Spicher cites Beck's autobiography, Aaron T. Beck, wherein Beck says, "I thought it was nonsense. I could not really see what it fitted" (2008, para. 4). During a 2-year tenure as a fellow at Austin Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Beck gained significant experience with long-term psychotherapeutic interventions (Beck biography, 2015). During the Korean War, Beck was assigned to the Valley Forge Army Hospital where he served as assistant chief of neuropsychiatry (Beck biography, 2015).
According to Beck's official biography, "Dr. Beck joined the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pennsylvania in 1954 (Beck biography, 2015). During his tenure at Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania, Beck became interested in psychoanalytic theories of depression and went on to create a theoretical-clinical approach that he termed "cognitive therapy" (Beck biography, 2015). In this regard, one biographer reports that, "At Philadelphia, Beck had originally trained as a psychoanalyst, because he believed it offered a way of viewing the whole range of human experiences and problems" (Freeman, 1999, p. 273).
In reality, Beck's tenure at the University of Pennsylvania had some serendipitous qualities to it that would ultimately have a profound influence on the direction of his professional career. After accepting a position at the University of Pennsylvania's psychiatric department in 1954, Beck implemented a depression research clinic and began to more thoroughly develop his cognitive approach to treating the condition (Spicher, 2008). Based on his research in this capacity, Beck developed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in 1961 (Spicher, 2008). According to Spicher, "The BDI is one of the most widely used and referenced scales of depression. It is a 21 item scale that uses a Likert scale to determine the severity of depression symptoms" (2008, para. 6). Despite its widespread acceptance as a reliable and valid instrument for assessing depression disorders, the higher-ups at the University of Pennsylvania were unresponsive to this innovation (Spicher, 2008). As Beck puts it, there was "an underwhelming interest in the project" (cited in Spicher, 2008, para. 6).
Following his appointment as an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1967, Beck was allowed a 1-year extension on his depression research only, and this position required him to give up his on-campus office which required him to work at home, an outcome that would have important implications for Beck and his research into depression (Spicher, 2080). In this regard, Spicher (2008) emphasizes that, "Working from home turned out to be just what Beck needed, and he produced his first book, Depression: Clinical Experimental and Theoretical Aspects" (para. 7). This publication helped to solidify Beck's status at the University of Pennsylvania and he received full professor status in 1971 (Spicher, 2008).
To his credit, Beck's gradual development of psychoanalytic approaches to helping people overcome their cognitive disorders required years of painstaking empirical observations and research before he was satisfied that there was a relationship between individuals and their environment that must be taken into account. For instance, Freeman advises that, "Like Freud, [Beck] began by exploring the links between the environment, the individual, and their emotions and motivations, as well as how disturbances in the balance between and within these factors resulted in emotional problems and disorders" (1999, p. 273).
Over the past 55 years, Beck has overseen a number of sponsored studies concerning the psychopathology of various conditions, including most especially depression (Beck biography, 2015), but other conditions as well including suicide, anxiety disorders, panic disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse, personality disorders, and schizophrenia and how cognitive therapy can help sufferers of these conditions (Beck biography, 2015). At present, Beck's professional interest is focused on evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive therapy interventions in community-based settings. One of these initiatives, the eponymous "Beck Initiative," is a partnership with the City of Philadelphia's Department of Mental Health/Mental Retardation Services that trains therapists concerning how to conduct cognitive therapy in their own communities (Beck biography, 2015).
Beyond the foregoing, Beck is also actively researching the efficacy of cognitive therapy treatment for schizophrenia (Beck biography, 2015). Enormously prolific, Beck has also penned more than 540 articles and authored or co-authored 22 books to date (Beck biography, 2015). These publications have spanned the entire range of cognitive disorders besides depression. For example, according to one of his many texts, "Dr. Beck has worked extensively with personality disorders and has been an investigator on two studies using cognitive therapy with…
