Aaron Beck and Congnitive Behavioral Therapy

Aaron Beck and Congnitive Behavioral Therapy

Aaron Beck was born in Providence Rhode Island on July 18th 1921. He has had an interest in human nature since as far back as he can remember. He attended Brown University and received many honors and awards for academic excellence. Soon after he graduated Brown Beck pursued his medical degree at Yale. In 1946 he received his PH. D. in Psychology. Beck became interested in the specific field of psychoanalysis during his residency at Rhode Island Hospital. He spent two years as a doctor at Austin Riggs Center where conducted long term psychotherapy and gained experience in this field. He then became Assistant Chief of Neuropsychology at Valley Forge during the Korean War (Hunt).

Beck’s psychoanalysis was in harmony with the developments of that time. He set out to prove that psychoanalysis, influenced by Freud, really did work. Beck became increasingly interested in depression and the causes. He hypothesized that depression was caused by hostility the patients choked back and turned onto themselves. When he presented his theory of depression to other phychologists using psychoanalysis he was disappointed to find they did not support this idea (Hunt). He decided to take on some long term tests and prove to them it was correct. However, he began to notice contradictions in his tests and results. He soon realized that it was incorrect and

his patients were not filled with hostility but instead wanted approval and acceptance. Upon his findings Beck realized that he had to reevaluate his belief system and develop a new faith. After a patient he had who was having bad dreams he had an epiphany. He was able to make the connections of the patients negative dreams and the way the patient viewed himself. Ultimately, his patient had a distorted view of reality (Wright).

All his patients seemed to have the same or very similar symptoms. They would have negative “automatic thoughts” that suddenly popped into their heads(Wright). These negative automatic thoughts fell into three categories: 1).themselves, 2). The world, and 3)The future (O’Connor).

Beck knew his next step would be to help his patient realize and reverse the negative false perceptions. By helping his patients identify these thought he was able to help them think more realistically and the patients began to feel better. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is what he developed to achieve this. Beck developed several tests to assess depression including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), The Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Youth Inventory, and the Scale for Suicide Ideation. It rates how the patient currently feels on a scale of 1-10. Since his findings, he has furthered his research in suicide, anxiety, panic, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and personality disorders such as schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder (Beck 1972).

Beck has even used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on himself to cure two phobias he had. As a child Beck had to undergo a series of surgeries and after that he would always feel faint at the sight of blood. By addressing his problem and forcing himself to be exposed to surgeries he was able to overcome this fear. Also, he would get anxiety whenever he would have to drive through a tunnel. He observed his symptoms and found they would occur when he was getting close to the tunnel or thinking about driving through the tunnel. By using his method of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy he was able to overcome this fear as well. Beck was influenced not only by Freud but by Adler, Horney and Sullivan when creating his therapy.

Cognitive therapy ranges from 14-20 therapy sessions between the patient and the doctor. They focus on finding the underlying schema in which they identify patient’s distortive way of thinking. They evaluate and test the patient’s beliefs. The patients attitude is based on a rule they create for themselves and the rule is created by an assumption they believe. For example, I Judith Beck’s book an attitude would be, “It is terrible to be incompetent. The rule is,”I must work as hard as I can all the time.” Lastly the assumption believed is, “If I work as hard as I can I may be able to do some things that other people can do easily. (J. Beck).” This is a core belief of the patient that they are not good enough. All attitudes, rules, and assumptions are based on core beliefs.

Cognitive Therapists begin each session by setting the goals and the agenda for each session then lead to an evaluation

of the patients mood. They fill out a BDI or whatever form the patient is seeking therapy for. Next the doctor asks the patient to identify why they are in the mood they are in and asks about how the rest of the week was. They try to identify any problems and set realistic short term goals the patient will meet. They present the cognitive model of core beliefs and set the expectations for therapy. When the patient understands all of this, they are more educated about their disorder and this helps them to realize where their feelings stem from which helps with recovery. At the end of every session the client is assigned weekly homework and they review the session and goals set. Also at the end of every session the patient is given a feed back form (J. Beck).

This is just the basic format of a session but each one could change depending on the needs of the patient. As the patient finds the underlying beliefs and begins on reshaping their negative perceptions the therapist encourages physical activities to ease the mind and has them look for relaxing activities to take