Aaron T. Beck

American psychiatrist, researcher, therapist

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Fame55.3
Momentum0.9
Global rank#93
United States rank#54
Academics rank#19
Wikipedia9.9K

Lived 1921–2021, aged 100United States

United States AcademicsAcademic

Wikipedia
36 languages
Cross-language footprint
Global rank
#93
Fame.am leaderboard
Era
1921–2021
Aged 100
Awards
14
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

He built the therapy that taught depression to argue with itself. Aaron Beck's cognitive behavioral therapy shifted psychiatry from the couch to the worksheet, giving patients a method to catch and correct the thoughts that sink them.

Biography

About

Aaron Temkin Beck was born July 18, 1921, and spent his career as a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. His departure from psychoanalytic tradition came through cognitive therapy — later cognitive behavioral therapy — which treated clinical depression and anxiety by training patients to identify and challenge distorted thinking. He built the tools to measure what he treated: the Beck Depression Inventory became a standard instrument for gauging depression's severity. Beck published more than 600 journal articles and 25 books on psychotherapy, psychopathology, suicide, an…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Aaron T. Beck

Aaron T. Beck

said1976

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 (1976), Page 216.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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