Aaron Beck

Aaron Tim Beck, who died at age 100 on November 1, 2021, was a giant in our field, active and productive almost to the end. Trained in but frustrated by psychoanalysis, in the 1960s he developed and manualized cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as a radically different time-limited treatment for depression (1). He then tested CBT against pharmacotherapy—another radical step and among the first modern randomized trials of a manualized psychotherapy (2). CBT quickly turned the psychoanalytically dominated psychotherapy world upside down as the treatment was disseminated across the United States and subsequently around the world, with adaptations for a range of disorders and populations. Beck invented the world’s leading therapy. And he kept on thinking, testing, and writing—embodying in style the therapy he had created.

At the center of this sprawling CBT web was a charming, unassuming, thoughtful, and friendly man who never seemed to let his success go to his head. He loved to puzzle over clinical issues, to write, and to teach. I am grateful to have had the chance to learn from him and interact with him over the years.

Thanks to a training grant I received in the late 1980s under the mentorship of another psychotherapy titan, the late Gerald L. Klerman, M.D., I applied to the University of Pennsylvania and took weekend classes at the Beck Institute involving the master himself. He was a gentleman, a sweet and gentle white-haired man, always impeccably dressed in a neon-blue jacket and red bowtie. He resembled a grandfather in appearance and in the way he made you feel, yet he had a quiet, boyish sense of humor. A masterly interviewer, he engaged patients at an emotional level. Only after he had rapidly established a working alliance and a picture of the patient’s predicament would he inquire, “So what thoughts were you having then?” His interviews were impressive demonstrations not only of CBT technique but of good psychotherapy practice more generally.

Tim was friendly, supportive, and freely gave helpful advice. He was a true believer in the power of talking therapy to improve people’s lives and outlooks. His death has deservedly provoked an outpouring of sadness and gratitude not only within the large CBT community but well beyond. I certainly miss him and owe him a debt.