Some stream of consciousness thoughts on the passing of Aaron Beck

The influential and transcendental psychologist Aaron Beck died on October 31st at the age of 100. His work and research on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy have influenced and improved, without exaggeration, millions and millions of lives.

I started out in substance abuse treatment about 15 years ago. This was in Philly, and Beck was based at the University of Pennsylvania. I’m pretty sure he still maintained an office in his late 80s!

So much of our collective work was recognizing how specific thoughts and emotions impacted behaviors in counter-productive ways. Heck, I think* we administered a BDI as part of every intake and as a metric of improvement.

And even in my own journey in therapy, so much of it was grounded in identifying the biases and heurtistics that negatively impact how I see and how I want to be.

So cheers to AB, and Godspeed!