Cognitive Behavorial Therapy

During the 1960s, an era that spawned great changes throughout the spectrum of society, psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck became disenchanted with the limitations of accepted Freudian type psychoanalysis, based on unconscious emotions and drives.  With the world bursting in new ideas and inventions everywhere, Beck felt that the old methods of treatment were too passive. Perhaps a remnant of Darwinism, mainstream analytic thought was that only lower class organisms behaved only as the result of outside stimuli.

The book. "Depression Causes and Treatment." that he completed in 1967, derived from detailed personal observation of patients, Beck came to the conclusion that working on the internalization and personal spin and interpretation of their own encounters and interactions, scientifically known as, cognition, could unlock the door to therapeutic breakthroughs.  He identified and labeled factors that chronically and severely might create unresponsive depression.  The criteria include, over generalization, arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, as well as overly critical magnification of any shortcomings and petty minimalization of praising any successful accomplishment.  This led him to seek out the fundamental foundational ways that the individual processes emotional and informational data and stimuli, from the mundane to the universal.

In the course of scientific achievement, nothing happens in a vacuum.  Coincidentally, Albert Ellis was approaching depression in a parallel fashion.  His theory was titled, "Rational emotive behavior therapy."  As time passed and strategies of different theories cross pollinated, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy emerged.  The goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is to assist the person identify and change "distorted" or "unrealistic" ways of thinking.  Since therapy is the mechanism that energizes both emotion and then behavior, treatment is a collaborative effort, the patient of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has far more empowerment than in more traditional modes.  

Cognitive Behavior Therapy is also a type of psychotherapy effective when irrational thoughts are the catalyst for anxiety disorders, phobias, and other dysfunctional behavior like disfunctional sleep patterns, bipolar disorder and OCD.  Thought distortions cause psychological distress and subsequently, harmful behavioral patterns.  Along with proper mood stabilizing medications, cognitive behavior therapy can break those repetitive thinking patterns.  The therapist strives to understand the point of view of the patient.  The therapist can then help correct the patient by testing thier irrational thoughts against reality.  Coping strategies and techniques to improve awareness, introspection and evaluation are taught.  Self empowerment is achieved by the daily homework that the patient must work on to reduce relliance on the theapist and rely more on newly discovered skills.