H EADLINES
Legendary Psychiatrist Aaron Beck Dies at 100
OB ITUARY
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
DR. AARON T. BECK, who
revolutionized the fi eld of
psychiatry, lived in Philadelphia
and was a longtime member of
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in
Wynnewood, died on Nov. 1
at his home. Born on July 18,
1921, he reached 100 earlier
this year.

Beck is known for devel-
oping a psychiatric focus on
the day-to-day behaviors in
patients. Th is ran counter to
the Freudian emphasis on
childhood traumas.

“My major discovery was
that the patients were not
really reporting what was
important to them — the way
they interpreted or misin-
terpreted situations. People
would be trained to make
the corrections,” he said in a
2017 Jewish Exponent article.

“Some of the behaviors they
recognized and were able to
correct included depression,
anxiety, suicide and obses-
sive compulsive disorder. But,
until recently, neither I nor my
students had done research on
schizophrenia, which suppos-
edly would not respond to
psychotherapy.” The Beck Depression
Inventor y, a 21-question
self-inventory, was developed
in 1961 and remains a leading
test for measuring the severity
of depression.

A few years back, Medscape
noted that Beck had authored
more than 600 scholarly articles
and 25 books and ranked him
as the fourth-most infl uential
medical practitioner within the
past century.

“Th e father of cognitive
therapy, Dr. Aaron Temkin
Beck is considered one of
history’s most inf luential
psychotherapists and a pioneer
in the fi eld of mental health,”
the publication wrote. “Dr.

Beck’s early work on psychoan-
alytic theories of depression led
to his development of cogni-
tive therapy, a new theoretical
and clinical orientation, ‘based
on the theory that maladap-
tive thoughts are the causes of
psychological symptoms such
as anxiety and depression,
which in turn cause or exacer-
bate physical symptoms.’”
A native of Providence,
Rhode Island, Beck settled in
Wynnewood in the mid-1950s
to work at Valley Forge Army
Hospital. He spent much of
his career at the University of
Pennsylvania, concluding as
an emeritus professor in the
Department of Psychiatry
of the Perelman School of
Medicine and as director of the
Aaron T. Beck Psychopathology
Research Center.

Beck also is credited with
founding the Beck Initiative
in collaboration with City of
Philadelphia agencies. The
initiative is a partnership
between university researchers
and clinicians and the city’s
behavioral health managed care
system that works to ensure
that consumers have access to
eff ective mental health care.

At Beck’s funeral on Nov. 3 at
Beth Hillel-Beth El, his children
eulogized their patriarch, known
to loved ones as Tim.

Oldest son Roy Beck said
he talked to his father oft en,
including every day from April
2020 to his death.

In his 90s, Tim told his son
he was reading a biography
of President and Union Army
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

“He said he just didn’t
know enough about that time
period,” Roy Beck said.

Later, Roy Beck said his
father was working on a paper
at the time of his death, despite
being bedridden and too weak
to move for himself.

“Most days, when I asked
how his day went, he said, ‘I
had a good day,’” Roy Beck
recalled. “I’ve never retired because
I love what I’m doing,” Aaron
Beck said in the 2017 Exponent
article. “All the time I’m on
to new discoveries and appli-
cations. So there hasn’t been
any phase in my professional
career where I wasn’t working
on something new.”
Judge Alice Beck Dubow
of the Pennsylvania Superior
Court said she went over to
her father’s house for lunch
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H eadlines
Dr. Aaron T. Beck
Courtesy of MoonLoop Photography, c/o Beck Institute
extra care,” she said, adding
that, “He nurtured my intellec-
tual development.”
Dr. Judy Beck followed her
father into the cognitive behav-
ioral therapy field, founding
the Beck Institute in Bala
Cynwyd with him in 1994.

Later in his life, she noticed
that he took a particular
interest in an illness he had
overlooked: schizophrenia.

Aaron Beck recognized that
his usual therapeutic approach
— focusing on a patient’s
negative habits and views
— didn’t work with schizo-
phrenic patients. Instead, he
had to motivate them to focus
on times when they were at
their best.

Those afflicted with schizo-
phrenia suffer from a feeling of
disconnection. It was vital to
make them feel like they could
use their strengths to connect,
Judy Beck said.

Her father even told her that
maybe he had made a mistake
with cognitive behavioral
therapy, his life’s work. Maybe
he should have been focusing
on people’s strengths all along.

“It demonstrated his flexi-
bility,” she said.

Son Dan Beck was not
planning on speaking at his
father’s funeral. He didn’t
think he could sum up a
65-year relationship in a few
minutes. But the morning of the
service, he took a walk around
Wynnewood and it came to him.

Dan Beck recalled that,
given his father’s status, his
young friends pictured his
house as some lively intellec-
tual salon. But when they came
over, they didn’t find Freud
himself arguing with Aaron
Beck in the living room,
he said.

Instead, the Becks were just
a normal Philadelphia family.

They even went to Wildwood
every August to go on the
boardwalk rides.

Dan Beck’s earliest memory
with his father was of him
singing, “Oh Danny Boy,”
throwing him in the air and
catching him. The son cracked
up every time. Now, he does
the same thing with his kids.

During a difficult period in
his 30s, Dan Beck often asked
his father for advice.

“He said, ‘Just write down
three things you want to do
today, and as you do them,
cross them off,’” Dan recalled.

“‘Don’t worry about tomorrow.

Tomorrow will work out.’”
“He was right,” Dan Beck
said. “Tomorrow did work
out.” Aaron Beck is survived
by his wife, Phyllis; children
Roy, Judith, Daniel and Alice;
10 grandchildren; and 10
great-grandchildren. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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Dr. Aaron T. Beck
Courtesy of James J. Craig, c/o of Beck Institute
several years ago and began
discussing one of Dr. Beck’s
patients at Norristown State
Hospital. The patient, who
suffered from schizophrenia,
had assaulted an aide and
gotten incarcerated.

Dr. Beck argued to his
youngest child that every day
the patient spent behind bars
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would erode the progress
they’d made. His daughter said
a crime had been committed.

The psychiatrist saw his
daughter’s point, but he was
still upset.

Years later, Beck Dubow
realized that her father was
right. “There should have been
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