The Psychology Book

THERE’S MORE

TO THE SURFACE

THAN MEETS

THE EYE

AARON BECK (1921– )

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Cognitive therapy

BEFORE

1890s Sigmund Freud

proposes an analytic approach

to psychotherapy.

1940s and 1950s Fritz Perls,

with Laura Perls and Paul

Goodman, develops Gestalt

therapy—a cognitive approach

to psychotherapy.

1955 Albert Ellis introduces

Rational Emotive Behavior

Therapy (REBT), breaking with

the tradition of analysis.

AFTER

1975 Martin Seligman defines

“learned helplessness” in

Helplessness: On Depression,

Development, and Death.

1980s A blend of Beck’s ideas

and the behavior therapies of

Joseph Wolpe give rise to new

cognitive behavioral therapies.

A

fter psychology had

become established as

a distinct field of study,

around the turn of the 20th century,

two main schools, or approaches,

emerged. These were experimental

psychology, which was dominated

by the behaviorism originating

from Ivan Pavlov’s experiments,

and which was enthusiastically

championed in the US; and clinical

psychology, which was largely

based on the psychoanalytical

approach of Sigmund Freud and

his followers. The two had little in

common. Behaviorists rejected the

introspective, philosophical

approach of earlier psychologists,

and strove to put the subject on a

174