Cognitive Therapy of Aaron Beck

Origin

Cognitive therapy (CT) is a type of psychotherapy that was developed by American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck in the 1960’s. Cognitive therapy seeks to help the patient overcome emotional difficulties by identifying and changing dysfunctional thinking, negative emotional responses and the subsequent unfavorable behavior stemming from them. This process involves helping patients develop skills for modifying their beliefs, identifying distorted thinking and relating to people in newer and different ways, owing to the change in behavior patterns.

Psychosis: What you must know

Psychosis is a term used to broadly describe conditions in which an individual has lost touch with reality. Schizophrenia forms the prototype of all psychotic problems. The picture of schizophrenia embraces a very diverse range of disturbance in perception, thought, motivation, emotion and movement. Schizophrenia is considered as an illness in which there are frank periods of disturbed behavior in the individual's life; set upon a background of continued emotional disturbance and disability which gets expressed in almost every walk of life. 

Quantifying irrationality

Life isn’t perfect. Things don't go the way they were ‘supposed’ to or ‘destined’ to or the way you ‘expected’ or ‘wanted’ them to. Not even the way they ‘should’ have been. Life is full of expectations and desires and wants that occasionally stay unfulfilled and unconsummated. And truly, it’s not unjust to want to relish the pleasures this world has to offer us. After all we work so hard for them. Everyone works and toils for peace and joy. Asceticism or self-denial is not the route to nirvana. But rationality is a must. Living within rational limits of expectations allows one to have them fulfilled more frequently. And that fetches contentment without doubt.