Brilliant Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 2nd Edition

Beck’s model of depression

Beck proposed that some people are often vulnerable to depression because of negative assumptions laid down in childhood. Under normal circumstances, he suggested, these beliefs may lie dormant but a critical incident is all it takes to activate them and unleash a stream of associated negative thoughts. Repeated exposure to these thoughts, Beck argued, in due course produces the organic, physical symptoms of a depressive disorder.

In Duncan’s case, his parents’ reaction to having an unplanned child had contributed to assumptions and core beliefs about being unwanted and unvalued. These niggling misgivings had not troubled him unduly during his upbringing, offset as they were by many other positive experiences. He had ...