During the late 1970s when I was a college psychology student, I worked in two different psychiatric hospitals. I was enthralled with my studies and loved learning what made people tick. Especially what motivated them. At the same time I was disturbed by the therapy I was witnessing. Depressed patients were heavily sedated and walked the halls like zombies. When that didn’t work, they were given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), better known as shock treatment. I rarely saw anyone improve.

Disgusted, I abandoned my long-term goal of becoming a therapist and put my psych training to work in the advertising industry. What I didn’t know was that a revolution was beginning at the fringes of psychology. Dr. Aaron Temkin Beck was pioneering the concept of cognitive therapy. It is an idea based on thoughts becoming feelings. Negative thoughts lead to depression, and positive thoughts lead to feelings of well-being. It’s a simple, common-sense concept that applies Occam’s razor to the complexity of psychotherapy, rooting out core causes of depression. Although I personally believe it’s essential to discover the core causes, I also think it’s great that by changing your thoughts, you can feel good now.

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