Unconscious processes in Aaron Beck’s cognitive theory: Reconstruction and discussion

Abstract

The concept of the unconscious has always provoked controversy. While some psychologists treated it as a relic of metaphysics or a manifestation of psychoanalytic mysticism, others saw it as an important explanatory construct. At the heart of this conflict, there is the theory proposed by Aaron Beck, the originator of cognitive therapy. According to the founding myth, he rejected the concept of the dynamic unconscious to develop an evidence-based approach. The aim of this article is to reconstruct and analyze Beck’s understanding of the unconscious based on his published works and archival materials and to identify the values that guided his theoretical choices. We argue that Beck’s conceptualization of the unconscious ignores contradictory conscious and unconscious representations and attitudes and offers no systematic model of basic needs and the conflicts between them. We conclude that this stems from Beck’s attachment to the phenomenological understanding of the psyche, emphasis on humanism in the therapeutic relationship, fear of cognitive theory losing its distinctness, and caution in formulating theories.