Beck’s emphasis on the role of conscious thought processes in mental disorders was novel. Traditionally, psychoanalysis had taught that mental problems arise from unconscious conflicts. For example, in the late 1950s, when Beck began his investigations, depressive illness was commonly viewed as “introjected anger.” Freud had argued that depressed patients feel hostile and angry toward someone they love. Because patients cannot deal with negative feelings about someone who is important, needed, and valued, they handle those feelings by repressing them and unconsciously directing them against
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