that simply talking to another person can lead to psychological changes. In addition, 
these treatments highlighted the importance of nonconscious information processing. 
Although there is little evidence to prove the existence of many of the unconscious 
motivations proposed by Freud, there is evidence that suggests people are frequently 
unaware of the perceptions and interpretations that contribute to their understanding 
of their environment. Finally, although many speciﬁc aspects of his theory were prob -
ably misguided, Freud highlighted the importance of early experience in determining 
 psychological functioning later in life.
The Birth of Cognitive Therapy
In the 1960s and 1970s, a number of psychologists and psychiatrists, disenchanted 
with psychodynamic psychotherapies, began to explore other ways of helping their 
patients and clients. Working independently, psychiatrist Aaron Beck (1963; 1964; 1967; 
1976) and psychologists Albert Ellis (1962; 1989) and Donald Meichenbaum (1977) each 
developed new forms of therapy based on the premise that people’s difﬁculties with 
depression, anxiety, anger, and related problems stem from the ways in which they think 
about themselves, their environment, and the future.
For example, fear was assumed to stem from a belief that a particular situation was 
threatening or dangerous. Beck, Ellis, and Meichenbaum each developed treatments