Well Being: Professor Beck at 90: Not the retiring type

Aaron Beck is the Joe Paterno of psychiatry. The University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus known as the father of cognitive therapy still works five days a week, training therapists, supervising researchers, conducting studies, writing scholarly papers and books. Last month, he turned 90, and he has no intention of retiring.

"It's not a concept that crosses my mind," he said, "because I'm happy with what I'm doing and there's no need to retire."

Happiness experts say that one of the keys to fulfillment and contentment is to be engaged in meaningful work. That's certainly the case with Beck, who has a full head of white hair and a benevolent face that is remarkably smooth. The other day, when I visited him at his Wynnewood home, he spoke enthusiastically about his current challenge: using cognitive therapy to help schizophrenics.

"Why did I pick schizophrenia? Because I felt I hadn't suffered enough," he quipped.

Schizophrenia is notoriously difficult to treat, and Beck is encouraged by a soon-to-be published study that he said shows cognitive therapy may improve functioning and reduce the delusions that wreak havoc with schizophrenics' lives.

For the uninitiated, cognitive therapy is based on the premise that how we think affects how we feel. Good thoughts lead to good feelings, and vice versa. The notion has a long pedigree. Epictetus: "People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them." Martha Washington: "The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances." Abraham Lincoln: "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Depressed people, Beck has theorized, are in the grip of a "negative triad." They have a negative view of themselves, the world, and the future. Using evidence-based science, he has spent his career proving this truth and showing how changing the way we think can change the way we feel.

The Black Dog of Depression has never bitten him.

"I'm very fortunate. I was born with happy genes. I go under the assumption that every day the sun will come out and life will go on. One of the reasons I don't struggle is that I try to keep things in perspective. I don't get as ruffled as I might because I ask myself: Is it fatal? Is it the end of the world? Will I be permanently disabled?"