From Sigmund Freud to Aaron Beck

Research shows catastrophising can pose a serious threat to mental health.

Psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud and others in the first half of the 20th Century, tackled mental illness by trying to uncover suppressed fears and desires resulting from early childhood events.

But by the middle of the century, psychotherapists such as Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck started looking for alternative ways to guide people through their distress. They focused on people’s conscious thought processes that were distorted and could lead to distress.