What Are The Implications Of The 13th Chapter Of Aaron Beck's Prisoners Of Hate

Aaron Beck’s Prisoners of Hate (1999) provides a great in depth look at the causes of anger, hostility, and violence. Becks central message, that is illustrated throughout various chapters, is that all hate is hate, no matter the scale. In other words, the same mechanisms that cause people to hate their spouse is the same hate that is used to justify war. This fact is hardly intuitive, but Beck’s use of a broad variety of stories, backed up by cognitive analyses, shows just how similar all anger, hate, and hostility truly are. With that being said, Beck does not leave it at that, but rather provides numerous ways of correcting hate and freeing those who are prisoners of their own negative cognitions and emotions. Amongst numerous potential

Beck describes his development of therapy that focused the patient on trying to identify the automatic thoughts that preceded a negative feeling or behavior. Beck believed that by identifying the thought that occurred right before, the patient would be able to unlock the deep rooted purpose of the feeling or impulsive action. He then goes on to describe how depressed individuals commonly have a automatic thought that is related to failure or inadequacy. By identifying these thoughts, patient not only gain insight into their reasons for the way they think and act, but rather, when the automatic thought occurs, they can more effectively identify and stop themselves from taking action. This could mean the difference between a husband reacting to his automatic thought and hitting his wife impulsively, or acknowledging the automatic thought and removing himself from the situation before his behaviors escalate. As for my own use of Beck’s techniques, I will integrate cognitive aspects of therapy more heavily on clients that seem to be suffering from their anger, hate, hostility, or prejudice. Techniques such as the thought watching can be simple ways of slowing down clients when they are being influenced by their cognitions or emotions. In such cases as domestic violence, Beck’s automatic thought technique, as previously described, is certainly a useful tool for cognitive behavioral