At 88, the University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Aaron Beck has lived long enough to see the methods he has championed, which fall under the head Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, win the day. He has outlasted early skepticism about his work to find himself “the most well-known psychotherapist alive.”

Those are the words of the writer Daniel B. Smith, who profiles Beck in the latest issue of The American Scholar. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy “is taught in nearly every clinical psychology and psychiatric residency program in America,” Smith notes, “and it is the cornerstone of a new, $117 million program implemented by the U.S. Army to foster mental resiliency in soldiers.” A major study, in 2005, found that CBT was as effective as Paxil in the treatment of depression in the short-term and more effective in the long-term (a relapse rate of 31 percent as opposed to 76 percent).