David D. Burns author photo
Image via Wikimedia Commons, sous licence CC BY-SA 4.0.

David D. Burns

Né(e): September 19, 1942 – Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

David D. Burns is an American psychiatrist and author whose work centers on mood disorders, cognitive behavioral therapy, and self-help psychology. Best known for Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy and later Feeling Great, he helped popularize CBT for depression and anxiety; Feeling Good has sold millions of copies worldwide.

Biographie et Parcours de l'Auteur

David D. Burns built his career at the meeting point of medicine, philosophy, and practical self-help. As a student at Amherst College, where he studied philosophy of science, he also showed an early literary bent; he later recalled writing a poem there about Emily Dickinson that was eventually published. He went on to earn his M.D. at Stanford University School of Medicine and complete his psychiatry residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Early in his career, at Penn’s Depression Research Unit, he investigated the biology of depression and won recognition for serotonin research. Yet that work became a turning point: unconvinced by the chemical-imbalance model and dissatisfied with slow clinical results, he moved toward cognitive therapy and left a tenure-track path to pursue methods he believed helped patients more directly. ((https://feelinggood.com/about/))

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Citations

quote
Accepting yourself as you are, warts and all, is actually the greatest change a human being can make
-Forced Empathy: A Master Class-Part 2 of 2
quote
TEAM-CBT isn’t just therapy—it’s swimming in an ocean of gold
-What’s Special About TEAM-CBT?
quote
I don’t recommend “methods” for “problems.” I use TEAM, a process
-Ask David: Perfectionism, Procrastination, and More!
quote
negative thoughts trigger feelings of depression and anxiety, which, in turn trigger more negative thoughts
-Ask David: What Comes First? Negative Thoughts or Feelings?
quote
If you screw up, you can focus on what specific error you made, rather than obsessing about your inferior or defective “self.”
-Do You Have a "Self?"
quote
Part of us wants to change, but part of us resists change and clings to the status quo
-Error #5: Failure to Set the Agenda
quote
Acceptance is more of a decision than a technique
-Ask David: Unfairness; Erasing Depression with Lasers; TEAM in the UK; Most Powerful Technique
quote
At any rate, I have always taught my students that each negative feeling has a healthy and an unhealthy version
-Ask David: Depression, schizophrenia, and more!
quote
When he accepted his unhappiness, instead of struggling in shame to make it go away, it disappeared
-Ask David: Do you have a "self" or "personality?" And more

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@Matt, YC alum
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@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC
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"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore
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@OojasSalunke
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@Leo, Law Student, UPenn
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