ABSTRACT
Depressive illness was the first area of research in cognitive therapy (CT; Beck 1963, 1964, 1967) and remains to this day the psychological disorder where the most evidence has been accumulated, theoretically, empirically and clinically. In this chapter, we describe briefly the cognitive theory of depression and review the clinical evidence for the efficacy of CT in depression. We then describe the structure and process of formulation, using case examples. Some preliminary data relating to a research project on the formulation process in depression will also be presented. We use the terms ‘formulation’ and ‘conceptualisation’ interchangeably, as is usually the case in CT. An equivalent term used in behaviour therapy is ‘functional analysis’ (Kanfer and Phillips 1970).
