Michael Thase og Aaron Temkin Beck skriver i kapitel 1 i Wright Thase Beck Ludgate 1993, at 

"The theoretical basis of CT has been derived from these three primary sources: (1) the phenomenological perspective, (2) the structural view of personality and psychopathology, and (3) comtemporary work in cognitive and behavioral psychology."

Thase og Beck henviser til Aaron Temkin Becks bog fra 1976, hvor der blandt andet er referencer til Sigmund Freud, Victor Frankl, A. Adler, K. Horney, H.S. Sullivan, Jean Piaget, græsk, stoisk filosofi, George Kelly og Albert Ellis