Helen Schucman - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Helen was born Helen Dora Cohn in 1909 to Sigmund Cohn, a prosperous metallurgical chemist, and Rose Black, who had married on October 18, 1896 in Manhattan. Helen had a brother, Adolph Cohn, who was 14 years her senior. Though her parents were both half-Jewish, they were non-observant. Helen's mother Rose dabbled in Theosophy and various expressions of Christianity such as Christian Science and the Unity School of Christianity. However, it was the family housekeeper, Idabel, a Baptist, who had the deepest religious influence on Helen while she was growing up. In 1921, when she was 12, Helen visited Lourdes, France, where she had a spiritual experience, and in 1922 she was baptized as a Baptist. She received her B.A. from New York University (NYU), (1931–1935), where she met fellow student Louis Schucman in 1932 and whom she married, in a 10-minute ceremony in a local rabbi's office, on May 26, 1933. Louis owned one or more bookstores on "Book Row" in Manhattan, and during the early years of their marriage Helen worked at his main store. Growing restless in her early forties, she returned to NYU to study psychology where she received her M.A. in 1952, followed by her Ph.D. (1952–1957).