Biography

Early years

Aaron T. Beck was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 18, 1921, the youngest of five children. Both of his parents were Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States. Two of Beck's siblings had died before his birth, an older brother in childhood and an older sister in the influenza pandemic of 1919. As a result of these tragedies, Beck's mother was chronically depressed for several years and became overprotective of her youngest son. Beck came to think that he was a replacement for his sister, and that his mother was disappointed that he was not a girl. When Beck was seven years old, he broke an arm in a playground accident. The broken bone became infected, resulting in a generalized septicemia (blood poisoning) that kept him in the hospital long enough to miss promotion into second grade. Beck recalled...