Bruno Bettelheim

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Bruno Bettelheim
Bruno Bettelheim
Bruno Bettelheim
Born August 28, 1903
Vienna
Died March 13, 1990
Silver Spring, Colorado
Citizenship United States
Nationality Austria
Fields psychology
Known for child psychologist

Bruno Bettelheim (August 28, 1903 – March 13, 1990) was a Jewish native of Austria who escaped as a refugee to the US before it entered World War II. There he continued his career as a child psychologist and writer. He was an internationally known figure, prominent for his studies of autism and success in treating emotionally disturbed children.

Although he was widely respected for his work, changing understanding of the biological basis of autism and some mental illnesses has meant less attachment to some of Bettelheim's theories. Bettelheim subscribed to the refrigerator mother theory of autism, which enjoyed considerable influence into the 1960s and 1970s in the US, although there were suggestions he was changing his thinking.[1] It was in keeping with psychological theories that blamed most emotional illnesses on the parents, especially the mother. Since research has provided greater understanding of the biological bases of autism and other illnesses, the theory is accorded little merit now.[2]

Bruno Bettelheim was the author of The Uses of Enchantment, published in 1976, among numerous other works. In it he analyzed fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychology. The book was awarded the U.S. Critic's Choice Prize for criticism in 1976 and the National Book Award in the category of Contemporary Thought in 1977. Bettelheim discussed the emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales for children, including traditional tales at one time considered too dark, such as those collected and published by the Brothers Grimm.

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[edit] Background

When his father died, Bettelheim left his university studies to care for his family's lumber business. Bettelheim and his first wife Gina took care of Patsy, an American child whom he later described as autistic. Patsy lived in the Bettelheim home in Vienna for seven years. Bettelheim returned to his education, earning a degree in philosophy and producing a dissertation on the history of art. Having discharged his obligations to his family's business, Bettelheim returned as a mature student in his 30s to the University of Vienna. He never completed a Ph.D. He embellished his resume.

In the Austrian academic culture of Bettelheim's time, one could not study the history of art without mastering aspects of psychology. The formal study of the role of Jungian archetypes in art, and art as an expression of the Freudian subconscious, were prerequisites for a Doctoral dissertation in the History of Art in 1938 at Vienna University.

Bettelheim was Jewish by birth, although his family was secular. When the Germans occupied Austria, he was deported with other Austrian Jews to Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps from 1938 to 1939. As a result of an amnesty Hitler declared on his birthday, April 20, 1939, Bettelheim and hundreds of other prisoners were released, which saved his life. He may also have used bribery to get released. Bettelheim drew on the experience in the concentration camps in his later work.

[edit] Life and career in the US

Bettelheim arrived by ship as a refugee in New York in the fall of 1939 to join his wife Gina who had already immigrated. They divorced because she had gotten involved with someone else during their separation. He soon moved to Chicago and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1944. He married again in the US.

Bettelheim was appointed a professor of psychology and taught at the University of Chicago from 1944 until his retirement in 1973. He was trained in philosophy, but stated he had also been analyzed by the Viennese psychoanalyst Richard Sterba.

Bettelheim also served as Director of the University of Chicago's Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a home that treated emotionally disturbed children. He changed it and created an environment for milieu therapy, in which children could form strong attachments with adults within a structured but caring environment. His work led to considerable success in treating some of the emotionally disturbed children. He wrote books on both normal and abnormal child psychology and was a major influence in the field, widely respected during his lifetime.

In The Uses of Enchantment, Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of abandonment, death, witches, and injuries, allowed children to grapple with their fears. If they could read and interpret these fairy tales in their own way, he believed they would get a greater sense of meaning and purpose. Bettelheim thought that by engaging with the stories, children would go through emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own lives. He believed that the tales had an organic quality because of having evolved in societies, and that they allowed children to grapple with their darkest fears in symbolic terms.

His writings covered a wide range, beginning shortly after he arrived in the US with an essay on concentration camps and their dynamics. He was long considered an authority on these.[3]

At the end of his life, Bettelheim suffered from depression and appeared to have had difficulties with it much of his life.[4] In 1990, widowed and in failing health, he committed suicide.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Theoretical controversy

When he started, Bettelheim believed that autism did not have an organic basis, but was the result of mothers who withheld appropriate affection from their children and failed to make a good connection. The most extreme point of view was that mothers literally did not want their children to exist. Absent or weak fathers were also blamed. One of his most famous books, The Empty Fortress, contains a complex and detailed explanation of this dynamic in psychoanalytical and psychological terms. He derived his thinking from the qualitative investigation of clinical cases. He also related autistic children to conditions in concentration camps. In A Good Enough Parent, published in 1987, he had come to the view that children were quite resilient and most parents could be "good enough" to help their children make a good start.

Other Freudian analysts, as well as scientists and doctors, followed Bettelheim's lead. They often confused and over-simplified issues with emotionally disturbed or autistic children and their families.

[edit] Personal controversy

In addition to reassessment of Bettelheim's psychological theories, controversy has arisen related to his history and personality. He had a prominent reputation as a compassionate man who had made a career of healing others and was considered an expert on the dynamics of the concentration camps.

After Bettelheim's suicide in 1990, detractors claimed that Bettelheim had a dark side. He was said to have exploded in screaming anger at students, and to have gone beyond firm treatment to corporal punishment or abuse. Three former patients questioned his work and characterized him as a cruel tyrant. Other former patients wrote or spoke publicly to tell how much Bettelheim had helped them, so there seemed no consensus.[5].

Two well-researched biographies published in the US in 1997 revealed evidence that Bettelheim had lied or exaggerated many parts of his background. These included wartime experiences, family life, academic credentials and the use of corporal punishment at the Orthogenic School. While Richard Pollak's biography was strongly negative, that by Nina Sutton offered a different interpretation of some of the material. There were huge gaps between the public reputation Bettelheim had established in the US and some of the facts revealed during this controversy, but there also seemed to be charges that related to the size of his personality. [6][7] [8]

The resulting discussions and controversy called into question whether the University of Chicago had screened Bettelheim closely enough, although appointments to administrative positions such as director of the school do not require an academic appointment. Many parents who had children at the school claimed that their children had been helped by his treatment and continued to consider him a compassionate man.

[edit] Popular culture

In 1974, a four-part series featuring Bruno Bettelheim and directed by Daniel Carlin appeared on French TV - Portrait de Bruno Bettelheim.

Woody Allen included Bettelheim as himself in a cameo in the film Zelig (1983).

Two former patients wrote about their experiences at the school, one in a novel and one in a memoir. Tom Lyons' novel The Pelican and After was published in 1983. Stephen Eliot's memoir, Not the Thing I Was: Thirteen Years at Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenics School, was published in 2003.

Bettelheim and the controversy that arose after his death appeared to influence the character of Dr. Andres de Bosch in Jonathan Kellerman's mystery Bad Love. De Bosch is portrayed as a child psychiatrist who espouses great humanitarian ideals, while practicing bigotry, class prejudice and cruelty. In his life he is lionized for the man he seems to be, but after his death he is exposed as a tyrant and a fraud.

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Robert Gottlieb, "The Strange Case of Dr. B.", The New York Review of Books, 27 Feb 2003, accessed 15 Apr 2008
  2. ^ Feinstein, Adam. 'Refrigerator mother' tosh must go into cold storage. autismconnect. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
  3. ^ Robert Gottlieb, "The Strange Case of Dr. B.", The New York Review of Books, 27 Feb 2003, accessed 15 Apr 2008
  4. ^ Robert Gottlieb, "The Strange Case of Dr. B.", The New York Review of Books, 27 Feb 2003, accessed 15 Apr 2008
  5. ^ Molly Finn, "In the Case of Bruno Bettelheim", First Things, Vol. 74 (June/July 1997), accessed 15 Apr 2008
  6. ^ Sarah Boxer, "The Man He Always Wanted to Be", The New York Times, 26 Jan 1997, accessed 15 Apr 2008
  7. ^ Molly Finn, "In the Case of Bruno Bettelheim", First Things, Vol. 74 (June/July 1997), accessed 15 Apr 2008
  8. ^ Robert Gottlieb, "The Strange Case of Dr. B.", The New York Review of Books, 27 Feb 2003, accessed 15 Apr 2008

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Major works

  • 1943 "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations", Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 38: 417-452.
  • 1950 Love Is Not Enough: The Treatment of Emotionally Disturbed Children, Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
  • 1954 Symbolic Wounds; Puberty Rites and the Envious Male, Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
  • 1955 Truants From Life; The Rehabilitation of Emotionally Disturbed Children, Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
  • 1959 "Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy'", Scientific American, 200, March 1959: 117-126. (About a boy who believes himself to be a robot.)
  • 1960 The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age, The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
  • 1962 Dialogues with Mothers, The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
  • 1967 The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self, The Free Press, New York
  • 1969 The Children of the Dream, Macmillan, London & New York (About the raising of children in kibbutz.)
  • 1974 A Home for the Heart, Knopf, New York. (About Bettelheim's Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago for schizophrenic and autistic children.)
  • 1976 The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Knopf, New York
  • 1979 Surviving and Other Essays, Knopf, New York (Includes the essay "The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank".)
  • 1982 On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning (with Karen Zelan), Knopf, New York
  • 1982 Freud and Man's Soul, Knopf, 1983, ISBN 0394524810
  • 1987 A Good Enough Parent: A Book on Child-Rearing, Knopf, New York
  • 1990 Freud's Vienna and Other Essays, Knopf, New York
  • 1994 Bettelheim, Bruno & Ekstein, Rudolf: Grenzgänge zwischen den Kulturen. Das letzte Gespräch zwischen Bruno Bettelheim und Rudolf Ekstein. In: Kaufhold, Roland (ed.) (1994): Annäherung an Bruno Bettelheim. Mainz (Grünewald): 49–60.

[edit] Critical reviews of Bettelheim (works and person)

  • Angres, Ronald: "Who, Really, Was Bruno Bettelheim?", Commentary, 90, (4), October 1990: 26-30.
  • Bernstein, Richard: "Accusations of Abuse Haunt the Legacy of Dr. Bruno Bettelheim", New York Times, 4 November 1990: "The Week in Review" section.
  • Bersihand, Geneviève: Bettelheim, R. Jauze, Champigny-sur-Marne, 1977.
  • Dundes, Alan: "Bruno Bettelheim's Uses of Enchantment and Abuses of Scholarship". The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 104, N0. 411. (Winter, 1991): 74-83.
  • Ekstein, Rudolf (1994): Mein Freund Bruno (1903–1990). Wie ich mich an ihn erinnere. In: Kaufhold, Roland (ed.) (1994): Annäherung an Bruno Bettelheim. Mainz (Grünewald), S. 87–94.
  • Eliot, Stephen: Not the Thing I Was: Thirteen Years at Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School, St. Martin's Press, 2003.
  • Federn, Ernst (1994): Bruno Bettelheim und das Überleben im Konzentrationslager. In: Kaufhold, Roland (ed.) (1999): Ernst Federn: Versuche zur Psychologie des Terrors. Gießen (Psychosozial-Verlag): 105–108.
  • Finn M (1997). "In the case of Bruno Bettelheim". First Things (74): 44–8. 
  • Fisher, David James: Psychoanalytische Kulturkritik und die Seele des Menschen. Essays über Bruno Bettelheim (co-editor: Roland Kaufhold), Gießen (Psychosozial-Verlag)
  • Frattaroli, Elio: "Bruno Bettelheim's Unrecognized Contribution to Psychoanalytic Thought", Psychoanalytic Review, 81:379-409, 1994.
  • Heisig, James W.: "Bruno Bettelheim and the Fairy Tales", Children's Literature, 6, 1977: 93-115.
  • Kaufhold, Roland (ed.): Pioniere der psychoanalytischen Pädagogik: Bruno Bettelheim, Rudolf Ekstein, Ernst Federn und Siegfried Bernfeld, psychosozial Nr. 53 (1/1993)
  • Kaufhold, Roland (Ed.): Annäherung an Bruno Bettelheim. Mainz, 1994 (Grünewald)
  • Kaufhold, Roland (1999): „Falsche Fabeln vom Guru?“ Der “Spiegel“ und sein Märchen vom bösen Juden Bruno Bettelheim, Behindertenpädagogik, 38. Jhg., Heft 2/1999, S. 160-187.
  • Kaufhold, Roland: Bettelheim, Ekstein, Federn: Impulse für die psychoanalytisch-pädagogische Bewegung. Gießen, 2001 (Psychosozial-Verlag).
  • Kaufhold, Roland/Löffelholz, Michael (Ed.) (2003): “So können sie nicht leben” - Bruno Bettelheim (1903 – 1990). Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie 1-3/2003.
  • Marcus, Paul: Autonomy in the Extreme Situation. Bruno Bettelheim, the Nazi Concentration Camps and the Mass Society, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 1999.
  • Pollak, Richard: The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997.
  • Raines, Theron: Rising to the Light: A Portrait of Bruno Bettelheim, Knopf, New York, 2002.
  • Sutton, Nina: Bruno Bettelheim: The Other Side of Madness, Duckworth Press, London, 1995. (Translated from the French by David Sharp in collaboration with the author. Subsequently published with the title Bruno Bettelheim, a Life and a Legacy.)
  • Zipes, Jack: "On the Use and Abuse of Folk and Fairy Tales with Children: Bruno Bettelheim's Moralistic Magic Wand", in Zipes, Jack: Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1979.


[edit] External links