Bettelheim, Bruno

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'''Bruno Bettelheim''' (August 28, 1903 – March 13, 1990) was an [[Austria|Austrian]]-born [[United States|American]] [[developmental psychology|developmental psychologist]], widely known for his studies with [[autism|autistic]] and emotionally disturbed children. His "refrigerator mother" theory of autism, now largely disfavored, enjoyed considerable attention and influence while Bettelheim was alive, with unfortunate consequences for the mothers of autistic children. His "milieu therapy," however, is still widely used in the treatment of [[emotion]]ally disturbed children. Bettelheim's own life is an example of the very process he described—the devastating effects of inhumane treatment on the psychological health of human beings. After his death, much of Bettelheim's work was discredited, although his recognition that the social environment plays a significant role in healthy [[psychological development]] remains a valuable contribution to the understanding of human nature.
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==Life==
  
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Bruno Bettelheim was born in [[Vienna]], [[Austria]], the son of a wood merchant from a middle class [[Jew|Jewish]] family. He entered the [[University of Vienna]], but in order to take care of his family business, he was forced to leave the university when his father became ill. He was twenty-three when his father died of [[syphilis]], a shameful experience that marked Bettelheim’s entire life. In 1930, he married a schoolteacher who was a disciple of [[Anna Freud]].
  
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During the 1930s, Bruno and his wife, Gina, took care of an [[autism|autistic]] child who lived at their home in Vienna for seven years. After ten years, Bettelheim returned to his education, earning a Ph.D. in [[philosophy]] in 1938. He was among the last Jews awarded a doctorate degree before the [[Nazism|Nazi]]s annexed Austria in 1938. His dissertation, on the history of [[art]], was entitled ''The Problem of Beauty in Nature and Modern Aesthetics.''
  
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'''Bruno Bettelheim''' ([[August 28]], [[1903]] - [[March 13]], [[1990]]) was an [[Austrians|Austrian]]-born [[United States|American]] [[writer]] and [[child psychology|child psychologist]].  He is widely known for his studies of autism. His "refrigerator mother" theory of autism, now largely disfavored, enjoyed considerable currency and influence while Bettelheim was alive [http://www.nndb.com/people/929/000115584/].
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In the late 1930s, Bettelheim traveled across Nazi state [[hospital]]s in [[Germany]] during the infamous "T-4" [[euthanasia]] program, the start of his research in mental patients. He became an accredited [[psychiatry|psychiatrist]] and returned to Austria.  
  
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Correction: The above paragraph gives the false impression that Bruno Bettelheim originated the "refrigerator mother" theory of autism.
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Being a Jew, Bettelheim was arrested in 1939 by the [[Gestapo]] and put into a [[concentration camp]]. He spent ten and a half months incarcerated, first in [[Dachau]] and then in [[Buchenwald]]. Records of his internment show Bettelheim was hired as the camp doctor to overview camp prisoners' [[mental health]]. His release from internment was purchased, which was possible prior to the commencement of hostilities in [[World War II]].
  
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From: Autism Watch - Your Scientific Guide to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Autism [2] The "Refrigerator Mother" Hypothesis of Autism By James R. Laidler, MD
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He lost everything however, and even his wife left him.  
  
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This article says it is hard to find the first use of the term “refrigerator mother” as a hypothesis for the cause of autism. But it is easy to find out who first proposed it. In his 1943 paper, Leo Kanner said that in his experience he recognized lack of parental warmth and attachment to their autistic children. In a 1949 paper, he attributed autism to a “genuine lack of maternal warmth”. This gave birth to “Refrigerator Mother” theory of autism.
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He remarried in 1941, to Gertrude Weinfeld, with whom he had two daughters and one son. After his release, Bettelheim moved to [[Australia]] in 1939, and later to the [[United States]] in 1943, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1944. He earned money by teaching [[art history]], German [[literature]], and [[psychology]]. He published his experiences from the concentration camps in his 1943 ''Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations.'' 
  
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In a 1960 Time Magazine interview, Kanner described the mothers of autistic children as “just happening to defrost enough to produce a child.”
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He eventually became a professor of psychology, teaching at the [[University of Chicago]] from 1944 until his retirement in 1973.  
  
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The most significant part of Bettelheim's professional life was spent serving as director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the [[University of Chicago]], a home for emotionally disturbed children. He wrote books on both normal and abnormal [[child psychology]] and was well respected during his lifetime. His work at the Orthogenic School became world famous, and his [[therapy]], called "milieu therapy," widely used. His book ''The Uses of Enchantment'' recast [[fairy tale]]s in terms of [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] psychology. It 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.
  
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==Background and career==
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Bettelheim suffered from [[depression (psychology)|depression]] at the end of his life, especially after the death of his wife in 1984. In 1987 he suffered a stroke. In 1990, he committed [[suicide]], on the same night when, fifty-two years earlier, the Nazis had entered Austria. He died in Silver Spring, Maryland.
  
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Upon his father's death, Bettelheim was forced to leave university in order to care for his family [[lumber]] business. During this time Bruno and his first wife Gina took care of the autistic American who lived in their home in Vienna for the seven years. After ten years, he returned to his education, earning a degree in [[philosophy]] and authoring a [[dissertation]] on the [[history of art]].  Although interested in [[psychology]] for much of his life, he never studied it formally.
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==Work==
  
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Correction: The above paragraph says that Bruno Bettelheim did not studied psychology formally. In the Austrian academic culture of Bettelheim’s time one could not study and master the History of Art without studying and mastering aspects of psychology
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Bruno Bettelheim’s work must be analyzed in the context of the time he lived in. He was a witness of great [[social change]], from the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] and [[World War I]], to [[Nazism]] and [[World War II]]. He was greatly influenced by the [[psychoanalysis]] of [[Sigmund Freud]], and studied the work of his followers, including [[Carl Jung]] and [[Anna Freud]]. Bettelheim chose [[psychoanalysis]] as the main paradigm in his studies, but was also interested in the effect of social systems on individuals.
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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. The Jungian perspective given below shows that Bettelheim (with responsibility for the family business, seven years experience with the personal care for an autistic child in his home in the 1930's, then with these maturing experiences in his 30's returned to the University of Vienna receiving a PhD. then to be imprisoned part of 1938-39 in Nazi Concentration Camps. Look how well he answers the call of Carl Jung, given below, for knowing the human psyche!
 
  
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From Personality Theories By Dr. C. George Boeree 
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===Concentration camps and “milieu therapy”===
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[http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html]
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One of the first works Bettelheim published was his ''Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations,'' in which he analyzed inmates’ behavior in [[concentration camp]]s. Bettelheim spent more than ten months in Nazi camps, during which time he studied the effects of the extreme environment on the fellow prisoners, the prison guards, and himself. In the article, Bettelheim used [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] principles, especially [[Anna Freud]]'s concept of “identification with the aggressor,” to explain why many Jews took on the values of the aggressor in order to survive. He saw many Jews falling prey to “victim’s guilt”—the feeling that they “deserved such destiny”—and called it the “ghetto mentality.” In 1945, General [[Eisenhower]] asked all his officers in [[Europe]] to read the article, as a remedy for the shock of witnessing concentration camp survivors.  
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Carl Jung wrote, "Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology.  He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through out the world.  There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul."
 
  
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In 1960, Bettelheim published ''The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age,'' in which he explained his theory of the relationship between the external environment and [[mental disorder]]. He drew inspiration for the theory from his experience in the concentration camps, where he witnessed normal people going insane, under the influence of the dehumanizing environment. Bettelheim concluded that the environment greatly influences one’s sanity, and thus assumed that the process could be reversed—that a positive environment could act as a remedy for mental disorder.  
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Bettelheim traveled across Nazi state hospitals in Germany, during the infamous [[T-4 euthanasia program]] of the 1930s, the start of his research in mental patients. Bettelheim resumed his studies to become an accredited [[psychiatrist]] when he returned to Austria under the intense anti-Semitism of Nazi-era [[Germany]].  
 
  
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By birth an [[Austria|Austrian]] [[Jew]], Bettelheim was interned at [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]] and [[Buchenwald]] [[concentration camp]]s from [[1938]] to [[1939]]. Records of his internment shown Bettelheim was hired as the camp doctor to overview camp prisoners' mental health. His release from internment was purchased, as remained possible prior to the commencement of hostilities in [[World War II]].   
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Bettelheim developed his "milieu therapy" at the [[University of Chicago]]'s Orthogenic School. There he created a therapeutic environment that supported the needs of severely disturbed children. The rooms were clean and orderly, and the children were free to move from place to place. The staff was instructed to unconditionally accept all children’s behavior.   
  
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He arrived in [[Australia]] in 1939 and later to the [[United States]] in 1943, becoming a [[naturalized citizen]] in [[1944]]. Bettelheim eventually became a professor of psychology, teaching at the [[University of Chicago]] from [[1944]] until his retirement in [[1973]]. He was trained in philosophy (Ph.D. in [[Aesthetics]]) and was analyzed by the Viennese psychoanalyst [[Richard Sterba]].
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In ''The Informed Heart,'' Bettelheim was critical of modern society. He compared his experiences from the concentration camps—his attempts to preserve a sense of autonomy, integrity, and personal freedom—with life in modern, mass society. He viewed mass society, like that of [[United States]] or Western Europe, as dehumanizing and depersonalizing, forcing people to behave in a certain way. He noted that people have to struggle to maintain their sanity, much like inmates in the camps.
  
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The most significant part of Bettelheim's professional life was spent serving as director of the [[Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School]] at the [[University of Chicago]], a home for emotionally disturbed children. He wrote books on both normal and abnormal [[child psychology]] and was respected by many during his lifetime. His book ''The Uses of Enchantment'' recast [[fairy tale]]s in terms of [[Freud|Freudian]] psychology. It was awarded the U.S. Critic's Choice Prize for criticism in 1976 & the National Book Award in the category of Contemporary Thought in 1977.
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===”Refrigerator mother theory”===
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The idea of the “refrigerator mother,” recognizing the association between the lack of parental warmth and attachment and [[autism|autistic]] disorder, had been proposed by Leo Kanner in 1943, and further developed to attribute autism to a “genuine lack of maternal warmth.” Bettelheim took over Kanner’s idea and developed it into his famous theory. He claimed that unemotional and cold mothering was the very cause of childhood autism.  
  
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Bettelheim suffered from [[clinical depression|depression]] at the end of his life, and in [[1990]] committed [[suicide]].
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Bettelheim was convinced that autism had no organic basis, but that instead it was mainly the result of upbringing by mothers who did not want their children to live, either consciously or unconsciously, which in turn caused them to restrain contact with them and fail to establish an emotional connection. Absent fathers were also blamed. Bettelheim presented a complex and detailed explanation in psychoanalytical and psychological terms, derived from the qualitative investigation of clinical cases in one of his most famous books, ''The Empty Fortress'' (1967).  
  
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==Controversy==
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Bettelheim believed that children with autism and [[schizophrenia]] behave much like helpless [[concentration camp]] inmates. He argued that the main reason was the negative parental interaction with infants during critical early stages in their [[psychological development]]. Such children learned to blame themselves for the negative atmosphere in their families, and withdrew into fantasy worlds to prevent further problems.
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Bettelheim's most significant [[theory]] claimed that un[[emotion]]al and cold mothering was the cause of childhood [[autism]]. This theory, now [[repudiation|repudiated]], caused severe damage to thousands of families who believed his untested claims [http://www.richmond.edu/~bmayes/pdf/Finn_Bettelheim.pdf], [http://www.nndb.com/people/929/000115584/].
 
  
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Bettelheim was convinced that [[autism]] had no organic basis but that it instead was mainly influenced by the upbringing of mothers who did not want their children to live, either consciously or unconsciously, which in turn caused them to restrain contact with them and fail to establish an emotional connection. [[Absent father]]s were also blamed. A complex and detailed explanation in psychoanalytical and psychological terms, derived from the qualitative investigation of clinical cases can be found in one of his most famous books, ''[[The Empty Fortress]]''.  
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===Other work===
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Bettelheim traveled a lot, delivering public speeches and doing field research. In ''The Children of the Dream,'' (1969), he analyzed the life of children in [[Israel]]i [[kibbutz]]im. He compared the style of child rearing in the [[United States]] with that in [[Israel]], claiming that cultural differences play a significant role in how Israeli and U.S. parents raised their children. Thus, he argued that it is meaningless to talk about “better” [[parenting]] styles in either country in general, but rather about appropriate parenting styles in particular cases.
  
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Other [[Freudian]] analysts, as well as scientists and medics, followed Bettelheim's lead. They often confused and over-simplified. This led to some blaming the mother for the child's autism, a theory which Bettelheim was against. This is not understood by many of his detractors, who criticise a facile version of his work.  
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Bettelheim's ''The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales'' (1976) became his best selling book. In it, he analyzed the effects of [[fairy tales]] on the development of children’s psyche, and claimed that reading fantasies and fairy tales were part of a healthy child's psychological development.
  
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Beyond Bettelheim's psychological theories, controversy has existed regarding his history and personality. After Bettelheim's suicide in 1990, his detractors claimed that Bettelheim had a dark side. He was known for exploding in screaming anger at students. Three ex-patients questioned his work, characterizing him as a cruel [[tyrant]] [www.richmond.edu/~bmayes/pdf/Finn_Bettelheim.pdf]. Critics also claim that he spanked his patients despite publicly rejecting spanking as "brutal". Treatments based on his autism theories to help children, some reporting rates of cure around 85%, were questioned.
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===Criticism===
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Other [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] analysts, as well as other practitioners, followed Bettelheim's lead and created their own theories and methodologies regarding the onset of [[autism]], often confusing and over-simplifying Bettelheim’s ideas. This led some to accuse the mother for the child's autism, and others to claim that victims are to be blamed for their own misfortune. Controversy arose surrounding Bettelheim’s work, with his defenders and critics widely debating the validity of his work.  
  
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==Allegations of plagiarism and falsification of credentials==
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Beyond Bettelheim's psychological theories, controversy has also arisen surrounding his history and [[personality]]. After Bettelheim's [[suicide]] in 1990, his detractors claimed that he had a dark side. He was known for exploding in screaming anger at students. Three ex-patients questioned his work, characterizing him as a “cruel tyrant” (Finn 1997). Critics have also claimed that he spanked his patients despite publicly rejecting spanking as "brutal." His defenders, however, claimed that despite externally looking cruel, such methods actually worked. On the other hand, his treatments, some reporting rates of cure around 85 percent, were also questioned, with critics stating that his patients were not actually suffering from autism (Finn 1997).
  
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Scholars contend that Bettelheim plagiarized others' work and falsified his credentials [www.richmond.edu/~bmayes/pdf/Finn_Bettelheim.pdf], [http://www.nndb.com/people/929/000115584/]. In particular, much of his celebrated psychoanalytical treatise on fairy tales, ''The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Imprtance of Fairy Tales'' is alleged to have been plagiarized [www.richmond.edu/~bmayes/pdf/Finn_Bettelheim.pdf].
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Critics also contend that Bettelheim [[plagiarism|plagiarized]] others' work and falsified his credentials. In particular, much of his celebrated psychoanalytical treatise on fairy tales, ''The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales'' is alleged to have been plagiarized (Finn 1997). It is also said that he fabricated his academic records to step into academic life (Goldberg 1997).
  
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==A movie appearance==
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==Legacy==
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Bruno Bettelheim accepted Woody Allen's invitation to appear as himself in the film ''[[Zelig]]'' ([[1983]]).
 
  
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==See also==
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Despite the controversy surrounding his life and work, and his theories on [[autism]] having been long dismissed, Bettelheim made significant contributions to the treatment of children. The Orthogenic School where Bettelheim was director became a model for applying [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] principles in the residential treatment of emotionally disturbed children. His version of milieu therapy introduced some new elements, as well as generally humanizing the treatment of troubled children. Through his lectures and books, Bettelheim stimulated numerous generations of new parents to apply principles of psychology into their child rearing.
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* [[Controversies in autism]]
 
  
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== Bibliography ==
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==Publications==
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=== Major works ===
 
  
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* [[1943]] "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations", ''Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology'', 38: 417-452.
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1943. "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations." ''Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology'', 38, 417-452.
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* [[1950]] ''Love Is Not Enough: The Treatment of Emotionally Disturbed Children'', Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1950.'' Love Is Not Enough: The Treatment of Emotionally Disturbed Children.'' Avon Books. ISBN 038001405X
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* [[1954]] ''Symbolic Wounds; Puberty Rites and the Envious Male'', Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1954. ''Symbolic Wounds: Puberty Rites and the Envious Male''. Free Press.
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* [[1955]] ''Truants From Life; The Rehabilitation of Emotionally Disturbed Children'', Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.  
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. [1955] 1964. ''Truants from Life: The Rehabilitation of Emotionally Disturbed Children''. Free Press. ISBN 0029034507
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* [[1959]] "Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy'", ''Scientific American'', 200, March 1959: 117-126. (About a boy who believes himself to be a [[robot]].)
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1959. "Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy." ''Scientific American'', 200, 117-126.  
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* [[1960]] ''The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age'', The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. [1960] 1985. ''The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age''. Avon Books. ISBN 0380013029
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* [[1962]] ''Dialogues with Mothers'', The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. [1962] 1984. ''Dialogues with Mothers''. Avon Books. ISBN 038049874X
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* [[1967]] ''The Empty Fortress: Infantile autism and the birth of the self'', The Free Press, New York
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1967. ''The Empty Fortress: Infantile autism and the birth of the self''. The Free Press. ISBN 0029031303
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* [[1969]] ''The Children of the Dream'', Macmillan, London & New York (About the raising of children in [[kibbutz]].)
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1969. ''The Children of the Dream''. Macmillan. ISBN 0025105906
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* [[1974]] ''A Home for the Heart'', Knopf, New York. (About Bettelheim's Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago for schizophrenic and autistic children.)
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1974. ''A Home for the Heart''. Knopf. ISBN 0394483774
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* [[1976]] ''The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales'', Knopf, New York
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1976. ''The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales''. Knopf. ISBN 0394497716
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* [[1979]] ''Surviving and Other Essays'', Knopf, New York (Includes the essay "The Ignored Lesson of [[Anne Frank]]".)
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1979. ''Surviving and Other Essays''. Knopf. ISBN 039450402X
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* [[1982]] ''On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning'' (with Karen Zelan), Knopf, New York
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1981. ''On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning''. Knopf. ISBN 0394515927
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* [[1982]] ''"[[Freud]] and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory" Publisher: Vintage; Vintage edition, 1983, ISBN 0-394-71036-3
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1983. ''Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory''. Vintage.  ISBN 0394710363
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Freud and Man's Soul'', Knopf, New York
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1987. ''A Good Enough Parent: A book on Child-Rearing''. Vintage. ISBN 0394757769
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* [[1987]] ''A Good Enough Parent: A book on Child-Rearing'', Knopf, New York
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* Bettelheim, Bruno. 1989. ''Freud's Vienna and Other Essays''. Knopf. ISBN 0394572092
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* [[1990]] ''Freud's Vienna and Other Essays'', Knopf, New York
 
  
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===Critical Review of Bettelheim (Works and Person)===
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==References==
  
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* Angres, Ronald: "Who, Really, Was Bruno Bettelheim?", ''Commentary'', 90, (4), October 1990: 26-30.
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* Angres, Ronald. 1990. Who, Really, Was Bruno Bettelheim? ''Commentary'', 90(4), 26-30.
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* Bersihand, Geneviève : ''Bettelheim'', R. Jauze, Champigny-sur-Marne, 1977.
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* Dundes, Alan. 1991. Bruno Bettelheim's Uses of Enchantment and Abuses of Scholarship. ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 104(411), 74-83.
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* 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.
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* Eliot, Stephen. 2003. ''Not the Thing I Was: Thirteen Years at Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School''. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312307497
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* Eliot, Stephen: ''Not the Thing I Was: Thirteen Years at Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School'', St. Martin's Press, 2003.
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* Finn, Molly. 1997. [http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=3709&var_recherche=In+the+Case+of+Bruno+Bettelheim In the Case of Bruno Bettelheim.] ''First Things''. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.
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* Frattaroli, Elio: "Bruno Bettelheim's Unrecognized Contribution to Psychoanalytic Thought", ''Psychoanalytic Review'', 81:379-409, 1994.
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* Frattaroli, Elio. 1994. Bruno Bettelheim's Unrecognized Contribution to Psychoanalytic Thought. ''Psychoanalytic Review'', 81, 379-409.
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* Heisig, James W.: "Bruno Bettelheim and the Fairy Tales", ''Children's Literature'', 6, 1977: 93-115.
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* Goldberg, Helene. 1997. [http://controlmastery.org/docs/Bettelheim.pdf Bruno Bettelheim—Blaming the Victim.] ControlMastery.org. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
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* Krumenacker, Franz-Josef: ''Bettelheim: Grundpositionen seiner Theorie und Praxis'', Reinhardt/UTB für Wissenschaft, München, 1998.
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* Heisig, James W. 1977. Bruno Bettelheim and the Fairy Tales. ''Children's Literature'', 6, 93-115.
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* Marcus, Paul: ''Autonomy in the Extreme Situation. Bruno Bettelheim, the Nazi Concentration Camps and the Mass Society'', Praeger, Westport, Conn., 1999.
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* Marcus, Paul. 1999. ''Autonomy in the Extreme Situation. Bruno Bettelheim, the Nazi Concentration Camps and the Mass Society''. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275947254
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* [http://richardpollak.com/work3.htm Richard Pollak]: ''The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim'', Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997.  
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* Pollak, Richard. 1997. ''The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim''. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684809389 
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* Raines, Theron: ''Rising to the Light: A Portrait of Bruno Bettelheim'', Knopf, New York, 2002.
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* Raines, Theron. 2002. ''Rising to the Light: A Portrait of Bruno Bettelheim''. Knopf. ISBN 0679401962
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* 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''.)
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* Sutton, Nina. 1995. ''Bruno Bettelheim: A Life and a Legacy''. London: Duckworth Publishing. ISBN 0715626876
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* 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.
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* Zipes, Jack. 1980. ''Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales''. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0813190304
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* -Author unknown-: "Accusations of Abuse Haunt the Legacy of Dr. Bruno Bettelheim", ''New York Times'', 4 November 1990: "The Week in Review" section.
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* [http://www.answers.com/topic/bruno-bettelheim ''Bruno Bettelheim''.] Answers.com.  Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
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* [http://www.nndb.com/people/929/000115584/ ''Bruno Bettelheim.''] NNDB.com. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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*{{imdb name|id=0079291|name=Bruno Bettelheim}}
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All links retrieved November 21, 2023.
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* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Bettelheim.html Biography]—Short biography at Jewish Virtual Library.
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* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0079291/ Filmography]—Bettelheim’s page on IMDb.
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{{Credit1|Bruno_Bettelheim|103951300|}}

Latest revision as of 04:43, 22 November 2023

Bruno Bettelheim (August 28, 1903 – March 13, 1990) was an Austrian-born American developmental psychologist, widely known for his studies with autistic and emotionally disturbed children. His "refrigerator mother" theory of autism, now largely disfavored, enjoyed considerable attention and influence while Bettelheim was alive, with unfortunate consequences for the mothers of autistic children. His "milieu therapy," however, is still widely used in the treatment of emotionally disturbed children. Bettelheim's own life is an example of the very process he described—the devastating effects of inhumane treatment on the psychological health of human beings. After his death, much of Bettelheim's work was discredited, although his recognition that the social environment plays a significant role in healthy psychological development remains a valuable contribution to the understanding of human nature.

Life

Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of a wood merchant from a middle class Jewish family. He entered the University of Vienna, but in order to take care of his family business, he was forced to leave the university when his father became ill. He was twenty-three when his father died of syphilis, a shameful experience that marked Bettelheim’s entire life. In 1930, he married a schoolteacher who was a disciple of Anna Freud.

During the 1930s, Bruno and his wife, Gina, took care of an autistic child who lived at their home in Vienna for seven years. After ten years, Bettelheim returned to his education, earning a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1938. He was among the last Jews awarded a doctorate degree before the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. His dissertation, on the history of art, was entitled The Problem of Beauty in Nature and Modern Aesthetics.

In the late 1930s, Bettelheim traveled across Nazi state hospitals in Germany during the infamous "T-4" euthanasia program, the start of his research in mental patients. He became an accredited psychiatrist and returned to Austria.

Being a Jew, Bettelheim was arrested in 1939 by the Gestapo and put into a concentration camp. He spent ten and a half months incarcerated, first in Dachau and then in Buchenwald. Records of his internment show Bettelheim was hired as the camp doctor to overview camp prisoners' mental health. His release from internment was purchased, which was possible prior to the commencement of hostilities in World War II.

He lost everything however, and even his wife left him.

He remarried in 1941, to Gertrude Weinfeld, with whom he had two daughters and one son. After his release, Bettelheim moved to Australia in 1939, and later to the United States in 1943, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1944. He earned money by teaching art history, German literature, and psychology. He published his experiences from the concentration camps in his 1943 Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations.

He eventually became a professor of psychology, teaching at the University of Chicago from 1944 until his retirement in 1973.

The most significant part of Bettelheim's professional life was spent serving as director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago, a home for emotionally disturbed children. He wrote books on both normal and abnormal child psychology and was well respected during his lifetime. His work at the Orthogenic School became world famous, and his therapy, called "milieu therapy," widely used. His book The Uses of Enchantment recast fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychology. It 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 suffered from depression at the end of his life, especially after the death of his wife in 1984. In 1987 he suffered a stroke. In 1990, he committed suicide, on the same night when, fifty-two years earlier, the Nazis had entered Austria. He died in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Work

Bruno Bettelheim’s work must be analyzed in the context of the time he lived in. He was a witness of great social change, from the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I, to Nazism and World War II. He was greatly influenced by the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, and studied the work of his followers, including Carl Jung and Anna Freud. Bettelheim chose psychoanalysis as the main paradigm in his studies, but was also interested in the effect of social systems on individuals.

Concentration camps and “milieu therapy”

One of the first works Bettelheim published was his Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations, in which he analyzed inmates’ behavior in concentration camps. Bettelheim spent more than ten months in Nazi camps, during which time he studied the effects of the extreme environment on the fellow prisoners, the prison guards, and himself. In the article, Bettelheim used psychoanalytic principles, especially Anna Freud's concept of “identification with the aggressor,” to explain why many Jews took on the values of the aggressor in order to survive. He saw many Jews falling prey to “victim’s guilt”—the feeling that they “deserved such destiny”—and called it the “ghetto mentality.” In 1945, General Eisenhower asked all his officers in Europe to read the article, as a remedy for the shock of witnessing concentration camp survivors.

In 1960, Bettelheim published The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age, in which he explained his theory of the relationship between the external environment and mental disorder. He drew inspiration for the theory from his experience in the concentration camps, where he witnessed normal people going insane, under the influence of the dehumanizing environment. Bettelheim concluded that the environment greatly influences one’s sanity, and thus assumed that the process could be reversed—that a positive environment could act as a remedy for mental disorder.

Bettelheim developed his "milieu therapy" at the University of Chicago's Orthogenic School. There he created a therapeutic environment that supported the needs of severely disturbed children. The rooms were clean and orderly, and the children were free to move from place to place. The staff was instructed to unconditionally accept all children’s behavior.

In The Informed Heart, Bettelheim was critical of modern society. He compared his experiences from the concentration camps—his attempts to preserve a sense of autonomy, integrity, and personal freedom—with life in modern, mass society. He viewed mass society, like that of United States or Western Europe, as dehumanizing and depersonalizing, forcing people to behave in a certain way. He noted that people have to struggle to maintain their sanity, much like inmates in the camps.

”Refrigerator mother theory”

The idea of the “refrigerator mother,” recognizing the association between the lack of parental warmth and attachment and autistic disorder, had been proposed by Leo Kanner in 1943, and further developed to attribute autism to a “genuine lack of maternal warmth.” Bettelheim took over Kanner’s idea and developed it into his famous theory. He claimed that unemotional and cold mothering was the very cause of childhood autism.

Bettelheim was convinced that autism had no organic basis, but that instead it was mainly the result of upbringing by mothers who did not want their children to live, either consciously or unconsciously, which in turn caused them to restrain contact with them and fail to establish an emotional connection. Absent fathers were also blamed. Bettelheim presented a complex and detailed explanation in psychoanalytical and psychological terms, derived from the qualitative investigation of clinical cases in one of his most famous books, The Empty Fortress (1967).

Bettelheim believed that children with autism and schizophrenia behave much like helpless concentration camp inmates. He argued that the main reason was the negative parental interaction with infants during critical early stages in their psychological development. Such children learned to blame themselves for the negative atmosphere in their families, and withdrew into fantasy worlds to prevent further problems.

Other work

Bettelheim traveled a lot, delivering public speeches and doing field research. In The Children of the Dream, (1969), he analyzed the life of children in Israeli kibbutzim. He compared the style of child rearing in the United States with that in Israel, claiming that cultural differences play a significant role in how Israeli and U.S. parents raised their children. Thus, he argued that it is meaningless to talk about “better” parenting styles in either country in general, but rather about appropriate parenting styles in particular cases.

Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (1976) became his best selling book. In it, he analyzed the effects of fairy tales on the development of children’s psyche, and claimed that reading fantasies and fairy tales were part of a healthy child's psychological development.

Criticism

Other Freudian analysts, as well as other practitioners, followed Bettelheim's lead and created their own theories and methodologies regarding the onset of autism, often confusing and over-simplifying Bettelheim’s ideas. This led some to accuse the mother for the child's autism, and others to claim that victims are to be blamed for their own misfortune. Controversy arose surrounding Bettelheim’s work, with his defenders and critics widely debating the validity of his work.

Beyond Bettelheim's psychological theories, controversy has also arisen surrounding his history and personality. After Bettelheim's suicide in 1990, his detractors claimed that he had a dark side. He was known for exploding in screaming anger at students. Three ex-patients questioned his work, characterizing him as a “cruel tyrant” (Finn 1997). Critics have also claimed that he spanked his patients despite publicly rejecting spanking as "brutal." His defenders, however, claimed that despite externally looking cruel, such methods actually worked. On the other hand, his treatments, some reporting rates of cure around 85 percent, were also questioned, with critics stating that his patients were not actually suffering from autism (Finn 1997).

Critics also contend that Bettelheim plagiarized others' work and falsified his credentials. In particular, much of his celebrated psychoanalytical treatise on fairy tales, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales is alleged to have been plagiarized (Finn 1997). It is also said that he fabricated his academic records to step into academic life (Goldberg 1997).

Legacy

Despite the controversy surrounding his life and work, and his theories on autism having been long dismissed, Bettelheim made significant contributions to the treatment of children. The Orthogenic School where Bettelheim was director became a model for applying psychoanalytic principles in the residential treatment of emotionally disturbed children. His version of milieu therapy introduced some new elements, as well as generally humanizing the treatment of troubled children. Through his lectures and books, Bettelheim stimulated numerous generations of new parents to apply principles of psychology into their child rearing.

Publications

  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1943. "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 38, 417-452.
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1950. Love Is Not Enough: The Treatment of Emotionally Disturbed Children. Avon Books. ISBN 038001405X
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1954. Symbolic Wounds: Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. Free Press.
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. [1955] 1964. Truants from Life: The Rehabilitation of Emotionally Disturbed Children. Free Press. ISBN 0029034507
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1959. "Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy." Scientific American, 200, 117-126.
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. [1960] 1985. The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age. Avon Books. ISBN 0380013029
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. [1962] 1984. Dialogues with Mothers. Avon Books. ISBN 038049874X
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1967. The Empty Fortress: Infantile autism and the birth of the self. The Free Press. ISBN 0029031303
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1969. The Children of the Dream. Macmillan. ISBN 0025105906
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1974. A Home for the Heart. Knopf. ISBN 0394483774
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1976. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Knopf. ISBN 0394497716
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1979. Surviving and Other Essays. Knopf. ISBN 039450402X
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1981. On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning. Knopf. ISBN 0394515927
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1983. Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory. Vintage. ISBN 0394710363
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1987. A Good Enough Parent: A book on Child-Rearing. Vintage. ISBN 0394757769
  • Bettelheim, Bruno. 1989. Freud's Vienna and Other Essays. Knopf. ISBN 0394572092

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Angres, Ronald. 1990. Who, Really, Was Bruno Bettelheim? Commentary, 90(4), 26-30.
  • Dundes, Alan. 1991. Bruno Bettelheim's Uses of Enchantment and Abuses of Scholarship. The Journal of American Folklore, 104(411), 74-83.
  • Eliot, Stephen. 2003. Not the Thing I Was: Thirteen Years at Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312307497
  • Finn, Molly. 1997. In the Case of Bruno Bettelheim. First Things. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.
  • Frattaroli, Elio. 1994. Bruno Bettelheim's Unrecognized Contribution to Psychoanalytic Thought. Psychoanalytic Review, 81, 379-409.
  • Goldberg, Helene. 1997. Bruno Bettelheim—Blaming the Victim. ControlMastery.org. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
  • Heisig, James W. 1977. Bruno Bettelheim and the Fairy Tales. Children's Literature, 6, 93-115.
  • Marcus, Paul. 1999. Autonomy in the Extreme Situation. Bruno Bettelheim, the Nazi Concentration Camps and the Mass Society. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275947254
  • Pollak, Richard. 1997. The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684809389
  • Raines, Theron. 2002. Rising to the Light: A Portrait of Bruno Bettelheim. Knopf. ISBN 0679401962
  • Sutton, Nina. 1995. Bruno Bettelheim: A Life and a Legacy. London: Duckworth Publishing. ISBN 0715626876
  • Zipes, Jack. 1980. Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0813190304
  • Bruno Bettelheim. Answers.com. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
  • Bruno Bettelheim. NNDB.com. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.

External links

All links retrieved November 21, 2023.


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