Bruno Bettelheim (1903–1990)

Author of The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales

51+ Works 5,116 Members 60 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Bruno Bettelheim had remarkable success in treating deeply emotionally disturbed children. A pupil of Sigmund Freud, he was a vehement opponent of the operant conditioning methods of B. F. Skinner and other behaviorists. Austrian-born, Bettelheim came to the United States in 1939. Profoundly show more influenced by the year he spent in a German concentration camp during World War II, he reflects in his writings his sensitivity and knowledge of the fear and anxiety induced under such conditions. His famous Individual and Mass Behavior (1943), first published in a scientific periodical and then in pamphlet form, is a study of the human personality under the stress of totalitarian terror and concentration-camp living. Bettelheim sees a relationship between the disturbances of the concentration camp survivors and those of the autistic, or rigidly withdrawn, children whom he describes in The Empty Fortress (1967), because both have lived through extreme situations. The Children of the Dream (1969) describes with considerable enthusiasm the absence of neurosis in children brought up on kibbutzim in Israel in groups of other children and cared for by adults who are not their parents. Bettelheim believes that American ghetto children would benefit from this kind of experience in preference to the at best partial help of present programs designed to accelerate educational progress for the deprived. From 1944 to 1973, Bettelheim served as the principal of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a residential laboratory for the treatment of disturbed children at the University of Chicago. Up until his death in 1990, Bettelheim remained active in his scholarly pursuits, continuing to write about the nurturing of healthy children and devoting himself to improving the human condition. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: B Bettelheim, Bruno Bettleheim, Bruno Bettelheim, Bruno Bettlelheim, BETTELHEIM Bruno présente, Presenta: Bruno Bettelheim, Oesterreich Psychoanalytiker Bettelheim Bruno, US

Disambiguation Notice:

(yid) VIAF:73850092

(ger) VIAF:73850092

Works by Bruno Bettelheim

A Good Enough Parent (1987) 342 copies

Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory (1982) 261 copies

The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age (1960) 238 copies

Surviving and Other Essays (1979) 189 copies

The children of the dream (1969) 182 copies

Freud's Vienna & Other Essays (1989) 126 copies

The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self (1967) 115 copies

On Learning to Read (1981) 105 copies

Love Is Not Enough: The Treatment of Emotionally Disturbed Children (1950) 93 copies

Symbolic Wounds: Puberty Rites and the Envious Male (1954) 75 copies

A Home for the Heart (1974) 49 copies

The Art of the Obvious (1993) 44 copies

Dialogues with mothers (1962) 38 copies

Truants from life; the rehabilitation of emotionally disturbed children (1955) 37 copies

Recollections and Reflections (Penguin Psychology) (1990) 21 copies

SURVIVING THE HOLOCAUST (Flamingo) (1983) 17 copies

Social change and prejudice, including Dynamics of prejudice (1950) 10 copies

Paul and Mary: Two Case Histories from Truants from Life (1955) 8 copies

Los cuentos de las mil y una noches (1978) 7 copies

Dynamics of Prejudice: a Psychological and Sociological Study of Veterans (1950) 6 copies

Parents et enfants (1995) 6 copies

Obsolete Youth: Toward a Psychograph of Adolescent Rebellion (copy 2) (1970) 3 copies

Freud and Man's Soul by Bruno Bettelheim (1982-12-12) 2 copies

Rany symboliczne : rytuały inicjacji i zazdrość męska (1989) 2 copies

Psicanálise da Alfabetização: um estudo psicanalítico do ato de ler e aprender (1984) 2 copies

Un autre regard sur la folie (1975) 2 copies

Zeiten mit Kindern (1994) 2 copies

Bettelheim Bruno 1 copy

The Three Billy Goats Gruff 1 copy

Educación y vida moderna 1 copy

Cudowne i pożyteczne o znaczeniach i wartościach basni 2 1 copy

Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations (1991) 1 copy

Kodėl mums reikia stebuklo 1 copy

Kyllin hyvät vanhemmat 1 copy

Gespräche mit Müttern. 1 copy

Erziehung zum Überleben. (6935 567). Zur Psychologie der Extremsituation. 1 copy

Un lieu où renaître La somme de trente ans d'expérience à l'Ecole orthogénique de Chicago 1 copy

Masallar Ne Anlatir?: Çocuk Gelisiminde Masallarin Rolüne Psikanalitik Bir Bakis (2020) 1 copy

LIEU OU RENAITRE (1975) 1 copy

Securing our Children Against Prejudice 1 copy

Satujen lumous 1 copy

Liebe als Therapie - Gespräche über das Seelenleben des Kindes (1989) 1 copy

Masalların Büyüsü (2019) 1 copy

Le Traitement des troubles affectifs chez l'enfant "L'amour ne suffit pas" (1970) 1 copy

Dr. Bruno Bettelheim Reads "the Struggle for Meaning" and "Hansel and Gretel" from the Uses of Enchantment (1985) 1 copy

Psicología del torturador 1 copy

Kära barn : gruppsamtal med mödrar om föräldraroller (1977) 1 copy

Portnoy Psychoanalyzed 1 copy

cudowne i pożyteczne o znaczeniach i wartościach baśni 1 1 copy

Evadés de la vie. Quatre thérapies d'enfants affectivement perturbés. 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account (1960) — Introduction, some editions — 1,243 copies

The Classic Fairy Tales [Norton Critical Edition] (1998) — Contributor — 1,012 copies

The Random House Book of Fairy Tales (1985) — Introduction — 479 copies

King Matt the First (1923) — Introduction, some editions — 362 copies

Frederick's Fables : A Treasury of 16 Favorite Leo Lionni Stories (1986) — Introduction, some editions — 324 copies

Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (1958) — Contributor — 209 copies

Man Alone: Alienation in Modern Society (1962) — Contributor — 141 copies

Soul: An Archaeology--Readings from Socrates to Ray Charles (1994) — Contributor — 101 copies

The Third Reich of Dreams (1966) — Contributor, some editions — 67 copies

Reclaiming the Inner Child (1990) — some editions — 64 copies

I Didn't Say Goodbye: Interviews with Children of the Holocaust (1980) — Afterword, some editions — 52 copies

About Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, Poetry, and Essays (1973) — Contributor — 26 copies

Moral Education: Five Lectures (1970) — Contributor — 20 copies

The Walker Book of Fairy Tales (1985) — Introduction — 11 copies

PAZZIA DEGLI ALTRI (1973) — Preface — 1 copy

Tagged

(95) anthology (65) anthropology (67) Auschwitz (63) Bettelheim (36) biography (38) child psychology (46) children (105) children's (43) children's literature (77) concentration camps (38) criticism (51) education (59) essays (63) fairy tale (31) fairy tales (566) fantasy (57) fiction (118) folklore (189) folktales (40) Freud (39) history (181) Holocaust (196) literary criticism (145) literary theory (32) literature (100) memoir (44) non-fiction (453) parenting (54) philosophy (53) picture book (31) psychoanalysis (183) psychology (653) read (41) religion (68) short stories (38) sociology (68) to-read (256) unread (47) WWII (136)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Bettelheim, Bruno
Birthdate: 1903-08-28
Date of death: 1990-03-13
Burial location: Skylawn Memorial Park, San Mateo, California, USA
Gender: male
Nationality: Austria (birth)
United States of America (naturalized | 1944)
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Place of death: Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
Cause of death: suicide
Places of residence: Vienna, Austria
New York, New York, USA
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Portola Valley, California, USA
Education: University of Vienna (Ph.D|1938)
Occupations: psychologist
professor
Organizations: University of Chicago
Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School
Stanford University
Awards and honors: Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1971)
National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Award (1977)
Disambiguation notice: VIAF:73850092

Members

Reviews

The Children of the Dream by Bruno Bettelheim

The book describes the story of the children born and raised communally in an Israeli kibbutz.

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PendleHillLibrary | Mar 22, 2024 |

Kinder brauchen Bücher. (7277 407). Lesen lernen… by Bruno Bettelheim

Original Titel: On Learning to read- The Child's fascination with meaning

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betty_s | Sep 7, 2023 |

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance… by Bruno Bettelheim

Very interesting and thought-provoking Freudian analysis of classic fairy tales. Used as a textbook in my Critical Theory class on psychoanalyzing fairy tales. I don't agree with everything Bettelheim professes, but it is cool to look at these classic stories in a way I haven't before.

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Reading_Vicariously | 29 other reviews | May 22, 2023 |

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance… by Bruno Bettelheim

With an illuminative power that startles and delights, the author opens up to us the real content of the great fairy tales. how, beneath their surface of palaces and princesses, fairies and witches, wishes and spells, they deal in the profoundest ways with the emotional turmoils of childhood . . .