The CREATION OF DR B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim"For more than four decades, Bruno Bettelheim was regarded by a large public as one of the world's most important and influential psychotherapists, a Viennese intellectual who stood as "one of Freud's few genuine heirs of our time." In fact, as Richard Pollak documents in this revelatory new biography, Bettelheim was a lumber dealer who grandly reinvented himself with a faked set of academic credentials after emigrating to the United States in 1939. In the years that followed, deception followed deception as Bettelheim claimed that he had traveled in Freud's circle, had treated autistic children in Vienna, had interviewed 1,500 fellow prisoners for his famous psychological study of concentration camp behavior, and had been freed from Buchenwald through the intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt." "In Love Is Not Enough, Truants from Life, and The Empty Fortress, Bettelheim's much-praised books about the Orthogenic School, the home for emotionally disturbed children at the University of Chicago that he ran for three decades, he continued his fabrications, maintaining that he had treated "hundreds" of schizophrenic children who feared for their lives at the hands of their parents, shaping pseudonymous case histories to enhance his reputation, and claiming, with concocted statistics, that he was returning 85 percent of his young patients to normal lives." "Pollak also demonstrates in frightening detail how "Dr. B," as he was called at the Orthogenic School, often spun angrily out of control and abused the children both physically and emotionally, all the while insisting in his books and from the lectern that such punishment was absolutely verboten. Pollak also carefully spells out how Bettelheim plagiarized portions of his prize-winning book on the psychological meaning of fairy tales, The Uses of Enchantment." "In a work of prodigious research, Pollak reveals the real Bruno Bettelheim for the first time, giving us a portrait at once tough-minded and sympathetic of a man who, for all his success, could never stop dissembling and re-creating himself."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 66
Page 32
... Gina . Gina was drawn to the unhappy child , and Patsy soon grew increasingly attached to the teacher , who , unlike her tall , often abrasive mother , was small , gentle , and soft - spoken . When Patsy became tearfully despondent ...
... Gina . Gina was drawn to the unhappy child , and Patsy soon grew increasingly attached to the teacher , who , unlike her tall , often abrasive mother , was small , gentle , and soft - spoken . When Patsy became tearfully despondent ...
Page 46
... Gina gave a birthday party for their troubled ward . By now , the Bettelheims ' marriage had begun to fray , in part because of the strain in their sexual relationship , which Gina said , without casting blame , was never comfortable ...
... Gina gave a birthday party for their troubled ward . By now , the Bettelheims ' marriage had begun to fray , in part because of the strain in their sexual relationship , which Gina said , without casting blame , was never comfortable ...
Page 55
... Gina hoped to go if they had gotten across the border by car , or where his wife did go when officials allowed her to board the train . Nor did he mention Patsy.29 Records at the archive of the Austrian resistance provide no evidence ...
... Gina hoped to go if they had gotten across the border by car , or where his wife did go when officials allowed her to board the train . Nor did he mention Patsy.29 Records at the archive of the Austrian resistance provide no evidence ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Agnes American Anna Freud Anschluss anti-Semitism asked Austrian autistic autistic children BB to CF BB to ND became began behavior Bettel Bettelheim told Bettelheim wrote Bruno Bettelheim Buchenwald called child Cohler concentration camps counselors Dachau director disturbed children dorm emotional Empty Fortress Eric Eric Schopler Ernst Federn Extreme Situations fairy father fear feel felt Free Press Freud German Gina heim Holocaust Hyde Park Ibid Infantile Autism Informed Heart inmates Interview Janowitz Jewish Jews Journal Joyce Jack kibbutz knew Knopf letter Levi-Edelman living Love March Mass Behavior months Morris Janowitz mother Naomi Nazis never Orthogenic School parents Patsy prisoners psychoanalytic psychology recalled Review Rimland Rockford Ruth social staff Sterba talk tell therapist tion took Trude Tyler University of Chicago University of Vienna Vienna Viennese visa wanted Weinmann writing York young