Dr bruno bettelheim

During his lifetime, Bruno Bettelheim was considered one of the leading experts on the treatment of disturbed children, particularly autistic children. Through his articles and books, he argued that the cause for autism could be found primarily in faulty parenting. His solution was to provide an intensive residential therapy through which autistic children could regain a sense of their autonomy. The period of treatment frequently lasted for years. Over time, his views became increasingly controversial and many of them are now considered outdated (Pollack ).

Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna on August 28, , to a middle-class Jewish family. After the early death of his father, Bettelheim cut his education short and joined the family lumber business. It was during this period that he and his first wife took in a child who was later described as autistic. Some of Bettelheim’s ideas about autism originated from this extended encounter. He later

Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, 86, the psychologist, psychiatrist and educator who gained world fame for his work with emotionally disturbed children at the University of Chicago`s Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, was funnen dead Tuesday at a Maryland nursing home, a medical examiner said.

Maryland`s ledare medical examiner, Dr. John E. Smialek, told the Associated Press that one of his deputies who examined Dr. Bettelheim determined the cause of death was suicidal asphyxiation.

Dr. Bettelheim, who studied under Sigmund Freud, operated the Orthogenic school in Chicago from to , and was a psychology and psychiatry professor at the University of Chicago.

”The principles that were reflected in his work have been adopted worldwide,” said school director Jacquelyn Sanders, who worked closely with Dr. Bettelheim from , and at one time was his assistant. ”He has had a tremendous impact on the field of residential treatment for severely emotionally disturbed children.”

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Bruno Bettelheim,

Bruno Bettelheim (courtesy of University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

One of the most prominent psychoanalysts of the post-World War II era, Bruno Bettelheim’s books spread the Freudian tradition in the United States and internationally at the high point of its popularity. He accomplished this by telling compelling stories about children whose disturbing, fascinating behaviors made normality stand out in sharp relief. Bettelheim was the most famous champion of psychogenesis. That theory placed the origins of autism in the toxic familial environments that denied the basic emotional needs of babies unlucky enough to be born into them. Bettelheim conceded that the parents of autistic children were often middle class, well-educated people who worried that their children were not developing normally. Those parents could not permit themselves to be consciously aware of their desires to aba