Bruno Bettelheim Biography

(born Aug. 28, 1903, Vienna, Austria—died March 13, 1990, Silver Spring, Md., U.S.) Austrian-U.S. psychologist. Trained in Vienna, he was arrested by the Nazis and interned in concentration camps (1938–39). He immigrated to the U.S., where from 1944 he directed the University of Chicago's Orthogenic School, a laboratory school for disturbed children, and became known especially for his work with autistic children. He applied psychoanalytic principles to social problems, especially in child rearing. His works include an influential paper on adaptation to extreme stress (1943), “Love Is Not Enough” (1950), as well as The Informed Heart (1960), The Empty Fortress (1967), Children of the Dream (1967), and The Uses of Enchantment (1976). Depressed after the death of his wife and after suffering a stroke, he took his own life. His reputation was later clouded by revelations that he had invented his academic credentials and had abused and misdiagnosed children at his school.

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