Bruno Bettelheim

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Lore & Background

Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, on August 28, 1903. After his father died, he left his studies at the University of Vienna to manage the family sawmill, later returning as a mature student in his thirties. Sources disagree about his education; his actual PhD was in art history, though he implied in several of his writings that he had written a PhD dissertation in the philosophy of education. He was arrested by Nazi authorities on May 28, 1938, and imprisoned in Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps for a combined total of ten and a half months before being released on April 14, 1939. He drew on this experience for his later work, publishing the paper 'Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations' in 1943, which was highly regarded by Dwight Eisenhower among others. Bettelheim claimed he had interviewed 1,500 fellow prisoners, although this was unlikely. After emigrating to the United States in 1939, Bettelheim became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1944. Through a Rockefeller Foundation project, he was hired as a research assistant at the University of Chicago from 1939 to 1941, later teaching at Rockford College from 1942 to 1944. In 1944, he became a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School for Disturbed Children, positions he held until his retirement in 1973. At the school, he set up an environment for milieu therapy, claiming considerable success in treating some of the emotionally disturbed children. He wrote books on both normal and abnormal child psychology, and became a major influence in the field. He was noted for his study of feral children, discussed in the book The Informed Heart. Even critics agree that, in his practice, Bettelheim was dedicated to helping these children. Bettelheim analyzed fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychology in The Uses of Enchantment (1976), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism and the National Book Award in the category of Contemporary Thought. However, in 1991, well-supported charges of plagiarism were brought against the book, primarily that he had copied from Julius Heuscher's A Psychiatric Study of Myths and Fairy Tales. After retiring in 1973, he taught at Stanford University. His wife died in 1984. At the end of his life, Bettelheim had depression and appeared to have had difficulties with depression for much of his life. In 1990, widowed, in failing physical health, and experiencing the effects of a stroke which impaired his mental abilities and paralyzed part of his body, he took his own life on March 13, 1990, in Maryland.

Reader's Guide

Bruno Bettelheim's significance lies in his influential yet controversial role in mid-20th-century psychology. He was an early writer on autism and a prominent advocate of psychoanalytic approaches to treating emotionally disturbed children, rejecting the use of psychotropic drugs and shock therapy. His book The Uses of Enchantment shaped how many understood fairy tales' psychological value for children. However, his legacy is deeply contested. After his death, investigations revealed that he misrepresented his academic credentials—his actual PhD was in art history and he had only taken three introductory courses in psychology—and that he likely fabricated aspects of his concentration camp research, such as claiming to have interviewed 1,500 fellow prisoners. Well-supported charges of plagiarism were brought against his most famous work. Additionally, reports of patient abuse at the Orthogenic School emerged. These controversies, documented in Richard Pollak's critical biography (1997), have led many to reassess his contributions, viewing him as a figure whose public reputation shielded unethical behavior. His work remains a cautionary example of the need for institutional oversight and scholarly integrity.

Did You Know?

• Bettelheim was arrested on May 28, 1938, and imprisoned in Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps for a combined total of ten and a half months before being released on April 14, 1939.
• His actual PhD was in art history, and he had only taken three introductory courses in psychology, though he implied in writings that he had a PhD in the philosophy of education.
• Bettelheim's book The Uses of Enchantment (1976) won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism and the National Book Award in the category of Contemporary Thought.
• In 1991, well-supported charges of plagiarism were brought against The Uses of Enchantment, primarily that he had copied from Julius Heuscher's A Psychiatric Study of Myths and Fairy Tales.
• Bettelheim appeared as himself in the 1983 Woody Allen mockumentary Zelig.

Survival and the Forging of a Life's Work

Bettelheim was born in Vienna on August 28, 1903, into a secular Jewish family. After his father's death, he abandoned his university studies to manage the family's sawmill, only returning to the University of Vienna as a mature student in his thirties. His academic path was interrupted by history: following the Anschluss in March 1938, Nazi authorities targeted Austrian Jews and political dissidents. Bettelheim was arrested on May 28, 1938, and endured ten and a half months split between Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, where prisoners faced brutal treatment, torture, and death. At Buchenwald, he formed a friendship with social psychologist Ernst Federn. His release came on April 14, 1939, tied to an amnesty declared around Hitler's birthday. He later drew on these harrowing experiences in his scholarly work, including a 1943 paper on individual and mass behavior under extreme conditions, which earned praise from figures like Dwight Eisenhower. The camps left an indelible mark on his understanding of human resilience and the power of environment over innate nature.

Building a Sanctuary for Disturbed Children

After arriving in New York as a refugee in late 1939, Bettelheim eventually settled in Chicago, where he would spend nearly three decades shaping his professional identity. Through a Rockefeller Foundation program designed to resettle European scholars, he first landed a research assistantship under Ralph Tyler at the University of Chicago, evaluating how high schools approached art education. Once that funding lapsed, he taught at Rockford College in Illinois from 1942 to 1944. Tyler's recommendation then secured Bettelheim a dual appointment: professor of psychology and director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School for emotionally disturbed children, a role he held from 1944 until his 1973 retirement. At the school, he designed what he called milieu therapy—a structured yet nurturing environment where children could forge deep attachments with caring adults. He rejected psychotropic drugs and shock therapy in favor of extended psychoanalytic treatment, arguing that behavioral and emotional disorders were not innate but could be remedied through proper care. His dedication to helping these children earned him wide respect, and even his critics acknowledged his genuine commitment to their well-being.

Fairy Tales, Freud, and the Inner Life of Children

Bettelheim's intellectual framework grew directly out of Freudian psychoanalysis, and he applied it to questions that extended well beyond the clinical setting. His most widely known public work, The Uses of Enchantment (1976), examined traditional fairy tales through a psychoanalytic lens, arguing that even stories once dismissed as too dark or violent carried profound emotional and symbolic significance for young listeners. He believed these narratives helped children process inner conflicts and navigate the complexities of growing up. His broader theoretical position held that children with behavioral and emotional disorders were not born that way; rather, they could be treated and transformed through sustained therapeutic relationships. This stance placed him at odds with approaches that relied on medication or electroconvulsive therapy. During the 1960s and 1970s, his international reputation spanned autism, child psychiatry, and psychoanalysis. He also wrote about feral children—those who, deprived of community and human connection, regressed to an almost animal state—discussing this phenomenon in The Informed Heart. His work on early autism, predating much of the field's later development, marked him as a pioneering voice in understanding developmental differences.

The Aftermath of a Contested Legacy

Bettelheim's death in March 1990 did not silence the debates surrounding his career; if anything, it intensified them. In the years following his passing, serious questions emerged about the accuracy of his academic credentials, allegations of patient abuse at the Orthogenic School, and instances of plagiarism in his published works. These controversies were compounded by what observers described as a broader negligence of institutional oversight, as well as by Bettelheim's tendency to pursue work and public influence well outside the boundaries of the established psychological community. His claims—including that he had interviewed 1,500 fellow prisoners at the camps, that the Viennese psychoanalyst Richard Sterba had analyzed him, and that he had written a doctoral dissertation in the philosophy of education—were later scrutinized and found to be at odds with the documentary record. His actual doctorate was in art history, and he had completed only three introductory psychology courses. Despite these controversies, his influence on child psychology, his advocacy for non-pharmacological treatment, and his popular writings on fairy tales and human development continued to shape public and professional discourse long after his passing.