Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Bruno Bettelheim (Austrian-born Psychoanalyst)

Bruno Bettelheim (1903–90) was a controversial Austrian-born American psychoanalyst and educational psychologist. He pioneered the application of psychoanalysis to treat autistic and emotionally disturbed children.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Bettelheim attended the University of Vienna, 1921–26, 1936–38, earning a PhD in psychology in 1938. He later gained a position as a professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School for Disturbed Children. He taught at Stanford University since 1973.

Bettelheim’s beliefs, which grew out of Sigmund Freud’s, theorized that children with behavioral and emotional disorders were not born that way and could be treated through extended psychoanalytic therapy. This treatment rejected the use of psychotropic drugs and shock therapy.

Bettelheim’s writings on children include Love Is Not Enough (1950) and Truants from Life (1954.) His other works include The Informed Heart (1960,) The Empty Fortress (1967,) and Children of the Dream (1967.) The Uses of Enchantment (1976) argued for the importance of fairy tales in child development. Much of his work was discredited after his death due to fraudulent academic credentials, allegations of patient abuse, accusations of plagiarism, and lack of oversight by institutions and the psychological community.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Bruno Bettelheim

Punishment may make us obey the orders we are given, but at best it will only teach an obedience to authority, not a self-control which enhances our self-respect.
—Bruno Bettelheim
Topics: Authority

Therefore, even more than at the times fairy tales were invented, it is important to provide the modern child with images of heroes who have to go out into the world all by themselves and who, although originally ignorant of the ultimate things, find secure places in the world by following their right way with deep inner confidence.
—Bruno Bettelheim

Only in adulthood can any intelligent understanding of the meaning of one’s existence in this world be gained from one’s experiences in it.
—Bruno Bettelheim
Topics: Sympathy

You can’t teach children to be good. The best you can do for your child is to live a good life yourself. What a parent knows and believes, the child will lean on.
—Bruno Bettelheim

For those who immerse themselves in what the fairy tale has to communicate, it becomes a deep, quiet pool which at first seems to reflect only our own image; but behind it we soon discover the inner turmoils of our soul – its depth, and ways to gain peace within ourselves and with the world, which is the reward of our struggles.
—Bruno Bettelheim

No longer can we be satisfied with a life where the heart has its reasons which reason cannot know. Our hearts must know the world of reason, and reason must be guided by an informed heart.
—Bruno Bettelheim

If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives.
—Bruno Bettelheim

The last, if not the greatest, of the human freedoms: to choose their own attitude in any given circumstance.
—Bruno Bettelheim
Topics: Decisions

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