Educating the Emotions: Bruno Bettelheim and Psychoanalytic Development

237 Pages·1992·12.719 MB·English

by  Nathan M. Szajnberg (auth.), Nathan M. Szajnberg M.D. (eds.)

Educating the Emotions
Bruno Bettelheim and
Psychoanalytic Development
Educating the Emotions
Bruno Bettelheim and
Psychoanalytic Development
Edited by
NATHAN M. SZAJNBERG, M.D.
West Hurtford, Connecticut
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Llbrary of Congress Cataloglng-ln-Publlcatlon Data
Educating the emations : Bruno Bettp.lheim and psychoanalytic
development ; edited by Nathan M. Szajnberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4613-6460-3 ISBN 978-1-4615-3316-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-3316-0
1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Child psychotherapy--Residential treatment.
3. Education~l psychology. 4. Bettelheim, Bruno. I. SzaJnberg,
Nathan M. II. Bettelheim, Bruno.
[DNLM: 1. Affective Disorders--in infaney & ehi ldhood. 2. Chi ld,
Institutionalized--psyehology. 3. Child Psyehology.
4. Psythoanalytie theory. 5. Psyehology, Edueational. 6. Teaehing.
WM 460 E24S1
RC509.E28 1992
616.8S· 17--de2C
DNLM/DLC
for Library of Congress 91-39116
CIP
ISBN 978-1-4613-6460-3
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by P1enum Press, New York in 1992
AlI rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To my parents, my past
To Debby, my love
To Sonia and Lily, my future
Contributors
ROBERT BERGMAN, M.D. • 2271 N.E. 51st Street, Seattle, Washington
98105
BERTRAM J. COHLER, Ph.D. • Committee on Human Development,
UniversityofChicago, 5730S. WoodlawnAvenue, Chicago, Illinois60637
ELlaFRATTAROLl, M.D. • 168GramercyRoad, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsyl
vania 19004
ROBERTM. GALATZER-LEVY, M.D. • TheInstitutefor Psychoanalysis,
180 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60601
JOSEPH D. NOSHPITZ, M.D. • 314134thStreetN.W, Washington, D.c.
20008
ROBERT A. PAUL, Ph.D. • Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322
NATHAN M. SZAJNBERG, M.D. • 24 Chapman Road, West Hartford,
Connecticut 06107
vii
Itisone'sinnerexperiencethatpermitsgainingafullgraspofwhatisinvolved
in the innerexperiences ofothers, a knowledge which then can become the
basisfor theoreticalstudies. (Bettelheim,1990, p. 36)
Thegreatcontributionhe[Freud]hasmadetoourunderstandingofliterature
... [is]whathesaysaboutthenatureofthehumanmind:heshowedusthat
poetryisindigenoustotheveryconstitutionofthemind. (Trilling,1965,p.92)
. . .Creativity. . .referstoacolouringofthewholeattitudetoexternalreality.
Itiscreativeapperceptionmorethananythingelsethatmakestheindividual
feel that lifeisworth living. (Winnicott, 1971, p. 65)
TheeternalaimofArt:togiveexpressiontothemythsweneedtolivebyandto
affirm life, bothin tragedyand comedy. (Bettelheim,1990, p. 120)
Humanist: Aperson havingastrong ... concernforhuman welfare, values
and dignity. (Random House Dictionary, 1987)
Preface
Although Bruno Bettelheim died before this book was finished, he was
presentatitsbirth.In1985,wefeltwewantedtogivehimagiftforwhathe
taughtus: how to think criticallyaboutourselvesandoursociety; how to
inform our emotions; how to move from self-knowledge to empathy for
others,andhowwithsuchempathy,intum, toenrichandexpandourself
knowledge; and most important, how to integrate a sense of personal
autonomy with a sense of responsible living with one's community.
For many of us, he was our Socrates. His best, most lively teaching
was in the presence of a group of questioning, intellectually hungry
students. Wesoughtsimpleanswers to ourlifeproblems, orthose ofour
patients. Hewouldpressus, insistingthatwenotsettleforstockphrases.
Thefirstplacetolearnwasfrom within. Heseemed to thriveonteaching
those who were prepared to follow his example of demanding self
examination, oftenapainfulprocess, withfelt reasoningthatcouldresult
in an informed heart.
Bettelheim treasured the written word. Fortunately, unlike Socrates,
and despitebelievingthat thebestlearningcomesdialectically, he wrote.
Several of us learned from him only through his writings. Early on he
abjured the dry, passive-voiced, "professional" journals, filled with their
English psychoanalytic argot that obscured more than clarified. These
samejournalsrefused topublishhisaccountofhisexperienceinDachau,
because they did notbelieve the horrorofhis account. Perhaps there was
another important reason for his willingness to tum not only to writing
books but also to such magazines as the New Yorker, Redbook, and the
Atlantic Monthly for his voice. He believed deeply that psychology be
longedtothelaypublic, notonlyrarefiedpsychoanalyticorpsychological
organizations. Hebelieveddeeply thatmattersofthesoul, iftheyare true
andifclearlystated, willbeunderstoodbytheinterestedlayperson. And
thelaypersonwould, ofcourse, beinterestedinsuchmatters, fortheyare
ix
x
PREFACE
mattersofourdailylife:raisingandeducatingchildren,erasingprejudice,
living autonomously in a mass society, enjoying fairy tales.
In1985weheldaconferencetopresentourthoughtstothismanwho
engenderedourideasinsuchvariedfields:anthropology, psychoanalysis,
child development, education, milieu therapy, feminism, literature. This
was thebestgiftwecouldofferhim. Hewas reluctanttoattend, notonly
because of his modesty, but also because of his concern that such a
meetingmightbeahardshiponhisfriends. Heagreedtojoinusonlyafter
wesaidweweregoingtohold theconferenceinanyevent. Wemetinthe
Judd Classroom at the University ofChicago, where he had taughtall of
his classes.
Surprisingly, when we agreed to rewrite these conference papers as
chaptersforthisbook, severalpublisherssaidtheywereinterestedonlyif
wedidnotdedicateitasa Festschrift, since, weweretold, Festschriften did
not sell. It did not matter that our work was dedicated to Bettelheim's
thoughts, thatasgoodintellectualfriends andcolleaguesourworkwould
not be a hagiography but, as best we could manage, honest journeys
beginning with his ideas as home ports, to whatever new lands we
discovered on the vessels of psychoanalysis. We persisted, and through
Theron Raines, Bettelheim's agent, found in Plenum a publisher who
facilitated the birth of this volume.
Our task in this book is to recapture and develop the humanistic
trends in psychoanalysis. This humanism withered as psychoanalysis
was transplanted from Vienna to the fertile but alien soils of America.
Whenonetransplantsgreatvineyard stockfrom the soilsofBurgundyor
BordeauxtoNapaValley, thesoilandclimatemaychangethesamewine
forbetterorworse. Forpsychoanalysis, theNewWorld'ssoilchangedthe
humanistic flavor to a technological one.
Those of us who wrote these chapters learned of this cultural task,
educatingorreeducatingouremotions, from Bettelheim, aseitherteacher
orcolleague. Whenwe wished to thankhimfor teaching ushow to livea
lifewithaninformedheart-reasonimbuingfeeling-wefeltthatourbest
giftswouldbeourthoughts. Itwasdauntingtocapturehisideasandtheir
influence on our respective, diverse fields, for his writings appear so
diverse. Hisnameis notsimplyconnected toa singleeasilyremembered
idea, like the names of his equally humanistic colleagues, Erikson (the
intimateconnectionofchildrearingandsocietalvalues)orPeterBIos (the
vicissitudes ofadolescence).
Yet there is a unifying theme for Bettelheim and, we hope, for this
book: how a humanistic psychoanalytic understanding of humankind
deepensandenrichesone'sunderstandingofitsculturalworks. Ifhuman
ism is our concern for values, welfare, and dignity, then culture is the
PREFACE xi
sharedrepresentationalmannerin which weconstructourlives, commu
nally and intrapsychically. These cultural works include creating institu
tions for emotionally disturbed children; creating grammar schools or
curricula;amelioratingprejudiceorfosteringtolerance;readingfairytales;
transmittingvalues, thatis, educatingtheemotionsofchildrenwhetherin
middle-classhomesorinkibbutzim; understandingenvy, whetheritbeof
penisorwomb; and creatingorcuring symptoms, thosefirst creations of
reflection.
The Nazi concentration camp profoundly marked Bettelheim: "It is
death that endows life with its deepest, most unique meaning" (Bet
telheim, 1979). When the Nazis entered Vienna on March 13, 1938, Bet
telheim, an officerin the underground army, said all ofAustria's "allies"
turned away. He remained long enough to demobilize his men, then
escaped to Czechoslovakia. The Czechs were only too pleased to detain
him until the Nazis came. His one year in Dachau is recounted most
directly in three volumes: The Informed Heart (1960), Surviving (1979), and
Freud'sViennaandOtherEssays(1990). Thesebooksbrackethislife. Thefirst
sets its task tofind and preserveautonomyin a mass age. The last closes
with the admonition "We all must enlarge the feeling of community
beyond our own group . . . because violence is as natural to man as the
tendency toward order." These were his last published words.
WhenBettelheimemigratedtotheUnitedStates, hebegan, asheput
it, the "betterpartofmy life." He dedicated several decades ofhislife to
demonstrating how ameliorating, how soul-saving, an institution can be
fortheemotionallydamagedchild. Fourbooksrecounthisefforts: LoveIs
Not Enough (1950), anaccountofthe structureofthedayand thearchitec
ture of emotional education; Truants from Life (1955), an account of the
children;andAHomefor theHeart (1974), anaccountofthemilieustaff. The
EmptyFortress (1967)focused onhiseffortsto helpautisticchildren, those
most emotionally savaged. Because some adults objected to his descrip
tion, following Leo Kanner, of the emotional coldness of some autistic
children'sparents, thesubstanceofhowthesechildrenwere rehabilitated
was also rejected.
While he worked with the most disturbed, Bettelheim's thoughts
were neverfar from the vicissitudesofcontemporarylife, whetherlearn
inghowtoraiseachildwell(Dialogues withMothers [1962], AGood Enough
Parent[1987]),orunderstandinghowprejudicebolstersself-esteemandthe
search for identity, explaining its stubborn endurance in the face of
legislationortheusual"educative"approaches(SocialChangeandPrejudice
[1964]).
Asanemigrant, hewassensitivetohowmanydifferentwayswecan
understand, find meaning, in the world, yet how we all share some