Bruno Bettelheim

Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990) was a writer, child psychologist, and philosopher.

Bettelheim was born in Austria and because he was a Jew, was forced to enter a concentration camp from 1938-1939 before he was released and managed to escape from his native land to America.

Bettelheim is best known for his in-depth work with autistic children. Bettelheim and his wife cared for an American girl for seven years while in Vienna. The author later determined that the girl was autistic and set out to uncover the mysteries behind this illness. Bettelheim returned to university where he eventually received a degree in philosophy. Although Bettelheim's curriculum vitae showed that he had received a doctorate in this field of study, it was later learned that the claim was unjustified.

Bettelheim's theory on autism was centered on the presence of a weak father figure and the neglect of the mother. When...