Book chapter
Love Is Not Enough: Bruno Bettelheim, Infantile Autism, and Psychoanalytic Childhood
Understanding Autism
27 Nov 2011
Abstract
This chapter describes what happened when the child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago, designed a research program for training counselors based on the idea that autism represented a form of halted ego development. Bettelheim popularized psychotherapy in postwar America, and especially the view of autistic children and their families that has remained both a reference and a foil for generations of parents. The story of Bettelheim's involvement with autism illustrates the ambivalent and sometimes tragic qualities of the affective, institutional, and professional commitments that drive research on autism as well as treatment practices. The chapter examines Bettelheim's conviction that one might temper reason with love, but that love was often “not enough” unless combined with interpretive acumen and clear-eyed introspection.
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Details
- Title
- Love Is Not Enough: Bruno Bettelheim, Infantile Autism, and Psychoanalytic Childhood
- Creators
- Chloe Silverman
- Publication Details
- Understanding Autism
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Politics
- Other Identifier
- 991020531818104721