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Comment
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Alisa
Registered User
(12/19/01 8:17:48 pm)
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Bettleheim "Revelations"
I am new to the board. Although this may seem like "old news," to the more established posters. I was wondering how the academic world has responded to the "findings" that Bruno Bettleheim was no all that he claimed to be. Has the reliance on his writings as they relate to fairy tales been challenged? Thanks, and best regard for the holiday season -
Alisa
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Midori
Unregistered User
(12/21/01 5:10:33 am)
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Bettelheim
Alisa,
The board has had many discussion's about Bettelheim in the past--most of them growling about his work. You may be able to find one of those in the archives as Heidi our webmistress puts subject headings on the threads. On the one hand many of us feel that Bettelheim is a bit too didactic and too simplistic--drawing straight lines between western pyschoanalytical theory and images in the narratives--which creates problems when one deals with narrative variants from non western cultures--or if one doesn't subscribe to his particular brand of psycholanlysis. He's mostly heavy handed pulling out images that will support his psychoanalytical theories (and ignoring those aspects of the narrative that don't)--on the other hand, if it's your first time entering into analytical studies of fairy tales, it can be intriguing and useful to recognize that in the course of the narrative a potentially complex subtext is being developed. Many professors I know when they teach courses on oral narrative traditions introduce Bettelheim--give everyone a chance to play with his ideas for a week--and then move past him fairly quickly.
A quick glance down the board (the "reference library" thread for instance) will give you some great suggestions as to other text and methodological approaches that might be more useful--or at least more flexible when addressing the complex nuances of fairy tale.
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Terri
Registered User
(12/21/01 5:46:23 am)
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Re: Bettelheim
Midori, you haven't addressed Alisa's question, which is specifically a query about how fairy tale academics responded to the news that Bettleheim fabricated parts of his past. Being a fairy tale popularizer, rather than academic, I don't know the answer to that (perhaps some of the academics on this board do) -- though I know it came as a big surprise to me. I'm not sure that it impacts all that much on his fairy tale analysis -- but his essay Surviving, talking about his experiences in German prison camps during the war, was one that held a lot of meaning for me, and it was strange indeed to learn that his past was different than he'd presented it. Does that make the points he raises in the essay any less insightful? An interesting question to ponder....
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(12/21/01 8:46:59 am)
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On Bettleheim...
Back when I was living in New York City I heard about and was excited by the title of his book, THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT. My mind tripped off on the possibilities it offered. After much urging on my part, my parents presented the book to me as a Christmas gift. But when I started to read the text, with it's amazinglly didatic theories, I found it so invasive of my own personal interpretations on various fairy tale it infuriated me to the point that I finally just tossed it out my window (I lived in a four flight walk up apt.) not wanting those type of thought paterns anywhere near me.
Sometimes I think about that slightly damaged book lying on the streets of Manhatten and wonder who picked it up and took it home...
I still think that it is a wonderfully evocative title, it's just that it's attached to the wrong book.
Charles
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Don
Unregistered User
(12/21/01 6:46:19 pm)
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Bettelheim
Since the "academic world" covers a lot of territory, it's hard to generalize about academic attitudes towards Bettelheim following the revelations that were published after his death. As far as fairy-tale scholarship goes, a good deal of the pre-revelation criticism of his work was only confirmed or underlined by the revelations. I've suggested this in my essay, "Yours, Mine, or Ours," reprinted in Tatar's THE CLASSIC FAIRY TALES. Bettelheim's repressive moralizing and didacticism, which he cloaks as psychotherapy, are consistent with the alleged physical and emotional abuse of children at the Orthogenic School.
More problematic is the relationship between Bettelheim's ideas about the significance of fairy tales and his own life--his childhood as well as his experience as an exile and survivor (something about which there is also a good deal of debate). I've published a brief essay on this (in German), focusing especially on the experience of exile and the concept of home in the fairy-tale theories of Ernst Bloch and Bettelheim.
A good (albeit admittedly biased) view of Bettelheim's life and works is Richard Pollak's THE CREATION OF DR. B: A BIOGRAPHY OF BRUNO BETTELHEIM (1997).
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Midori
Unregistered User
(12/22/01 6:02:51 am)
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Bruno clarification
Terri and Don,
Thanks for the clarification--I read the question too superficially (I must have the "homework" thread on my mind and was thinking someone was deciding whether or not to use Bettelheim!). I wasn't aware of the scandal about his life--but I shall now have to look into it--it sounds both grim and fascinating.
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Alisa
Registered User
(12/23/01 5:24:25 am)
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Re: Bettelheim
Thanks for all the responses. FYI, I did read "The Creation of Dr. B," as well as numerous articles published here in the Chicago area. I will floow-up on some of our suggestions. Best regards -
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