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because it was based on unverifiable data.
In
that essay, he did not credit Anna
Freud's and Sandor Ferenzci's theories, when he observed that prisoners tend–
ed to defend themselves against their aggressors by identifying with them.
They had been exploring this notion shortly before the
Anschluss.
Intellectuals
such as Hannah Arendt, Max Horkheimer and T.W Adorno, who also tried
to explain the Nazis' success in terms of individuals' attitudes, though dis–
agreeing with one another's philosophical premises, and with some of
Bettelheim's claims and his hyperbole, nevertheless engaged with him in pub–
lic debates, and soon invited him to contribute to a volume on National
Socialism; Dwight Madonald excerpted "Extreme Situations" for
Politics;
and
he was favorably quoted in
Commentary.
All of that catapulted Bettelheim
into the spotlight, and captivated the media.
When Bettelhein1 arrived in New York and later in Chicago, none of the
Viennese psychoanalysts as yet had made a name for him- or herself, although
the American ambience was ready for them. Bettelheim took advantage of
this cultural climate and, not least, of his ability to fabulate. Indeed, by employ–
ing the Freudian categories, he could kill two birds: establish his professional
credentials by means of psychoanalytic language; and bo1ster his allegations
and claims that he had been close
to
Freud-whom he had never met. Again,
who in America could prove that this wasn't true, and who really cared?
Actually, his first wife, Gina, had taken an (American) autistic child into
their Viennese home, and Bettelheim inevitably gained much insight into this
girl's, Patsy Lyne's, psyche. To further establish his psychoanalytic credentials
as a follower of Freud's, and land a job in a psychological setting, he now
boosted his accomplishments by saying that he himself had cared for her. (By
the time he wrote
The Informed Heart,
in
1960,
he maintained that he had lived
with two autistic children in Vienna as part of their treatment, and based sub–
sequent stories on that one.) This "Viennese
Schmiih"
established him as an
authority on autism which, at that time, was neither well-defined nor an
accepted diagnostic category. His lively personality and extraordinary intelli–
gence, along with his ability to grab the limelight, his powers of persuasion
and skill at listening, landed him his first appointment at the Orthogenic
School.
Certainly, Bettelheim was hiding more than his lack of credentials. He
was trying to fake his past, most of all, to account for the twelve years he had
been in the lumber business-which he had had to take over after his father
died of syphilis. While waiting for the boom to fall, the young Bruno had
been traumatized, especially because he did not know whether the sickness
(then leading to certain death) had been contracted before or after he was
conceived, so that he might have in11eri ted· it. Inevi tably, the atmosphere at
home was oppressive, and he preferred spending time with his aunt and
cousins, the Buxbaums. Moreover, he was painfully aware of being physically
