Edith Kurzweil replies:
Dr. Mary Coleman accuses me
of a "strikingly illiterate defense" of
Bruno Bettelheim's "lifetime of
lying and cheating," while Dr.
Jacquelyn Sanders claims I am
unfairly accepting his biographer's,
Richard Pollak's, biases and "gross
misrepresentations" against
him.
And whereas Dr. Coleman accuses
Dr. Bettelheim of having violated
medical ethics, Dr. Sanders informs
us (correctly, I believe) that in the
1940s psychological/ psychoanalytic
credentials were not required of the
Director of the Orthogenic School.
Clearly, his posthumous reputation
keeps mattering in Chicago.
But neither Dr. Coleman nor
Dr. Sanders caught the thrust of my
review, which was to explain
Bettelheim's predicament as aJewish
emigre, in a society which did not
exactly welcome foreigners, much
less competition. I did not defend
"Bettelheim's lifetime of lying and
cheating as normal behavior of
immigrants," but described, in some
detail, how getting a foothold occa–
sionally called for one or another
white lie. I should add that I
received other, more personal com–
munications, which said that this
context was illuminating.
In any event nei ther of these
two contradictory letters recog–
nizes that I tried to write an
even-handed review, pointing to
both Bettelheim's failures and
accompli shments.
