The CREATION OF DR B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim

By Richard Pollak

Book Overview

While certainly a biography, Richard Pollak's book is much more than a simple account of the life of the renowned psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. Pollak's book is both more personal and more damning... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684809389
• ISBN13: 9780684809380
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

THe Lies Crumble

Given the facts revealed in this book,the obvious question is,how did Bettelheim dominate the field of Autism for so long?There was an army of people who defended Bettelheim and attacked his critics of the dimensions of Bush and Iraq.One of his critics,a fellow professor at the U of Chicago was assaulted with a baseball bat. A separate book could be written on the media outlets that artificially inflated every book by Bettelheim. One lead might be the Ford Foundation giving him almost half a million in the 1950's,at a time when Ford was a CIA conduit and the CIA was involved in mind control experiments that had their focus on sensory deprivation and sensory overload.

Wake up and smell the child abuse

Pollak does a brilliant job of tearing away the deceptions and rationalizations that made Bettelheim's Orthogenic School seem like an outstanding, cutting edge School for emotionally troubled, mentally ill and autistic children. The chapter on Bettelheim's brutality against the children really made me wonder how did the staff working with him rationalize his behavior for so many years? I guess some staff were intimidated by him. And some were awestruck by his prestige. I think indirectly Pollak's book is an indictment against the University of Chicago for so carelessly supporting Bettelheim for so many years - 30 years. Pollak shows how Bettelheim was allowed to surround himself with whatever staff he pleased. And frequently, he chose impressionable, young people who had good reason to believe that Bettelheim's method's were rational since the U of C backed the school. I guess the U of C was so content with Bettelheim's national prestige and with the money he brought to the University that they weren't concerned about his cruel, sadistic side. And I'm sure that U of C officials must have known something about this side of Betttelheim, since he said outrageous things in public. Also, I guess Pollak's book shows how easy it can be for the ordinary person to witness terrible acts of brutality against a vulnerable population (and troubled children, some as young as 4, living away from their parents for several years is probably one of the more vulnerable populations in the world) yet do and say nothing. In the book, Bettelheim supporters seem to rationalize that because Bettelheim was so brilliant that he could somehow abuse children in an effective, therapeutic way. They decided that his role of the Big Bad Wolf would help sick children overcome the terror of their inner aggression. Now, unless you think mentally ill children are an alien species, what child is going to feel safer knowing that at any moment they might be beaten in the head, slapped repeatedly in the face or have their pants pulled down and be beaten on their behinds with a belt? What child is going to feel safer knowing that all this abuse would be dealt out entirely according to the discretion of one man. And that the staff would either ignore what he did or tell you to overlook the welts he created on your body and just listen to the wisdom of what he said to you. This type of thinking, which Pollak describes in his book, seems like a rationalization of the worst kind. It is extraordinarily simplistic to assume that Bettelheim can help children by beating and shaming them. And Pollak makes it clear that Bettelheim's cruelty towards the children was not an infrequent aberration, but an integral and consistant part of this therapeutic milieu. And, because he is dealing with children, often young children, they cannot stand up to his abuse. They need someone to depend on so much, that they can't resist his tyranny. And the person Bettelheim picked to be his successor, Jacqui

At last, the truth, The real story of Dr. Bettelheim

As a former student at Bettelheim's Orthogenic School, I would like to commend Mr. Pollack for a well written and truthful account of Dr. B. He was NOT the "saint" as people would like to have him be. Mr. Pollack's description of Dr. B is totally accurate in every detail. We, the students, as Mr. Pollack did point out, were very intimidated by Dr. B and were often slapped and beaten by him. The Orthogenic School staff, never came to our aid, themselves, as well, being intimadated by this man. I am glad Mr. Pollak wrote this book and only wish others would also expose the fake Dr.B.

THE EMPEROR HAD NO CLOTHES

In this day and age of widespread , scatter-shot debunking of the public personages , we are often treated to tabloid-style attacks and 'exposes' of the high and mighty. While Bruno Bettelheim hardly ranks up there in widespread public identification with Madonna, George Clooney, Bill Clinton or even an O.J. Simpson, he was a widely known, highly respected figure in the world of academic and layman's psychology. The vast majority of those who were familiar with Bettelheim's works and personna knew almost nothing of the real man, behind the veil of academic journals, newspaper articles, appearances on television and magazine profiles. Those few who truly knew Bettelheim personally sharply divided: those who loved him, blindly(I guess, in the spirit of the Freudian world that Bettelheim was a posseur in, people had 'Transferences' toward him--in the true Freudian sense of the word), and those who knew him, worked with him---and detested him for the reasons sharply outlined in Richard Pollaks' exceedingly well written, ably researched and important book. Very few people 'in the know', it seems, about Bettelheim were neutral about him; he was a polarizing figure. Pollak's book is hardly the stuff of tabloid journalism--nor is it a thoroughly angry, declarative screed by an angry man. Pollak definetely has a point of view--and he marshalls what he believes to be exculpatory evidence for his case. Richard Pollak has aroused the same 'furies' that were ignited when the first Chicago READER letters by former Orthogenic School student appeared soon after Bettelheim's 1990 suicide--the fury and defense of Bettelheim's few remaining apologists. It was to be, for these apologists:Their Bruno, Right of Wrong. Others had a balanced rendering of the full texture of the man--the liar, the braggart, and the hyperbole-laden intellectual terrorist, along with whom they also regarded as the nurturing, humane, emotionally vibrant healer of mothers needing dialogue and the troubled needing balance. No matter what you may or may not know or feel about Bettelheim, dismissal of Pollak's work by the hard-line apologists reminds me of the famous words of a little known die-hard Nixon-defending Indiana Congressman who,when confronted by the final, incriminating tapes that sealed Nixon's adieu, declared: "Hey! Don't confuse me with the facts!" That Congresman was defeated in the next election; and those who will go down fighting to their last defending Bettelheim blindly against all charges will be hard pressed to refute the solid evience woven together by journalist Richard Pollak.

Irrefutable and damning

A book that obviously comes out of deep passion and painstaking scholarship, written with a cold and disciplined fury. The evidence Pollak uncovers is so shocking as to be practically grotesque. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic. Bettelheim blighted the lives of a generation of autistic children (as well as their parents), as well as those of any other children who were unfortunate to fall into his care. Pollak's harshness is never less than scrupulously fair, and is clearly richly merited.