Kanttekeningen

Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990): een revelatie voor de psychoanalyse bij kinderen

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Abstract

Bruno Bettelheim, a revelation to the psychoanalysis of children - In March 1990 the death occurred of Bruno Bettelheim, who achieved fame through the treatment of psychotic and more especially autistic children. Twelve months imprisonment in the German concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald prompted him to make a study of human behaviour in ’extreme situations’. This concept became the basis of his theory about the origin of autism in children and of his therapeutical approach to such patients. To deal with extreme situations, induced by their upbringing and lying at the root of psychosis, Bettelheim devised the alternative of ’total milieu therapy’, which he tried to implement at his Chicago-based institute. For thirty years he led this orthogenic school following his own principles of total freedom and independence, aimed at stimulating the individual psychical development of children staying at the institute. His humanitarian aims, a source of lifelong inspiration, have been left as a legacy to posterity in the form of an extensive oeuvre enjoying worldwide acclaim.

How to Cite:

Naessens, E., (1990) “Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990): een revelatie voor de psychoanalyse bij kinderen”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 35(4), 421–423. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95057