Voting Station

Bruno Bettelheim

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Doctor

The Resume

    (August 28, 1903-March 13, 1990)
    Born in Vienna, Austria
    Child psychologist
    Wrote 'Love Is Not Enough' (1950), 'Truants from Life' (1954), 'The Informed Heart' (1960), 'The Empty Fortress' (1967), 'The Uses of Enchantment' (1976) and 'Freud and Man's Soul' (1983)
    Ran the Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago

Why he might be annoying:

    He exaggerated his academic credentials.
    He committed plagiarism.
    He told an audience of Jews, 'If you assimilated, there would be no anti-Semitism. Why don't you assimilate?'
    Many of the autistic children he claimed to have cured were not autistic, they were misdiagnosed.
    His theory that autism is caused by emotionally distant parents has been completely discredited.
    After his death, a stream of former students came forward with tales of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was incarcerated in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps (1938-39).
    'The Uses of Enchantment' won a National Book Award.
    He was charming and persuasive.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 7 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 11 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 16 Votes: 68.75% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 17 Votes: 82.35% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 69 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 31 Votes: 77.42% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 43 Votes: 76.74% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 70 Votes: 75.71% Annoying