Has Sigmund Freud been seriously misunderstood? The author of The Uses of Enchantment argues that mistranslation has distorted Freud’s work in English and led students to see a system intended to cooperate flexibly with individual needs as a set of rigid rules to be applied by external authority. This provocative argument cuts through the myths to reveal a greater, more compassoinate and also far more disturbing figure.
“VITAL…an eloquent attempt to reclaim Freud’s reputation in America.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Lucid and provocative.” —THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna in 1903. He received his doctorate at the University of Vienna and came to America in 1939, after a year in the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. He was a distinguished professor of education… More about Bruno Bettelheim
