I just bought a book by Bettelheim, Freud and Man’s Soul. The appeal was to get a grasp on a better translated Freud. New to me & starkly present in the bio on the first page of the book is the fact of Bettleheim’s suicide, that shocked me. More research reveals a wikipedia entry and other references to lies and abuse that mar his life. His theories are “proven” to be wrong. The man sure had a big shadow, but the reviews linked to above, “Given His Tortured Sense of Inferiority, Did Bettelheim Want To Be Found Out?” by Christine Downing gives a fuller account, allowing the possibility of seeing value in his work, light & shadow. After reading that I still want to go on reading my new book!
Walter Logeman: Journal