Bruno Bettelheim quotes

Bruno Bettelheim was an Austrian-born American psychologist and writer, best known for his influential work on child psychology and fairy tales. His analyses of stories and their impact on children have left a lasting mark on literature and education. He became a controversial figure due to both his theories and his personal conduct. Here are 18 of his quotes:

Raising children is a creative endeavor, an art rather than a science.

Bruno Bettelheim

The ability to read becomes devalued when what one has learned to read adds nothing of importance to one's life.

Bruno Bettelheim

The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one's children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.

Bruno Bettelheim

The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are, they are not...

Bruno Bettelheim

Punishment may make us obey the orders we are given, but at best it will only teach an obedience to authority, not a self-control which enhances our self-respect.

Bruno Bettelheim

Not only is our love for our children sometimes tinged with annoyance, discouragement, and disappointment, the same is true for the love our children feel for us.

Bruno Bettelheim

You can't teach children to be good. The best you can do for your child is to live a good life yourself. What a parent knows and believes, the child will lean on.

Bruno Bettelheim

Play permits the child to resolve in symbolic form unsolved problems of the past and to cope directly or symbolically with present concerns. It is also his most significant tool for preparing himself for the future and its tasks.

Bruno Bettelheim

The question for the child is not Do I want to be good? but Whom do I want to be like?

Bruno Bettelheim

No longer can we be satisfied with a life where the heart has its reasons which reason cannot know. Our hearts must know the world of reason, and reason must be guided by an informed heart.

Bruno Bettelheim

You cannot have sex education without saying that sex is natural and that most people find it pleasurable.

Bruno Bettelheim

Creativity stands at the center of all education.

Bruno Bettelheim

What children learn from punishment is that might makes right. When they are old and strong enough, they will try to get their ownback; thus many children punish their parents by acting in ways distressing to them.

Bruno Bettelheim

Since there are thousands of fairy tales, one may safely guess that there are probably equal numbers where the courage and determination of females rescue males, and vice versa.

Bruno Bettelheim

From a child's play, we can gain understanding of how he sees and construes the world--what he would like it to be, what his concerns are, what problems are besetting him.

Bruno Bettelheim

As the creative adult needs to toy with ideas, the child, to form his ideas, needs toys--and plenty of leisure and scope to play with them as he likes, and not just the way adults think proper. This is why he must be given this freedom for his play to be successful and truly serve him well.

Bruno Bettelheim