Bruno Bettelheim Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

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

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
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
If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives.

Bruno Bettelheim
The most extreme agony is to feel that one has been utterly forsaken.

Bruno Bettelheim
The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are unreal, they are not untrue...

Bruno Bettelheim
The delight we experience when we allow ourselves to respond to a fairy tale, the enchantment we feel, comes not from the psychological meaning of the tale (although this contributes to it) but from its literary qualities-the tale itself as a work of art,

Bruno Bettelheim
This is exactly the message that fairy tales get across to the child in manifold form: that a struggle against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable, is an intrinsic part of human existence -- but that if one does not shy away, but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious.

Bruno Bettelheim
Fairy tales are loved by the child not because the imagery he finds in them conforms to what goes on within him, but because--despite all the angry, anxious thoughts in his mind to which the fairy tale gives body and specific content--these stories always result in a happy outcome, which the child cannot imagine on his own.

Bruno Bettelheim
A parent who from his own childhood experience is convinced of the value of fairy tales will have no difficulty in answering his child's questions; but an adult who thinks these tales are only a bunch of lies had better not try telling them; he won't be able to related them in a way which would enrich the child's life.

Bruno Bettelheim