63 Quotes by Bruno Bettelheim

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

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

Even Aristotle, master of pure reason, said: 'The friend of wisdom is also a friend of myth.

The unrealistic nature of these tales (which narrowminded rationalists object to) is an important device, because it makes obvious that the fairy tales’ concern is not useful information about the external world, but the inner process taking place in an individual.

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.

But had Minkowski and Einstein not recognized it long before us, our schizophrenic children would have taught us that space-time is a unity that precedes any separate understanding of either category; just as grasping this unity is a precondition for understanding causality.

All my life, I have been working with children whose lives were destroyed because their mothers hated them.” 1981 re: cause of autism

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

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.