Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna, Austria, on Aug. 28, 1903. He received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1938. After the Nazi takeover of Austria that year, he was placed in concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald. When he was released in 1939, he immigrated to the United States, where he became a research associate at the University of Chicago.

In October 1943 he wrote an article, “Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations,” that won wide and immediate recognition. Based on Bettelheim's experiences in the concentration camps, this pioneer study examined human adaptability to stress.

In 1944 Bettelheim was appointed assistant professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and the head of the university's Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School. The latter was a residential laboratory school for 6- to 14-year-olds with serious emotional problems. It was here that Bettelheim began his work with autistic children—children with a mental disorder that causes a lack of response to outside stimuli to the point that they withdraw from reality itself. An associate professor from 1947 and a full professor from 1952, Bettelheim concerned himself with the relationship between social problems and the rearing of children. Apparently deeply depressed over his health and family life, Bettelheim committed suicide on March 13, 1990, in Silver Spring, Md. Controversy arose after his death when some former students at his school claimed he had had an explosive temper and had been abusive to them.

A number of Bettelheim's writings stem from his work with children and include ‘Love Is Not Enough' (1950), ‘Truants from Life' (1955), ‘The Empty Fortress' (1967), ‘The Children of the Dream' (1969), ‘The Uses of Enchantment' (1976), ‘Freud and Man's Soul' (1982), and ‘A Good Enough Parent' (1987).