The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self [Paperback]

Bruno Bettelheim (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1st Pb edition edition (September 1, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029031400
• ISBN-13: 978-0029031407
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #850,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Of historical interest only, March 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self (Paperback)

Bettelheim wrote his book just before the massive surge in research into the biological and neurological origins of autism. It is now agreed by all autism researchers that autism is biological in origin, and has nothing to do with the parents' behaviour at all - cold and rejecting or abusive parents produce emotionally disturbed kids, not autistic ones, as Bettelheim claimed. Exhaustive studies have shown that the parents of autistic children are not distinguishable on any psychological measure from the parents of normal children. There is in fact general agreement that there is a substantial genetic factor - cases of identical twins where only one has autism (in fact very rare) simply show that the genetic factor is not 100% and there is also a role for factors such as viral damage, brain damage at birth, etc. Leo Kanner, who first identified autism as a syndrome, liked to refer to Bettelheim's book as "The Empty Book".
(...) I highly recommend Richard Pollak's brilliant expose "The Creation of Dr. B."
Many high-functioning autistic people such as Temple Grandin and Donna Williams have also spoken out against psychoanalytic "interpretations" as having absolutely nothing to do with their experience (indeed many people with high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome can be reduced to helpless laughter or tears of fury by reading "The Empty Fortress".
Ultimately, the fact that "The Empty Fortress" still has its defenders among psychoanalysts is a damning statement about the psychoanalytic profession and its inability to admit mistakes (hmm, I wonder what that says about their unconscious motivations?).

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Delusional Thinking, April 17, 2006

By 

Jo March "Bethany" (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self (Paperback)

Yes, this book is of historical interest, in the same sort of shameful way that lobotomies are of historical interest. Bettelheim's success rate was mostly fabricated. There is good evidence that he abused the troubled children in his care. (See, for example, the evidence in "The Creation of Dr. B" by Richard Pollack). Primarily he was a charlatan, able to pull the wool over the public's eyes in large part because he practiced in the fuzzy field of psychoanalysis, with its near absence of scientific rigors. The book is evidently lots of fun for people who have never had to deal with real mental illness. It's appallingly cruel to parents of autistic children, particularly the mothers.

25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Of strictly historical interest, February 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self (Paperback)

This book is useful for those studying the history of child psychology and autism, since Bettelheim's theory that parents caused autism was so influential for so long, but anyone reading the book should be aware that his theory has been discredited. Books like I Want To Hear Your Voice, by Catherine Maurice, and The Siege, by Clara Claiborne Park, are far more likely to be useful for those who have an autistic family member (both books are by mothers of autistic children).