SOURCE: Storr, Anthony. “Suffering of the Little Children.” Spectator (24 March 1990): 29-30.

In the following favorable review of Recollections and Reflections, Storr maintains that “Bettelheim's many admirers will not be disappointed by this final volume.”

Bruno Bettelheim, who died last week in his 87th year, was the best-known child psychologist in the USA. This [Recollections and Reflections] is his 16th book. Most of the essays have been published before, but many have been revised, and some are appearing in English for the first time.

Bettelheim was born in Vienna in 1903. As an adolescent, he became interested in psychoanalysis because Otto Fenichel, later to become the author of a standard textbook of psychoanalysis, appeared to be appropriating his girl friend by filling her head full of Freud's teachings. Not to be outdone, Bettelheim bought all the Freudian writings he could find, and promptly became fascinated.

Two main themes derived from...