Quotes by Bruno Bettelheim

Bruno Bettelheim

A child… who has learned from fairy stories to believe that what at first seemed a repulsive, threatening figure can magically change into a most helpful friend is ready to believe that a strange child whom he meets and fears may also be changed from a menace into a desirable companion.

Believe

Children

Fairy Stories

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.

Children

Lying

Thinking

Although we like to think of young children’s lives as free of troubles, they are in fact filled with disappointment and frustration. Children wish for so much, but can arrange so little of their own lives, which are so often dominated by adults without sympathy for the children’s priorities. That is why children have a much greater need for daydreams than adults do. And because their lives have been relatively limited they have a greater need for material from which to form daydreams.

Children

Disappointment

Thinking

Among the most valuable but least appreciated experiences parenthood can provide are the opportunities it offers for exploring, reliving, and resolving one’s own childhood problems in the context of one’s relation to one’s child.

Childhood

Children

Opportunity

As the creative adult needs to toy with ideas, the child, to form his ideas, needs toys–and plenty of leisure and scope to play with them as he likes, and not just the way adults think proper. This is why he must be given this freedom for his play to be successful and truly serve him well.

Children

Creativity

Successful

From a child’s play, we can gain understanding of how he sees and construes the world–what he would like it to be, what his concerns are, what problems are besetting him.

Children

Play

Understanding

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.

Achievement

Consciousness

Needs

Most advice on child-rearing is sought in the hope that it will confirm our prior convictions. If the parent had wished to proceedin a certain way but was made insecure by opposing opinions of neighbors, friends, or relatives, then it gives him great comfort to find his ideas seconded by an expert.

Children

Ideas

Insecure

Plato–who may have understood better what forms the mind of man than do some of our contemporaries who want their children exposed only to “real” people and everyday events–knew what intellectual experience made for true humanity. He suggested that the future citizens of his ideal republic begin their literary education with the telling of myths, rather than with mere facts or so-called rational teachings.

Children

Education

Plato

Play reaches the habits most needed for intellectual growth.

Growth

Intellectual

Play

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Achievement

Art

Be Good

Believe

Childhood

Children

Consciousness

Creativity

Disappointment

Education

Enchantment

Encouraging

Fairy Stories

Future Generation

Generations

Giving

Good Life

Growing Up

Growth

Healing

Ideas

Insecure

Inspirational

Intellectual

Life

Lying

Mirrors

Mother

Motivational

Natural

Needs

Opportunity

Order

Parent

People

Plato

Play

Punishment

Quality

Respect

Self

Sex

Stories

Stress

Strong

Successful

Thinking

Understanding

Unique

Views

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

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The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by Bruno Bettelheim

Bruno Bettelheim

A child… who has learned from fairy stories to believe that what at first seemed a repulsive, threatening figure can magically change into a most helpful friend is ready to believe that a strange child whom he meets and fears may also be changed from a menace into a desirable companion.

Among the most valuable but least appreciated experiences parenthood can provide are the opportunities it offers for exploring, reliving, and resolving one’s own childhood problems in the context of one’s relation to one’s child.

As the creative adult needs to toy with ideas, the child, to form his ideas, needs toys–and plenty of leisure and scope to play with them as he likes, and not just the way adults think proper. This is why he must be given this freedom for his play to be successful and truly serve him well.

From a child’s play, we can gain understanding of how he sees and construes the world–what he would like it to be, what his concerns are, what problems are besetting him.

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.

Most advice on child-rearing is sought in the hope that it will confirm our prior convictions. If the parent had wished to proceedin a certain way but was made insecure by opposing opinions of neighbors, friends, or relatives, then it gives him great comfort to find his ideas seconded by an expert.

Play reaches the habits most needed for intellectual growth.

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Topics by Bruno Bettelheim

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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