10 Bruno Bettelheim Quotes That Will Help You Become More Human

Psychologist and psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim spent almost a year in the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. Having seen the atrocities of the German fascists there and then found himself free, he not only retained faith in the best, but also tried to teach society humanism and philanthropy.

Psychologist and psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim was born in 1903 in Austria. In 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed the country, Bettelheim, along with thousands of other Jews and opponents of the Hitler regime, was sent first to Dachau and then to Buchenwald, two large concentration camps.

Bettelheim spent 11 months there: once freed, he moved to the United States, where he continued to build a career as a psychologist and dedicated several books to the criticism of fascism .

“The Enlightened Heart”, “People in the Concentration Camp”, “On the Psychological Attractiveness of Totalitarianism” are just some of Bettelheim’s works that have been published in Russian. We have collected the most striking quotes from them – about what humanity is, how not to lose faith in the best in the most terrible times, and what the experience of being in concentration camps taught those who managed to survive there.

BRUNO BETTELHEIM QUOTES

“The appeal of totalitarianism lies in its promise of resolving the most severe internal conflicts of peace with oneself and giving a sense of one’s own security and harmony with the environment. Unfortunately for the opponent of the regime, this harmony and peace are achieved only by the loss of independence, self-respect and human dignity.”

“One of the lessons (as opposed to Darwinism) that the concentration camps taught was that the desire for life, elan vital, is of little use unless it is rooted in love – love for man, for God, or for high ideals.”

“The more we are surrounded by machines, the more we need to develop and demonstrate humanity and human relationships. The more we live in a mass society, the more we must realize the need for warm relationships

One of the main conditions for the independent existence of the individual is responsibility for one’s actions. If we select a group of German citizens, show them a concentration camp and say: ‘You are guilty,’ we thereby affirm the fascist ideology. Anyone who accepts the doctrine of the guilt of an entire people opposes true democracy, based on individual autonomy and responsibility.”

“The internal will to live depends to a large extent on external help – and they are strangely intertwined. The strongest motive for survival can be something for which a person is ready to stay alive at any cost. For example, this can be a strong attachment to loved ones – parents, spouse, children, for the sake of meeting with whom a person is ready to survive in the most inhuman conditions.”

“Over time, I began to understand more clearly that a person changes depending on how he acts. Those who acted worthily became better, those who behaved unworthily – sank even lower. And it seemed that neither the past, nor character (or those of its traits that would be significant in psychoanalysis) had anything to do with it.”

“The question of our time is what we need to survive in the modern age of technology with its alienation of man from man and man from nature.”

Bruno Bettelheim

psychologist, psychoanalyst

“The unknown has a more frightening effect on us: you can’t fool it, it haunts us incessantly. If we can’t cope with our fear , it fills our spiritual life, our consciousness or subconscious, turning life into torture. This reasoning may explain why concentration camps inspired such horror not only in opponents of the regime, but also in those who never violated the slightest order.”

“The peace that reigns in totalitarian states is paid for with the death of the soul.”

Bruno Bettelheim “The Enlightened Heart. Autonomy of the Individual in a Totalitarian Society. How to Remain Human in Inhuman Conditions”

This book sums up both Bettelheim’s camp experience and his many years of thinking about the interaction between man and society. He describes precisely and frankly the mechanisms that turn an ordinary citizen into a victim of the system or a cog in the machine of destruction. But “The Enlightened Heart” is also a book about the inner foundations that prevent a person from bowing his head before evil. And about why humanity, having survived yet another crisis, takes a new step forward each time.

 

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