Educating the Emotions

Although Bruno Bettelheim died before this book was finished, he was presentatitsbirth. In1985, wefeltwewantedtogivehimagiftforwhathe taught us: how to think criticallyabout ourselvesand our society; how to inform our emotions; how to move from self-knowledge to empathy for others,andhowwithsuchempathy,intum, toenrichandexpandourself knowledge; and most important, how to integrate a sense of personal autonomy with a sense of responsible living with one's community. For many of us, he was our Socrates. His best, most lively teaching was in the presence of a group of questioning, intellectually hungry students. We sought simpleanswers to our life problems, or those ofour patients. He would press us, insisting that wenotsettlefor stock phrases. Thefirst place to learn was from within. He seemed to thrive on teaching those who were prepared to follow his example of demanding self examination, often a painful process, with felt reasoning that could result in an informed heart. Bettelheim treasured the written word. Fortunately, unlike Socrates, and despite believing that the bestlearningcomes dialectically, he wrote.