The Children of the Dream: Communal Child-Rearing and American Education

by Bruno Bettelheim

From Simon & Schuster, The Children of the Dream is Bruno Bettelheim, author of The Empty Fortress and Love is Not Enough , next great work.

Bruno Bettelheim, author of The Empty Fortress and Love is Not Enough , explores the communal child-rearing and American education in his latest work, The Children of the Dream .

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1969

About the author

Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990) was an Austrian-born American child psychologist and writer. He gained an international reputation for his views on autism and for his claimed success in treating emotionally disturbed children.

Reviews

[Ronald Wise]

A very interesting analysis published in 1969 by child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim summarizing what he learned about the child-rearing practices of an Israeli kibbutz, based on his seven-week stay at the right-wing Atid in 1964. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book was his speculation concerning the motivations of the first-generation kibbutzniks. Framing their ideals as a rebellion against the roles their parents had played in European societies, he specifically focused on the avoidance of the traditional nurturing and controlling role of the Jewish mother in the development of their new child-rearing programs.

Bettelheim followed the parenting and educational kibbutz program from infancy to young adulthood, contrasting at each stage childhood experiences of kibbutzim children with those of middle class children in American cities. His emphasis of age-group dependence and loyalty made it difficult for me to not visualize them as the scary children in the movie Village of the Damned.

The author wondered if the spirit of the kibbutz could continue in succeeding generations. The parents were seen as heroes, who had helped transform a desolate area into productive farmland, and also played a crucial role in the creation of the state of Israel. He doubted the children, due to their upbringing, could ever find similar heroic roles for themselves, or could even have the propensity to seek them. I'll now have to find more recent information on the fate of the kibbutzim to assess his concerns.

[Thomas Keely]

I am surprised that there is no lead-off review by GoodReads. Instead it seems they have a used copy albeit in a good condition for sale. Perhaps they should indicate that it is not yet read. Bettelheim’s suicide seems to have soured a great majority of his peers vis-à vis psychoanalysts/psychiatrists and others expected to know better. I have held Bettelheim and his works close, especially his Freud and Man’s Soul.
–Thom Keely

[Lucia]

I enjoyed this book as a teenager, then re-read it at university. Each time, I enjoyed it for different reasons, but I really came to value it after reading also Koestler's "Thieves in the night".
Also, never a title was so well chosen as this one

[Sydney]

Not a full 2, a 2.6 perhaps, because I didn’t loathe it. Dry and repetitive but the subject was interesting enough. Too much talk of Id, Ego and Superego which has forever confused me so I was reading pig Latin at some parts it felt.