International Psychoanalysis

De mortuis nil nisi bonum, but it might be of some interest to note that one of my relatives was in the same ‘old age home’ (a luxurious full service apartment building in an upscale neighborhood, populated primarily by retired professional people and their spouses) as Bettleheim, and the administrator assigned them to the same dining room table in the hope that they might have something in common since I am an analyst and visted frequently. How naive! He declined any overture to civil conversation, to include, “Good morning.” The consensus of the residents was that this famous psychologist, whose moving books many had read, was the most unpleasant, self centered individual they had ever encountered. He soon moved to a place where, apparently, people allwed him to indulge his depressive grandiosity to the point of self immolation.