The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettlheim

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Summary: Peter D. Kramer in The Weekly Standard
Review: Pollak does a service by demonstrating how dangerous hero worship and psychoanalysis are in combination

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Summary: Time
Review: Pollak's biography makes a persuasive case that [Bettelheim] was a manipulative, domineering ego-tripper who abused his charges and co-workers pyschically if not physically. For all his public charisma and healing skills, he might have been an evil twin to the Wizard of Oz

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Summary: A freudian fake exposed
Review: Richard Pollak has done great service by calmly exposing Bruno Bettelheim as a liar, fake and child abuser. In europe there is still a refusal by post-WWII psychiatrists to let the so-called "research" on autism of Bettelheim go where it should, in the trash can of freudian mis-interpretations. Bettelheim destroyed generations of our children and their parents by laying the blame for autism at the children's mothers. I pray forgiveness for his soul.

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Summary: The Buffalo Evening News
Review: Richard Pollak has written a superb book, and one well worth reading not only for the subject itself but for what it reveals about the credulity of a nation in love with simple explanations

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Summary: Does anyone want the views of an autistic?
Review: RICHARD POLLAK, THE AUTHOR OF "THE CREATION OF DR. B", BRINGS TO HIS STORY HIS OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH DR. B. HE ALSO BRINGS WITH HIM A LOT OF PERSONAL RESENTMENT. HE SEEMS UNABLE TO SEPARATE BETTELHEIM'S STRONG FREUDIAN PERSPECTIVE AND BELIEFS FROM BETTELHEIM'S QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOR. POLLAK'S RESENTMENT GETS THE BETTER OF HIM WHEN HE MAKES DUMB REMARKS LIKE: BETTELHEIM WAS A "A MOMMY HATER"
HIS BIO DOES GIVE SOME GOOD HISTORY ABOUT BETTELHEIM, THE TYPE OF HISTORY WE ALL LIKE TO SEE ABOUT GREAT MEN, ALL THEIR DIRTY LAUNDRY. IN BETTELHEIM'S CASE A LOT OF THIS AIRING OF LAUNDRY IS WARRENTED. BUT BETTELHEIM WAS A TRUE FREUDIAN. AND I FOR ONE HAVE FOUND HIS WRITINGS EXTREMELY ENLIGHTENING. THAT HIS PERSONAL LIFE WAS A [FAKE] DOES NOT TAKE AWAY FROM HIS POSITIVE BELIEFS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE. POLLAK THINKS OTHERWISE.

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Summary: BRUNO BETTELHEIM: THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE FREUDIAN
Review: RICHARD POLLAK, THE AUTHOR OF "THE CREATION OF DR. B", BRINGS TO HIS STORY HIS OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH DR. B. HE ALSO BRINGS WITH HIM A LOT OF PERSONAL RESENTMENT. HE SEEMS UNABLE TO SEPARATE BETTELHEIM'S STRONG FREUDIAN PERSPECTIVE AND BELIEFS FROM BETTELHEIM'S QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOR. POLLAK'S RESENTMENT GETS THE BETTER OF HIM WHEN HE MAKES DUMB REMARKS LIKE: BETTELHEIM WAS A "A MOMMY HATER"
HIS BIO DOES GIVE SOME GOOD HISTORY ABOUT BETTELHEIM, THE TYPE OF HISTORY WE ALL LIKE TO SEE ABOUT GREAT MEN, ALL THEIR DIRTY LAUNDRY. IN BETTELHEIM'S CASE A LOT OF THIS AIRING OF LAUNDRY IS WARRENTED. BUT BETTELHEIM WAS A TRUE FREUDIAN. AND I FOR ONE HAVE FOUND HIS WRITINGS EXTREMELY ENLIGHTENING. THAT HIS PERSONAL LIFE WAS A [FAKE] DOES NOT TAKE AWAY FROM HIS POSITIVE BELIEFS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE. POLLAK THINKS OTHERWISE.

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Summary: The Washington Post
Review: The Creation of Dr. B is a monument to scrupulous investigative reporting.... The book is prodigiously well-researched...a scholarly rebuttal of Bettelheim's most cherished findings

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Summary: The Baltimore Sun
Review: [A] searing investigative biography...[and] well-written, engrossing chronicle of a scoundrel.... Read this book and learn about the great harm self-designated "experts" in psychology do when we swallow the bunkum they hawk

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Summary: The Boston Globe
Review: [Pollak's] book fundamentally changes how we view Bruno Bettelheim. His brilliance, it is now clear, lay not in his professional accomplishments but in his extraordinary use of manipulation and control--of his patients, his intimates, his colleagues, his data and his credulous public

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Summary: Newsday
Review: [The Creation of Dr. B] is credible--painstakingly reported, convincingly written.... Pollak...adopts the sensible course--he presents massive amounts of information, then lets readers speculate on Bettelheim's motivations for themselves.... The book is much richer for Pollak's responsible handling of a difficult life