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[A]t the heart of our work is not any particular knowledge or any procedure as such, but an inner attitude to life and to those caught up in its struggle, even as we are. (The Empty Fortress, p. 10)
[I]t is not the theoretical mastery of a problem which permits its deepest understanding. It is one's inner experiences that permit gaining a full grasp of what is involved in the inner experiences of others, a knowledge which then can become the basis for theoretical studies. (Freud's Vienna and Other Essays, p. 38)
For those unfamiliar with the work of Bruno Bettelheim, an excellent if unusual introduction would be a viewing of Akira Kurosawa's 1965 movie Red Beard. Kurosawa's vision and Bettelheim's have much in common, and in this film Kurosawa's hero is a man not unlike Bettelheim. The movie tells the story of the apprenticeship of a young doctor, Yasumoto, with the master physician Red Beard, who runs a small hospital and clinic for the poor. When Yasumoto arrives at the clinic, the disaffected doctor he has come to replace warns him that Red Beard, though a genius, is also a dictator, “stubborn, inconsiderate, radical and proud.” Indeed, Red Beard can be autocratic and arrogant but, like Bettelheim, only toward those he believes to be dangerously misguided. As a result, like Bettelheim, he alienates some of his students while inspiring great devotion and admiration in others. Also like Bettelheim, for all his arrogance and harshness, Red Beard teaches the healing power of the doctor's empathy and the patient's love.
One scene in particular to me both epitomizes Kurosawa's wisdom about human nature and strongly evokes the memory of Bettelheim. Red Beard and Yasumoto have just rescued a 12-year-old orphan, Otoyo, from a brothel where she had been kept as a slave.