The Therapeutic Healing of a Reunion

Abstract

Introduction In May 2005, ninety-four former staff and students from the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School of Chicago came together for a reunion. The persons present had commenced at the school between 1948 and 1976. The Orthogenic School (O School) was and still is a residential treatment center for children perceived/diagnosed to have significant psychological difficulties. Children were admitted from the ages of six to sixteen with diagnoses of autism, childhood schizophrenia, and other labels of psychological and emotional disturbance. The school at one time experienced great fame because of the high profile of its director, the charismatic and controversial personality Professor Bruno Bettelheim (Dr. B). Much has been written throughout the years about his style of treatment, his approach to childhood autism and the parents of autistic children, and his many books on cultural phenomena. To the students and staff of the school, of course, he was a personality to be related to rather than a public figure. Whatever the controversies, and there are still angry students who no doubt resented his patriarchal and dictatorial ways, the school was, for better or worse, their home and as such could be related to only as a real experience. For staff there always linger two questions that any worker with children should confront on a daily basis: Did I do my best for the children? Could I have done better? To some, his methods are deeply discredited, and most, if not all, have rejected his theories of the aetiology of childhood autism. For