The unrealistic nature of these tales (which narrowminded rationalists object to) is an important device, because it makes obvious that the fairy tales’ concern is not useful information about the external world, but the inner process taking place in an individual.

Personal controversy
After Bettelheim's suicide in 1990 detractors claimed that Bettelheim exploded in screaming anger at students and went beyond firm treatment to corporal punishment. One of his most famous books The Empty Fortress (1967) contains a complex and detailed explanation of this dynamic in psychoanalytical and psychological terms. )
1974 A Home for the Heart Knopf New York.

He gained an international reputation for his work on Freud psychoanalysis and emotionally disturbed children.