Bettelheim, Tinbergen and Hall fonds, 1972-1981

Elizabeth Hall was a managing editor of Psychology Today, who on separate occasions interviewed Oxford ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907-1988) and psychologist Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990). Her 1973 interview with Tinbergen, conducted at his vacation home in the Cumberland region of northern England, was published later that year in Psychology Today. She left the magazine in 1976 to run the journal Human Nature, but left this position in 1979. She continued to contribute articles to various magazines, but most notably to Psychology Today. Her interview with Bruno Bettelheim appeared in that magazine in 1981.

Fonds contains correspondence, an autobiographical statement by Nikolaas Tinbergen, and three inscribed presentation copies of books by Bettelheim or Tinbergen that were given to Hall. Elizabeth Hall was a managing editor of Psychology Today and was acquainted with Oxford ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. Tinbergen refers to his work with autistic children in his autobiographical statement and some of his correspondence. Several letters also refer to Tinbergen’s relationship with his colleague and friend Konrad Lorenz. The two friends were on opposing sides during World War II, with Lorenz associating with the Nazis and Tinbergen detained in a concentration camp in the Netherlands. The three books included are The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self by Bruno Bettelheim; Surviving and other Essays by Bruno Bettelheim; and The Herring Gull’s World by Nikolaas Tinbergen. Each book is inscribed by the author.