This psychologist and renowned author is celebrated for her profound examinations of child abuse and her critique of "poisonous pedagogy." She diverged from psychoanalysis, which she viewed as akin to these harmful educational practices. Miller's work delves into the intricate connections between childhood traumas and an individual's life trajectory, drawing upon psychohistory and the analysis of artists' experiences. Her influential books, translated into multiple languages, offer deep insights into the human psyche and the lasting impact of early life events.
Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence
Exploring the profound impact of parental cruelty, this contemporary classic by Alice Miller delves into the dangerous consequences it can have on children. As a central work of the celebrated Swiss psychoanalyst, it sheds light on the psychological effects of abusive parenting and emphasizes the need for understanding and compassion in familial relationships.
To eliminate her own repression, Alice Miller sought a therapy that would allow the injured child within the adult to find its own language. She found a method that enables her to resolve the consequences of her own childhood traumas. Now she shares her knowledge with us.
What Fire is about how to continue as catastrophe crawls in, when the climate crisis has its grip on us all, the internet has been shut down, and the buildings are burning up. In her third collection, Alice Miller takes a fierce, unflinching look at the world we live in, at what we have made, and whether it is possible to change.
The author attempts to explain why child abuse is so widespread and why it is so commonly ignored or overlooked. She argues that fundamentally mistaken Freudian theories on infantile sexuality have been used to conceal the true nature of the relationship between adults and children.
The poems in this extraordinary collection challenge readers to transcend their limitations and explore the essence of life. Drawing from her diverse background, including her upbringing in New Zealand and experiences in Vienna and the U.S., Alice Miller invites introspection and transformation. With a call to unravel the constraints of existence, she provokes thought about the potential within life's complexities. Each piece serves as an invitation to discover the hidden creatures that emerge when we loosen our ties to the familiar.
In PICTURES OF CHILDHOOD, Alice Miller explores the connection between childhood and that creative anxiety which 'somehow permits us to come to grips with the demons of our past and give form to the chaos within and thereby master our anxiety.' Having realised in the early seventies a lifelong desire to paint, Dr Miller found an unfamiliar world emerging from her paintings: not the 'nice' world of her childhood, to which she had always testified, but one of fear, despair and loneliness. Meditating on her spontaneously executed watercolours- sixty-six of which are reproduced here in full colour- and their implications, Dr Miller offers a profound analysis of the roots of creativity in the authentic self's struggle for survival.
Alice Miller has achieved worldwide recognition for her work on the causes and effects of child abuse; on violence towards children and its cost to society. For more than twenty years she taught and practised psychoanalysis; now she questions the validity of psychoanalytic theories and common psychiatric methods. THE UNTOUCHED KEY is a powerful and provocative synthesis of Alice Miller's ideas and experience. With her usual impeccable clarity, insight and logic she explores the clues- often overlooked in biography- connecting unnoticed childhood trauma to adult creativity and destructiveness. What did Picasso express in 'Guernica'? Why did Buster Keaton never smile? Why did Nietzsche lose his mind for eleven years? Why did Hitler become a mass murderer? Her conclusions reveal the roots and consequences of our centuries-old existence on obeying repressive parental figures- including psychiatrists and psychotherapists- and challenge us to unlock the door to our true childhood history in order to regain our lost awareness and our full life.
Counsels adults on how to overcome childhood traumas, discussing such topics as improving communication productivity between therapists and clients, expressing trapped emotions, and healing unhealthy manifestations of subconscious pain.
The bestselling book on childhood trauma and the enduring effects of repressed anger and pain Why are many of the most successful people plagued by feelings of emptiness and alienation? This wise and profound book has provided millions of readers with an answer--and has helped them to apply it to their own lives. Far too many of us had to learn as children to hide our own feelings, needs, and memories skillfully in order to meet our parents' expectations and win their "love." Alice Miller writes, "When I used the word 'gifted' in the title, I had in mind neither children who receive high grades in school nor children talented in a special way. I simply meant all of us who have survived an abusive childhood thanks to an ability to adapt even to unspeakable cruelty by becoming numb.... Without this 'gift' offered us by nature, we would not have survived." But merely surviving is not enough. The Drama of the Gifted Child helps us to reclaim our life by discovering our own crucial needs and our own truth.
In this volume, the author draws on research on brain development to show how spanking and humiliation produce dangerous levels of denial in children, leading to emotional blindness and mental barriers that cut off awareness and new ways of of acting. She offers ways to heal these psychic wounds.