From the author of the bestselling classic The Drama of the Gifted Child—a book that believes that children are inherently good and traces all forms of criminal deeds to past mistreatments. In direct opposition to the Freudian drive theory, "Alice Miller writes lucidly and passionately, asks daring questions and sees through conventions that most of us take for granted" (San Francisco Chronicle).
More than twenty years ago, a little-known Swiss psychoanalyst wrote a book that changed the way many people viewed themselves and their world. In simple but powerful prose, the deeply moving Drama of the Gifted Child showed how parents unconsciously form and deform the emotional lives of their children. Alice Miller's stories about the roots of suffering in childhood resonated with readers, and her book soon became a backlist best seller. In The Truth Will Set You Free Miller returns to the intensely personal tone and themes of her best-loved work. Only by embracing the truth of our past histories can any of us hope to be free of pain in the present, she argues. Miller uses vivid true stories to reveal the perils of early-childhood mistreatment and the dangers of mindless obedience to parental will. Drawing on the latest research on brain development, she shows how spanking and humiliation produce dangerous levels of denial, which leads in turn to emotional blindness and to mental barriers that cut off awareness and the ability to learn new ways of acting. If this cycle repeats itself, the grown child will perpetrate the same abuse on later generations -- a message vitally important, especially given the increasing popularity of programs like Tough Love and of "child disciplinarians" like James Dobson. The Truth Will Set You Free will provoke and inform all readers who want to know Alice Miller's latest thinking on this important subject.
In her compelling second collection, Alice Miller tackles the circularity of thought, the company of the dead, and the lure of alternative futures. These poems rip into pockets of histories, trying to change facts and voices, searching for the word's version of music's home key. They dare you to visit, through a series of cities, the futures we never let happen.' Foxtail Bookshoppe
What Fire is about how to continue as catastrophe crawls in, when the climate crisis has its grip on everyone, the internet has been shut down, and the buildings are burning up. What happens when the philosophers never arrive? What songs are still worth singing? 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.
“[Alice Miller] illuminates the dark corners of child abuse as few other scholars have done.”—Jordan Riak, NoSpank.net Since the landmark publication of The Drama of the Gifted Child, no one has been more influential than Alice Miller in empowering adults whose lives were maimed emotionally and physically as children. Now Dr. Miller goes even further, presenting groundbreaking theories that enhance communication between therapist and patient and enable the adult to express powerful emotions that have been trapped for years. Practical and perceptive, Miller’s work explains what we can expect from therapy, how we can identify the causes of our own pain, and why subconscious pain, unaddressed for decades, manifests itself later as depression, self-mutilation, primal inadequacy, and chronic loneliness. With its responses to readers’ letters and powerful stories, Free from Lies is the culmination of a life devoted to healing others.
Originally published in 1984, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware explodes Freud's notions of "infantile sexuality" and helps to bring to the world's attention the brutal reality of child abuse, changing forever our thoughts of "traditional" methods of child-rearing. Dr. Miller exposes the harsh truths behind children's "fantasies" by examining case histories, works of literature, dreams, and the lives of such people as Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Gustave Flaubert, and Samuel Beckett. Now with a new preface by Lloyd de Mause and a new introduction by the author, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware continues to bring an essential understanding to the confrontation and treatment of the devastating effects of child abuse.
As in her former books, Alice Miller again focusses on facts. She is as determined as ever to cut through the veil that, for thousands of years now, has been so meticulously woven to shroud the truth. And when she lifts that veil and brushes it aside, the results are astonishing, as is amply demonstrated by her analyses of the works of Nietzsche, Picasso, Kollwitz, Keaton and others. With the key shunned by so many for so long - childhood - she opens rusty looks and offers her readers a wealth of unexpected perspectives.What did Picasso express in "Guernica"? Why did Buster Keaton never smile? Why did Nietzsche heap so much opprobrium on women and religion, and lose his mind for eleven years? Why did Hitler and Stalin become tyrannical mass murderers? Alice Miller investigates these and other questions thoroughly in this book. She draws from her discoveries the conclusion that human beings are not "innately" destructive, that they are made that way by ignorance, abuse, and neglect, particularly if no sympathetic witness comes to their aid. She also shows why some mistreated children do not become criminals but instead bear witness as artists to the truth about their childhoods, even though in purely intuitive and unconscious ways.
“Marvelous.” —Paula McLain A New York Times Book Review Summer Reading Selection On the eve of World War I, twenty-one-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees meets the acclaimed poet W. B. Yeats at a soirée in London. Although Yeats is famously eccentric and many years her senior, Georgie is drawn to him, and when he extends a cryptic invitation to a secret society, her life is forever changed. As zeppelins stalk overhead and bombs bloom against the skyline, Georgie finds purpose tending to injured soldiers in a makeshift hospital. She befriends the wounded and heartbroken Lieutenant Pike, who might need more from her than she is able to give. At night, she escapes with Yeats into a darker world, becoming immersed in the Order, a clandestine society of ritual and magic. As forces—both of this world and the next—pull Yeats and Georgie closer together and then apart, Georgie uncovers a secret that threatens to undo it all. In bright, commanding prose, author Alice Miller illuminates the fascinating and unforgettable courtship of Georgie Hyde-Lees and W. B. Yeats. A sweeping tale of faith and love, lost and found and fought for, More Miracle than Bird ingeniously captures the moments—both large and small—on which the fates of whole lives and countries hinge.
Collects therapeutic answers to hundreds of reader letters, in a volume that explores the controversial connection between childhood trauma and physical illness, drug use, crime, and future cycles of abuse.
Alice Miller explores the sources of violence within ourselves and the way these are encouraged by orthodox childrearing practices. Challenging the way in which we rationalise punishment and coercion as being for the child's 'own good', she illuminates the cost in compassion and humanity in later life, both in the private and public domain. Her message is clear: 'people whose integrity has not been damaged in childhood; will feel no need to harm another person or themselves.
The poems in this extraordinary full-length collection ask you to force yourself beyond your own boundaries. They are curious, restless, and bold; they marry lyrical music and intricate metaphor as they search for other human voices beyond the rumblings of the apocalypse and the stubbornness of myth. From bare battlefields to crisp Antarctica to the gates of Troy, from rewritten history to love story, these poems ask for something more from the world than just riding till the spoke breaks. A poet for whom one way is easy but an easy way is worse, Miller traces a path that leads beyond our limits to where we set the sky on silent, where we're braver than science, and where we try to unglimpse what we've lost.
Welcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most important and meaningful novels of Alice Duer Miller which are Come Out of the Kitchen! and The Beauty and the Bolshevist. Alice Duer Miller was a writer from the U.S. whose poetry actively influenced political opinion. She became known as a campaigner for women's suffrage and published a brilliant series of satirical poems in the New York Tribune. These were published subsequently as Are Women People?. These words became a catchphrase of the suffrage movement. Novels selected for this book: Come Out of the Kitchen! The Beauty and the Bolshevist. This is one of many books in the series Essential Novelists. If you liked this book, look for the other titles in the series, we are sure you will like some of the authors.
A psychological study by a Swiss psychoanalyst examines the upbringing of talented children by their often narcissistic and unwittingly hurtful parents
Are Women People? (1915) is a collection of poems by Alice Duer Miller. Inspired by her work as an activist for women’s suffrage, Miller published many of these poems individually in the New York Tribune before compiling them into this larger work. Focusing on the opposition of politicians and citizens alike, Miller makes a compelling case for the extension of voting rights to women across the nation. With her keen eye for hypocrisy and even keener ear for the rhythms of the English language, Alice Miller Duer crafts a poetry both personal and political. In “Representation,” she lampoons the notion that men’s votes and voices are capable of representing the viewpoints of the women in their lives: “My present wife’s a suffragist, and counts on my support, / [...] / One grandmother is on the fence, the other much opposed, / And my sister lives in Oregon, and thinks the question’s closed; / Each one is counting on my vote to represent her view. / Now what should you think proper for a gentleman to do?” In these lighthearted lines, Miller satirizes the exclusion of women from American democracy, which inherently supposes that womanhood is monolithic, containing no opposing points of view. In “To President Wilson,” Miller excoriates the President for his focus on militarism and foreign policy, asking “How can you plead so earnestly for men / Who fight their own fight with a bloody hand; / [...] and then / Forget the women of your native land?” Succinctly and convincingly, Miller makes her case for women’s suffrage. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alice Duer Miller’s Are Women People? is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.
An examination of childhood trauma and its surreptitious, debilitating effects by one of the world's leading psychoanalysts. Never before has world-renowned psychoanalyst Alice Miller examined so persuasively the long-range consequences of childhood abuse on the body. Using the experiences of her patients along with the biographical stories of literary giants such as Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, and Marcel Proust, Miller shows how a child's humiliation, impotence, and bottled rage will manifest itself as adult illness—be it cancer, stroke, or other debilitating diseases. Never one to shy away from controversy, Miller urges society as a whole to jettison its belief in the Fourth Commandment and not to extend forgiveness to parents whose tyrannical childrearing methods have resulted in unhappy, and often ruined, adult lives. In this empowering work, writes Rutgers professor Philip Greven, "readers will learn how to confront the overt and covert traumas of their own childhoods with the enlightened guidance of Alice Miller.
Alice Miller has achieved recognition for her revolutionary work on the causes and effects of child abuse - here she works towards demolishing the wall of silence which surrounds the sufferings of early childhood as they affect everyday life, politics, the media, psychiatry and psychotherapy. An infant's trust and dependency on its parents, its longing to be loved and be able to love in return, are boundless. To exploit this dependency, to confuse a child's longings and abuse its trust by pretending that this is somehow good for it, Alice Miller condemns as a criminal act, committed time and again out of ignorance and the refusal to change. The essential first stage in this healing process is feeling the truth of our experience. Only this, Alice Miller writes, can enable us to recognise childhood events and resolve their consequences so that we can lead a conscious, responsible life. If we know and feel what happened to us then, we will never wish to harm ourselves or others now.
Are Parents People? (1924) is a collection of stories by Alice Duer Miller. Inspired by her work as an activist for women’s suffrage, Miller explores themes of independence, agency, and female desire while illuminating the subject of divorce. Her work was adapted into a 1925 comedy film starring Betty Bronson, Florence Vidor, and Adolphe Menjou. “There they were—her mother looking down at her so calmly from the gallery and her father waiting so confidently for her below, each unaware of the other's presence. What in thunder was she going to do?” As the chairman of her school’s self-government committee, Lita Hazlitt is a young woman committed to order. Seeing her parents in the same room for the first time since their acrimonious divorce, she longs for them to reunite so that their family can return to its former state. When her attempts at reconciliation fall on deaf ears, Lita begins to act out, threatening her parents with scandal by spending time with an older, married man. In each of its nine stories, Are Parents People? explores the politics of divorce in middle to upper class American families. Witty and heartbreaking, Miller’s work is an utterly human look at the shortcomings of marriage in modern life. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alice Duer Miller’s Are Parents People? is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.
Designs for a New Age: Rectangles and Yods focuses on two natal chart configurations that strongly suggest an evolutionary level somewhat above that of the general population. Using extensive examples and life stories, Alice Miller illustrates eight different Rectangle configurations and seven different Yod configurations. A Rectangle is formed when two oppositions are in aspect to each other, and the most common are those that involve the Ascendant-Descendant, Midheaven-IC, and/or the nodal axis. These are the easiest to find. Also included in the group are oppositions between any two planets-including any conjunctions at either or both ends. The elemental factor to remember about rectangles (including Grand Squares) is that they provide grounding and thus represent a grounded rise in consciousness according to the aspects between the oppositions. A Yod is an isosceles triangle configuration, and is often called The Finger of God, Destiny Point, and similar names. Yods are problems with gifts in their hands. They never let you ignore them, but keep coming up until you resolve the problem, at which time the energy is converted into a great source of creative power. Always they have the feel of destiny, but are likely the result of a pre-incarnational vow: "I will do this, even if it kills me!" Of course it won't kill you, but it won't let you forget it either, so you must keep on dealing with the issue until you resolve the problem and discover the magnificent gift that it is meant to be. The author promises it will be well worth the effort.
We are at the end of the Piscean Age, standing on the brink of the Age of Aquarius. Today, many advanced beings have reincarnated to assist with the transition. Exceptions to the general consciousness, their birth charts are also exceptional. Instead of having a different sign on each of the twelve houses, many have pairs of signs enclosed within houses, while other pairs fall on two successive cusps. These interceptions are markers for those individuals once called Starseed or Starborn. Seeming to have stepped back in time, they are designed to be living examples of greater possibilities within the human species. In spiritual terms, they are Older Children of the Creator of this Universe. Their differences create problems early in life which continue until they realize that they truly are different from the general population, and that their differences are assets, not deficiencies. This requires a transformation process. Entering the second phase of life, each discovers who she or he is and why she or he came. Finally, that feeling of coming to do something special humanity is validated! In clear, everyday language, she describes the six basic types of interceptions as defined by the six sign polarities. Included are both a psychological meaning and a spiritual meaning for each, as well as the influence of house positions and the meaning of the doubled house cusps.
In the 8th novel of the SILVER HAWK Warrior series, I Am My Own Master, Joseph's son is threatened. In order to spare his son, Joseph is taken to Tajikistan, a country in the Middle East, where he discovers a horrible secret. He enters a world of child abuse and sexual slavery to save the son of an exiled King. When he returns to the U.S.A, Joseph ignores the danger facing him and he travels to New York City, making a last and final attempt to free himself from the bonds of being an owned fighter. If you enjoyed I Am My Own Master and you can't get enough of Joseph & Gianni, look for the spin-off to the SILVER HAWK series, Everything He Wanted Uninhibited. Discover an up close and personal look at their story. (Contains Adult Content)
As the subtitle says: "A Psychotherapist's Spiritual Journey Through the Garden." The story of the creation of a woodland habitat garden which merges with spiritual insights along the way, as the reader follows the author on her journey down the garden paths, themselves a metaphor for life, growth and change.
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