Prisoners of Childhood by Alice Miller

Prisoners of Childhood by Alice Miller

The drama of the giftedi. e. , sensitive, alertchild consists of his recognition at a very early age of his parents needs and of his adaptation to those needs. In the process, he learns to repress rather than to acknowledge his own intense feelings because they are unacceptable to his parents. Although it will not always be possible to avoid these ugly feelings (anger, indignation, despair, jealousy, fear) in the future, they will split off, and the most vital part of the true self (a key phrase in Alice Millers works) will not be integrated into the personality. This leads to emotional insecurity and loss of self, which are revealed in depression or concealed behind a facade of grandiosity. The drama of the giftedi. e. , sensitive, alertchild consists of his recognition at a very early age of his parents needs and of his adaptation to those needs. In the process, he learns to repress rather than to acknowledge his own intense feelings because they are unacceptable to his parents. Although it will not always be possible to avoid these ugly feelings (anger, indignation, despair, jealousy, fear) in the future, they will split off, and the most vital part of the true self (a key phrase in Alice Millers works) will not be integrated into the personality. This leads to emotional insecurity and loss of self, which are revealed in depression or concealed behind a facade of grandiosity. Alice Miller defines the ideal state of genuine vitality, of free access to the true self and to authentic individual feelings that have their roots in childhood, as healthy narcissism. Narcissistic disturbances, on the other hand, represent for her solitary confinement of the true self within the prison of the false self. This is regarded less as an illness than as a tragedy. The examples Alice Miller presents make us aware of the childs unarticulated suffering and of the tragedy of parents who are unavailable to their childrenthe same parents who, when they were children, were available to fill their parents needs. In her psychoanalytical work, Dr. Miller found that her patients ability to experience authentic feelings, especially feelings of sadness, had been for the most part destroyed; it was her task to help her patients try to regain that long-lost capacity for genuine feelings that is the source of natural vitality. Many people who have read her books have discovered within themselves for the first time in their lives the little child they once were. This may explain the unusually strong and deep reactions Alice Millers books have evoked in so many readers from different countries. The Drama of the Gifted Child and the Search for the True Self is the original title of the book, which was published in Germany.

Alice Miller is the author of two poetry collections and a novel. Her previous collection, Nowhere Nearer (Pavilion, 2018) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and her novel, More Miracle than Bird (Tin House, 2020) was a New York Times Book Review summer reading selection. A graduate of the
Iowa Writers' Workshop and the International Institute of Modern Letters, Alice is on the faculty of the MFA programme at Cedar Crest College. Born and raised in New Zealand, she lives in Berlin.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780465062874
ISBN 10	0465062873
Titel	Prisoners of Childhood
Autor	Alice Miller
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Verlag	Basic Books
Erscheinungsjahr	1996-07-04
Seitenanzahl	128
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar