Alice Miller (born January 12, 1923) is a psychologist and author, noted for her work on child abuse in its many forms, including physical abuse, emotional abuse and child sexual abuse. Miller studied and wrote about the effects of poisonous pedagogy upon children and lasting into adulthood, and the resulting effects on society as a whole.[1] Miller was born in Poland and in 1946 migrated to Switzerland. She gained her doctorate in philosophy, psychology and sociology in 1953 in Basel. She studied and practiced psychoanalysis for the next 20 years. After 1973, she developed her own ideas about child development and psychology. She published her first three books in the late 1970s. In 1979, she stopped practicing as a psychoanalyst. She has continued to write and lecture on psychological issues. In 1986 she was awarded the Janusz Korczak Literary Award by the Anti-Defamation League. Her most recent book, Bilder meines Lebens ("Pictures of My Life"), was published in 2006; an informal autobiography in which the writer explores her emotional process from painful childhood, through the development of her theories and later insights, told via the display and discussion of 66 of her original paintings, painted in the years 1973 to 2005.[2][3]
Miller has two adult children. Since 2005, she answers some readers' letters and publishes articles, flyers and interviews on her website.[4][5]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Book: "Paths of Life: Seven Scenarios" Vintage: 1998 By Alice Miller
The first book that I read of Alice Miller is "The Drama of the Gifted Child" which was a library book. I loved it. It was full of kind and warm regard for the trauma that adults go through as children. I had a very dysfunctional childhood and developed post traumatic stress disorder because of it. I am always looking for books to help me find ways of dealing with these memories and I have found Alice Miller to be very helpful.
The book I am writing about today is "Paths of Life: Seven Scenarios" Vintage: 1998. The book was translated by Andrew Jenkins. In the book are seven life stories that explore how important our childhood events form and train us into the adults we are today. There are also two essays by Miller that explores these questions focusing on birth, motherhood, partnerships and many others. In order to free us from the forces that molded us so that we don't repeat our parents or caretakers' mistakes we need to know where we came from. This is an important book to understand these events and issues.
Alice Miller states: "Studying child abuse confronts us with the astonishing fact that parents will inflict the same punishment or neglect on their children as they experienced themselves in their early lives." Miller also states that as adults we often do not have recollections of this abuse. It is important that we examine this early period of this time so that we do not repeat it with our own children.
The seven stories that Miller tells are easy to read and are interesting in themselves. Many of the stories come from Europe since Miller is Swiss but some are about Americans. Miller gives excellent insight how many people are trapped into certain situations so that the reader can also achieve the insight necessary to see the truth in similar situation in their own lives. For instance, Miller explains: "An adult, on the other hand, has all kinds of opportunities for finding the right listener. It has long been proven that a shock is best overcome not be trying to forget it, the way we used to be told, but by talking about it and feeling what it meant to us until the shock starts losing its significance. Silence is the worst enemy of people who have been harmed in that way. "(p.92) This was regarding how children were wronged by being told to be quiet about what was done to them and as adults when in a situation as this patient was and taken advantage of by a therapist who wanted to use the patient's problems as a way to advance the therapist's career. The patient was told to just forget it and go on with their lives and not show their rage.
The one thing that I really appreciated was Miller's caring and understanding of the patient, the adult that was taken advantage as a child. There was no attempt to excuse the medical establishment at anytime. She is squarely on the side of the patients. She explains about how this same establishment re-victimizes the patient: "As you know, the minds of the patients are subjected to such massive manipulation that in the end they no longer have the courage to trust their own perceptions, and finally come to actively fear them." (p.93) You can imagine how unpopular she was at the beginning of her practice although she is greatly honored now.
