Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“True autonomy is preceded by the experience of being dependent. True liberation can be found only beyond the deep ambivalence of infantile…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“In such cases the natural needs appropriate to the child’s age cannot be integrated, so they are repressed or split off. This…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“The patient is surprised by feelings she would rather not have recognized, but now it is too late: Awareness of her own…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“The more gifted of these individuals became writers or artists. Even though they were able to point to the truth in the…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“Superficially, the Fourth Commandment can be regarded as a kind of life insurance for old people, which was perhaps necessary in biblical…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“These people have all developed the art of not experiencing feelings, for a child can experience her feelings only when there is…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“An emotional outbreak may follow, accompanied by strong, legitimate reproaches, and only after this outbreak will a new link with repressed experience…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“It is highly significant, perplexing to say the least, that we have been bound for thousands of years to a commandment that…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“The body cannot understand this kind of morality; it will have no truck with the Fourth Commandment, and it cannot be fooled…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“I call the violent kind of "upbringing" abuse, not only because children are thus refused the right to dignity and respect as…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“Because the victims are “only children,” their distress is trivialized. But in twenty years’ time these children will be adult who will…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“My belief is that the time has come for us to take the injuries of childhood and their consequences seriously. We must…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“An adult can be fully aware of his feelings only if he had caring parents or caregivers. People who were abused and…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“Although the outward picture of depression is quite the opposite of that of grandiosity and has a quality that expresses the tragedy…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child

“The realization that I cannot manipulate my feelings, that I can delude neither myself nor others, brought me immense relief and liberation.…

— Alice MIller, The Drama of the gifted child