Children aren't fooled. They know we give time to the things we love. — John Bradshaw Child Copy Share Image
Hell, in my opinion, is never finding your true self and never living your own life or knowing who you are. — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“The shared secret and the shared denial are the most horrible aspects of incest.” — John Bradshaw Abusive father Copy Share Image
“Giving and receiving unconditional love is the most effective and powerful way to personal wholeness and happiness.” — John Bradshaw Giving and receiving Copy Share Image
Growing up means leaving home and becoming a self supporting adult. I think this the hardest task any human being hast to… — John Bradshaw Adults Copy Share Image
I know from my own clinical work that when people are beaten and hurt, they numb out so that they cant feel… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
It's okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are our teachers -- they help us to learn. — John Bradshaw Failure Copy Share Image
To truly be committed to a life of honesty, love and discipline, we must be willing to commit ourselves to reality. — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
The figure of Satan and the fires of hell have been demythologized by modern Christian biblical scholars, theologians and philosophers. — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“It is very common for one or both parents in a dysfunctional marriage to bond inappropriately with one of their children. The… — John Bradshaw Child Copy Share Image
“The disowned part of self is an energy - an emotion or desire or need, that has been shamed every time it… — John Bradshaw Emotions Copy Share Image
The spiritual quest is not some added benefit to our life, something you embark on if you have the time and inclination.… — John Bradshaw Adventure Copy Share Image
“Shame is internalized when one is abandoned. Abandonment is the precise term to describe how one loses one’s authentic self and ceases… — John Bradshaw Abandonment Copy Share Image
Condemning others as bad or sinful is a way to feel righteous. Such a feeling is a powerful mood alteration and can… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“One of the significant lessons in my life was given me by Abraham Low, the founder of Recovery, Inc. He said that… — John Bradshaw Life Copy Share Image
“Anger is often blocked from conscious awareness and converted into more tolerable or family-authorized feelings, such as hurt or guilt. The person… — John Bradshaw Anger Copy Share Image
In a sense, all of my books have been about a 'poisonous pedagogy,' which engenders a culture of obedience, this underlying theme… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
“CONVERSION I spoke of affect and need conversion when I described how Max compensated for his abusive and neglectful abandonment by converting… — John Bradshaw Communication Copy Share Image
“Grandiosity results from the human will becoming disabled. The will is disabled primarily through the shaming of the emotions. The shamed and… — John Bradshaw Psychology Copy Share Image
“Our healthy shame is essential as the foundation of our spirituality. By reminding us of our essential limitations, our healthy shame lets… — John Bradshaw Guilt Copy Share Image
“SHAME-BASED MARRIAGE AND PARENTAL MODELS It is obvious that a major source of toxic shame is the family system and its multigenerational… — John Bradshaw Family Copy Share Image
“Healthy shame is the psychological foundation of humility. It is the source of spirituality. What I discovered was that shame as a… — John Bradshaw Guilt Copy Share Image
“The poisonous pedagogy justifies highly abusive methods for suppressing children’s vital spontaneity: physical beatings, lying, duplicity, manipulation, scare tactics, withdrawal of love,… — John Bradshaw Children Copy Share Image
“Toxic shame results from the unexpected exposure of vulnerable aspects of a child’s self. This exposure takes place before the child has… — John Bradshaw Children Copy Share Image
“The feeling of shame has the same demonic potential to encompass our whole personality. Instead of the momentary feeling of being limited,… — John Bradshaw Guilt Copy Share Image
“When emotionally abandoned people describe their childhoods, it is always without feeling. Alice Miller writes, They recount their earliest memories without any… — John Bradshaw Childhood Copy Share Image
“All human development, according to Silvan Tompkins, is rooted in affect (feeling) dynamics because affects (feelings) are the primary innate biological motivator… — John Bradshaw Anger Copy Share Image
“Generally speaking, most of our vital, spontaneous, instinctual life gets shamed. Children are shamed for being too rambunctious, for wanting things and… — John Bradshaw Children Copy Share Image
“Alice Miller has summed up these rules under the title “Poisonous Pedagogy” in her book For Your Own Good. These rules state:… — John Bradshaw Child Copy Share Image
“EMOTIONAL ABANDONMENT AND NARCISSISTIC DEPRIVATION Children need mirroring and echoing. These come from their primary caregiver’s eyes. Mirroring means that someone is… — John Bradshaw Children Copy Share Image
“Perhaps the greatest wound a shame-based person carries is the inability to be intimate in a relationship. This inability flows directly out… — John Bradshaw Guilt Copy Share Image
“WHEN GOD IS A DRUG—RELIGIOUS ADDICTION Mood alteration is an ingredient of compulsive/addictive behavior. Addiction has been described as “a pathological relationship… — John Bradshaw Addiction Copy Share Image
“Since the earliest period of our life was preverbal, everything depended on emotional interaction. Without someone to reflect our emotions, we had… — John Bradshaw Identity Copy Share Image
You can find more traditional Shakespeare than we do. But what we want to bring to these works is energy, passion, freshness. — John Bradshaw Energy Copy Share Image
All these feelings need to be felt. We need to stomp and storm; to sob and cry; to perspire and tremble. — John Bradshaw Cry Copy Share Image
The foundation for our self-image is grounded in the first three years of life. It comes from our major caretaker's mirroring. — John Bradshaw Caretakers Copy Share Image
The more we know about how we lost our spontaneous wonder and creativity, the more we can find ways to get them… — John Bradshaw Creativity Copy Share Image
“Shyness can become a serious problem when it is rooted in toxic shame.” — John Bradshaw Shame Copy Share Image
Evil is a source of moral intelligence in the sense that we need to learn from our shadow, from our dark side,… — John Bradshaw Copy Share Image
