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Alice Miller

Alice Miller Quotes

Psychologist

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Famous Alice Miller Quotes

“It is precisely because a child's feelings are so strong that they cannot be repressed without serious consequences. The stronger a prisoner is, the thicker the prison walls have to be, which impede or completely prevent later emotional growth.”

ChildrenFeelingsStrongGrowthEmotionalSeriousWallConsequenceStrongerPrisonPrisonerRepressedEmotional GrowthPrison Walls
Book:The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Third Edition
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“It was not the beautiful or pleasant feelings that gave me new insight, but the ones against which I fought most strongly: feelings that made me experience myself as shabby, petty, mean, helpless, humiliated, demanding, resentful or confused, and above all, sad and lonely. It was precisely through these experiences, which I had shunned for so long, that I became certain that I now understood something about my life, stemming from the core of my being, something that I could not have learned from any book.”

MeanLongMadeBookFeelingsBeautifulCertainUnderstoodLonelyInsightCorePleasantConfusedHelplessPettyHumiliatedResentfulShabbySad And Lonely
Author:Alice Miller
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“The art of not experiencing feelings. A child can experience her feelings only when there is somebody there who accepts her fully, understands her, and supports her. If that person is missing, if the child must risk losing the mother's love of her substitute in order to feel, then she will repress emotions.”

IfsFeelsChildrenPersonsArtFeelingsMotherOrderEmotionAcceptingSupportRiskMissingLosingSubstitutesMother's Love
Book:The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self
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“Many people suffer all their lives from this oppressive feeling of guilt, the sense of not having lived up to their parents' expectations. This feeling is stronger than any intellectual insight they might have, that it is not a child's task or duty to satisfy his parents needs. No argument can overcome these guilt feelings, for they have their beginnings in life's earliest periods, and from that they derive their intensity and obduracy.”

PeopleNeedsChildrenFeelingsMightSufferingParentDutyPeriodsIntellectualExpectationsArgumentTasksOvercomingStrongerGuiltInsightIntensityGuilt Feelings
Book:The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self
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“Quite often I have been faced with people who were praised and admired for their talents and their achievements... According to prevailing attitudes, these people-the pride and joy of their parents-should have had a strong and stable sense of self-assurance. But the case is exactly the opposite... Whenever they suddenly get the feeling they have failed to live up to some ideal image or have not measured up to some standard, then they are plagued by anxiety or deep feelings of guilt and shame. What are the reasons for such disturbances in these competent, accomplished people?”

PeopleShouldHas BeensSelfReasonFeelingsJoyStrongParentAttitudeCasesTalentPrideAchievementAnxietyStandardsIdealsShould HaveOppositesShameGuiltAccomplishedStableAssuranceCompetentSense Of SelfPrevailingDisturbanceSelf AssuranceDeep Feeling
Author:Alice Miller
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“People who, as children, were intellectually far beyond their parents and therefore admired by them, but who also therefore had to solve their own problems alone. These people, who give us a feeling of their intellectual strength and will power, also seem to demand that we, too, ought to fight off any feeling of weakness with intellectual means. In their presence one feels one cannot be recognized as a person with problems just as they and their problems were unrecognized by their parents, for whom he always had to be strong.”

PeopleGivingFeelsMeanChildrenPersonsFeelingsProblemSeemsFightingStrongParentOughtDemandIntellectualWeaknessSolveWill Power
Book:The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Third Edition
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“The truth about our childhood is stored up in our body, and although we can repress it, we can never alter it. Our intellect can be deceived, our feelings manipulated, and conceptions confused, and our body tricked with medication. But someday our body will present its bill, for it is as incorruptible as a child, who, still whole in spirit, will accept no compromises or excuses, and it will not stop tormenting us until we stop evading the truth.”

ChildrenStillsWholeFeelingsBodySpiritAcceptingChildhoodOur ChildrenBillsExcuseIntellectCompromiseConfusedSomedayConceptionDeceivedMedicationNo Compromise
Author:Alice Miller
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