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Alice Miller Quotes

Psychologist

Alice Miller, born on January 12, 1923, and died on April 12, 2010, was a renowned psychologist. Her research focused on child psychology and the psychology of abuse, delving deeply into the psychological impact of child abuse and neglect.

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Famous Alice Miller Quotes

“someday we will regard our children not as creatures to manipulate or to change but rather as messengers from a world we once deeply knew, but which we have long since forgotten, who can reveal to us more about the true secrets of life, and also our own lives, than our parents were ever able to.”

Source: For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

“We are still barely conscious of how harmful it is to treat children in a degrading manner. Treating them with respect and recognizing the consequences of their being humiliated are by no means intellectual matters; otherwise, their importance would long since have been generally recognized.”

Mean Children Long Has Beens Stills Matter Intellectual Conscious Consequence Treats Importance Recognizing Humiliated Degrading

Book:For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

Source: For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

“It is unlikely that someone could proclaim "truths" that are counter to physical laws for very long (for example, that it is healthy for children to run around in bathing suits in winter and in fur coats in summer) without appearing ridiculous. But it is perfectly normal to speak of the necessity of striking and humiliating children and robbing them of their autonomy, at the same time using such high-sounding words as chastising, upbringing, and guiding onto the right path.”

Source: For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

“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.”

Mean Long Made Book Feelings Beautiful Certain Understood Lonely Insight Core Pleasant Confused Helpless Petty Humiliated Resentful Shabby Sad And Lonely

Author:Alice Miller

“Without realizing that the past is constantly determining their present actions, they avoid learning anything about their history. They continue to live in their repressed childhood situation, ignoring the fact that is no longer exists, continuing to fear and avoid dangers that, although once real, have not been real for a long time.”

Long Real Facts Action Past Realizing Situation Childhood Danger Long Time Continuing Repressed Been Real

Book:The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

Source: The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

“In the short term, corporal punishment may produce obedience. But it is a fact documented by research that in the long term the results are inability to learn, violence and rage, bullying, cruelty, inability to feel another's pain, especially that of one's own children, even drug addiction and suicide, unless there are enlightened or at least helping witnesses on hand to prevent that development.”

“We can never do the right thing as long as we are out to please someone else.”

Long Self Esteem Please Esteem Right Thing

Book:The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Cruel Parenting

Source: The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Cruel Parenting

“Child abuse is still sanctioned — indeed, held in high regard — in our society as long as it is defined as child-rearing. It is a tragic fact that parents beat their children in order to escape the emotions from how they were treated by their own parents.”

Children Long Stills Facts Order Parent Emotion Beats Abuse Regard Treated Defined Tragic Our Society Child Abuse Child Rearing Rearing A Child

Book:The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

Source: The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

“For the human soul is virtually indestructible, and its ability to rise from the ashes remains as long as the body draws breath.”

Humans Long Soul Body Ability Draws Breaths Remains Ashes Human Soul Indestructible

Book:For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

Source: For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

“Sadism is not an infectious disease that strikes a person all of a sudden. It has a long prehistory in childhood and always originates in the desperate fantasies of a child who is searching for a way out of a hopeless situation.”

Way Children Persons Long Situation Fantasy Childhood Disease Strikes Desperate Hopeless Sadism Prehistory Infectious Diseases Hopeless Situations

Book:For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

Source: For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence