Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8917
EAN: 9780465062874
ISBN: 0465062873
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: July 04, 1996
Publisher: Basic Books
Sales Rank: 239601
Studio: Basic Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The “drama” of the gifted—i.e., sensitive, alert—child consists of his recognition at a very early age of his parents’ needs and of his adaptation to those needs. In the process, he learns to repress rather than to acknowledge his own intense feelings because they are unacceptable to his parents. Although it will not always be possible to avoid these “ugly” feelings (anger, indignation, despair, jealousy, fear) in the future, they will split off, and the most vital part of the “true self” (a key phrase in Alice Miller’s works) will not be integrated into the personality. This leads to emotional insecurity and loss of self, which are revealed in depression or concealed behind a facade of grandiosity.Alice Miller defines the ideal state of genuine vitality, of free access to the true self and to authentic individual feelings that have their roots in childhood, as “healthy narcissism.” Narcissistic disturbances, on the other hand, represent for her solitary confinement of the true self within the prison of the false self. This is regarded less as an illness than as a tragedy.The examples Alice Miller presents make us aware of the child’s unarticulated suffering and of the tragedy of parents who are unavailable to their children—the same parents who, when they were children, were available to fill their parents’ needs. In her psychoanalytical work, Dr. Miller found that her patients’ ability to experience authentic feelings, especially feelings of sadness, had been for the most part destroyed; it was her task to help her patients try to regain that long-lost capacity for genuine feelings that is the source of natural vitality. Many people who have read her books have discovered within themselves for the first time in their lives the little child they once were. This may explain the unusually strong and deep reactions Alice Miller’s books have evoked in so many readers from different countries. The Drama of the Gifted Child and the Search for the True Self is the original title of the book, which was published in Germany.
Amazon.com Review:
Today's responsible parents strive to raise children with healthy egos. But for a lot of adults, the word 'ego' carries the negative connotation of 'narcissism.' Traditionally, the 'good' child learned self-control, self-denial and placed parental needs and wishes first. If those needs were abusive to the child, there was no choice but to block the hurtful behavior in order to hold onto adults who were loved and needed. Miller recognized the link between certain emotional problems in adulthood and repressed childhood anguish. Her ideas in this pioneering study are a must-read for anyone seeking truth about the roots of suffering in childhood.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Prisoners of Childhood: the Drama of the Gifted Child and the Search for the True Self (hardcover) is one of the earliest writings of Alice Miller available in English translation. Her insights are quite profound, and her perspective is unique in self-help, popular, and psychoanalytic works. She explores the psychological adaptations that children choose in order to preserve the love of their parents, which they so desperately need in order to survive. Indeed, she argues, the cost of such adaptations ... Read More
Rating:  -
It is unsurprising that Alice Miller's Drama of the Gifted Child has met with a certain amount of hostility from both the psychiatry and psychotherapy establishments. After all, she frowns both on the use of drugs and cognitive-behavioral techniques as treatments for anxiety--especially in children. She even suggests that those who would use such remedies may have unaddressed psychological problems of their own. What's worse, she appeals to no empirical studies (double-blind or not) in reaching these conclusions; ... Read More
Rating: -
If you are like me: if you have a LOT of emotional baggage, and have only begun to scratch the surface of the damage done to your fragile psyche in early childhood, please take seriously this warning.
Approach this book with extreme caution. It will change your life, and not necessarily for the better.
It's a poor analogy, but in a sense it is not too much of a distortion to compare this book to shock treatment. Yes, it has a dramatic effect. But the effect is not always beneficial. ... Read More
Rating: -
A book which goes straight to the essence of much of today's suffering...narcisistic disturbances as not one amongst many disturbances, but the one underlying them all.It is a book for everyone, and most especially for young parents, as the newborn child makes us live again all our unresolved stuff. This book should be recommended as educational material as it enlightens parents to choose not to repeat their own stories with their children. Excellent.
Rating: -
Alice Miller's "Prisoners Of Childhood; The Drama Of The Gifted Child," was originally published in 1981. A later revised and updated edition, "The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self" is now available with a new Foreward by Dr. Miller. I read this book over 20 years ago, and recently reread it. I find that it is just as relevant, wise and perceptive today as it was then. Dr. Miller was a practicing psychoanalyst, who gave up her work with patients to write books, for the layperson, primarily dealing ... Read More
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