The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Third Edition | Alice Miller

The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Third Edition | Alice Miller | A Quest to Find Your True Self

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The Drama of the G...

	The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Third Edition Alice Miller Basic Books, 1996 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 75 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

child abuse

I tend towards looking deeply into whatever I'm involved in. The deeper the better - not necessarily comfortable or pleasant but getting down to the 'ugly' truth is paramount to me. Alice's books take me to the depths and the source of suffering in this world. Political unrest, religious persecution, corporate corruption, etc. I believe are sourced by child abuse. If reading Alice really pisses you off that might be a clue to the depth of the damage done to you.

If you think you are not abused - others might be but not you or your family - I want to know what planet you came from.

I use to believe that in the sea of compassion there were or might be islands of abuse and maltreatment - now I see that we live in a sea of abuse and there might be an island of compassion somewhere; I hope anyway.

The books beginning with DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD, after her 'awakening' are the best. Before then she was a full fledged psychotherapist and that is a pejorative.

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A Quest to Find Your True Self

This book is amazing. It takes a serious look at the damage that can be inflicted as a child by narcissistic parents and how it plays out in adulthood. This book encourages one to be set free from the subconscious effects of childhood neglect. This book has been very helpful for me to grow and change after being raised in an abusive home.

Wonderful Book when reseraching the dynamics of Narcissist families

Alice Miller's Drama of the Gifted Child is a wonderful book a must read for parents and teachers alike! This book was suggested as an informational work for those interested in the dynamics within Narcissistic families. The book touches on many important aspects of childhood and how our families either encourage or discourage the development of a true inner self. It presents personal accounts and theories about how the experiences of childhood shape our ideas and beliefs about the world. As a parent and teacher this book both concerned and inspired me. I read it in conjunction with the Narcissistic Family by the Pressmans. These two books have a very similar message: the importance of learning from the unhealthy and hurtful experiences of childhood and how to overcome these experiences. In addition creating awareness about not passing on our own negative childhood experiences to our children. A must read for anyone interested in coming to grips with the trauma's suffered by children in our world. Miller's work is a guide book on what can be done to work through repressed emotions and liberate one's true self.

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4 Stars--for earlier version

Interesting range of views here. First of all, this version of the book is a significanly revised version of the book originally entitled "Prisoners of Childhood." I, for one, think Alice Miller changed the book for the worse.

The original book describes sensitivity of "gifted" children who resonate with the emotional/psychological energy of their neurotic (or worse) parents and don't have the developmental capibility to cope appropriately. And yes, the book is primarily about narcissism.

The new version, however, became about all "abused" children, which deflated--and devalued--the dynamics of which I felt she had described more effectively in the earlier version. I wonder if the revision was so she could get on the "co-dependence" bandwagon of the 90's--and sell more books!! (but then, that's my cynical side...)

This book profoundly "resonated" with me when I first read it in the earlier version--and I think the book still has relevance in that version. I do not, like some reviewers here, think that Miller was primarily advocating blame (of mothers, primarily); if anything, she was stressing personal responsibility to cease to be a "prisoner of childhood" but through honest exploration that childhood--which is probably the most difficult and painful process a person can go through. To continually blame without getting past it, as I think Miller would agree, never accomplishes anything--one is still a prisoner.

This book is (was) a skillful proponent of psychoanalytic theory and practice--and like another reviewer, changed my life in leading me in a direction that has shown to be remarkably productive.

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