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

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

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

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

Paperback(REV)

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Overview

This “rare and compelling” (New York Magazine) bestseller examines childhood trauma and the enduring effects it has on an individual's management of repressed anger and pain.
Why are many of the most successful people plagued by feelings of emptiness and alienation? This wise and profound book has provided millions of readers with an answer—and has helped them to apply it to their own lives.
Far too many of us had to learn as children to hide our own feelings, needs, and memories skillfully in order to meet our parents' expectations and win their "love." Alice Miller writes, "When I used the word 'gifted' in the title, I had in mind neither children who receive high grades in school nor children talented in a special way. I simply meant all of us who have survived an abusive childhood thanks to an ability to adapt even to unspeakable cruelty by becoming numb.... Without this 'gift' offered us by nature, we would not have survived." But merely surviving is not enough. The Drama of the Gifted Child helps us to reclaim our life by discovering our own crucial needs and our own truth.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780465016907
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 07/22/2008
Series: Art of Mentoring Series
Edition description: REV
Pages: 144
Sales rank: 53,860
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 7.95(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Alice Miller (1923-2010) achieved worldwide recognition for her work on the causes and effects of childhood traumas. She was also the author of many books, including The Truth Will Set You Free, Banished Knowledge, Breaking Down the Wall of Silence, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware, and For Your Own Good.

Table of Contents


The Drama of the Gifted Child and How We Became Psychotherapists     1
The Poor Rich Child     4
The Lost World of Feelings     8
In Search of the True Self     14
The Therapist's History     19
The Golden Brain     24
Depression and Grandiosity: Two Related Forms of Denial     27
The Vicissitudes of the Child's Needs     27
Healthy Development     28
The Disturbance     30
The Illusion of Love     33
Grandiosity     34
Depression as the Reverse of Grandiosity     37
Depression as Denial of the Self     40
Depressive Phases During Therapy     52
Signal Function     53
Suppression of Essential Needs     53
The Accumulation of Strong, Hidden Feelings     54
Confronting the Parents     55
The Inner Prison     56
A Social Aspect of Depression     62
The Legend of Narcissus     66
The Vicious Circle of Contempt     69
Humiliation for the Child, Disrespect for the Weak, and Where It Goes from There     69
Working with Contempt in Therapy     82
Damaged Self-Articulation in the Compulsion to Repeat     83
Perpetuation of Contempt in Perversion and Obsessive Behavior     85
"Depravity" as "Evil" in Hermann Hesse's Childhood World     95
The Mother as Society's Agent During the First Years of Life     103
The Loneliness of the Contemptuous     106
Achieving Freedom from Contempt and Respecting Life     111
Afterword     117
Works Cited     121
Appendix     123
Index     127

What People are Saying About This

Anthony Storr

"Full of wisdom and perception."

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