"Genuine feelings cannot be produced, nor can they be eradicated. We can only repress them, delude ourselves, and deceive our bodies. The body sticks t...

Cruelty is the opposite of love, and its traumatic effect, far from being reduced, is actually reinforced if it is presented as a sign of love.
~ Alice Miller (psychologist) ~












Cruelty is the opposite of love, and its traumatic effect, far from being reduced, is actually reinf...
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More Alice Miller (psychologist) quotes
"We don't yet know, above all, what the world might be like if children were to grow up without being subjected to humiliation, if parents would respec...
"All children are born to grow, to develop, to live, to love, and to articulate their needs and feelings for their self-protection.
"Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery of our truth about the ...
"The public forum is not, of course, the most helpful place to conduct a profitable confrontation with one's parents. If we are to allow the feelings o...
"Child abuse damages a person for life and that damage is in no way diminished by the ignorance of the perpetrator. It is only with the uncovering of t...
"Not to take one's own suffering seriously, to make light of it or even to laugh at it, is considered good manners in our culture.
"A human being born into a cold, indifferent world will regard his situation as the only possible one.
"The more we idealized the past, however, and refuse to acknowledge or childhood sufferings, the more we pass them on unconsciously to the next generat...
"Narcissistic cathexis of the child by the mother does not exclude emotional devotion. On the contrary, she loves the child as her self-object, excessi...
"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 par...
"Because the victims are “only children,” their distress is trivialized. But in twenty years’ time these children will be adult who will feel compelled...