Books for Prep










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

List Price: $16.00
Amazon.com's Price: $10.88
You Save: $5.12 (32%)
Prices subject to change.



Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours



This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 649.1
EAN: 9780374522698
Edition: 3
ISBN: 0374522693
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 282
Publication Date: January 01, 1990
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux




Accessories: Related Items: Alternate Versions: Click to Display

Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display



Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
Miller explores the backgrounds of extreme cases of self-destructive and violent individuals to further her theories on longterm consequences of abusive childrearing. Her conclusions about what creates a drug addict, a murderer, even a Hitler, stray far from psychoanalytic dogma about human nature. Miller paints a jolting picture of the violent world each generation helps shape when traditional upbringing, with its hidden cruelty, is perpetuated. She also offers a way out by striving to resensitize the child in the adult, to unlock an emotional life frozen in repression.

Product Description:
For Your Own Good, the contemporary classic exploring the serious if not gravely dangerous consequences parental cruelty can bring to bear on children everywhere, is one of the central works by Alice Miller, the celebrated Swiss psychoanalyst.

With her typically lucid, strong, and poetic language, Miller investigates the personal stories and case histories of various self-destructive and/or violent individuals to expand on her theories about the long-term affects of abusive child-rearing. Her conclusions—on what sort of parenting can create a drug addict, or a murderer, or a Hitler—offer much insight, and make a good deal of sense, while also straying far from psychoanalytic dogma about human nature, which Miller vehemently rejects.

This important study paints a shocking picture of the violent world—indeed, of the ever-more-violent world—that each generation helps to create when traditional upbringing, with its hidden cruelty, is perpetuated. The book also presents readers with useful solutions in this regard—namely, to resensitize the victimized child who has been trapped within the adult, and to unlock the emotional life that has been frozen in repression.




Customer Reviews
Average Rating:  out of 5 stars

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Miller psychoanalyzes her civilization, finding it guilty of child abuse
Alice Miller digs into the psycho-history behind the mental-illness cases she deals with, turning her lights on the legacy of parent education from medieval through early-modern times. And to a large degree Miller lays the blame for traditions of mental illness on Christian theology. If children were presumed to be born evil, then the struggle to raise them could be something like exorcizing demons. How should a God-fearing parent proceed? The examples Miller cites from parenting literature are many ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - the issue is control--by 'them' of you
as the other reviewers have noted, this book will change your entire world view. it is, in my opinion, the most important book of the 20th century. her insights can be applied to any culture--the cultures in which people were not beaten into obedience and any militaristic culture you'd care to name. those brave enough to apply these insights to their own life and behavior will change their lives for the better.

miller has stated that she no longer considers herself a member of the psychoanalytical ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - To Save the World: This Must Read
Alice Miller gives many examples of how "poisonous pedagogy" is the root of all violence in the world. Citing an extensive childhood histories of violent dictators such as Adolf Hitler to child murderers such as Jürgen Bartsch, we are not only able to acknowledge and remember the horrors of our own childhood but can begin to see the terrible consequences of not respecting one's children and taking all of the expressions of their experiences seriously, the horrific consequences of corporal punishment, abandonment ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - life changing book
I wish that everyone in America, no, in the world, could or would read this book. I imagine what a different world would be born out of the consciousness and the compassion that this book brings to light. It has helped me to become aware of how little I have ever been allowed to experience or express my authentic responses in life. This knowledge, of course, then suddenly opens up the doors for the feelings I have banished all of my life. If you care about children, if you care about humanity, if you care about ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Permission to Know
I remember reading "Great Expectations" in school and feeling a shock of recognition when the narrator mentioned that he'd been "brought up by hand." I realized I had been brought up by hand too; by the palm of the hand, the back of the hand, or whatever implement was near enough for that hand to grab and swing. After the smack or swat came the welts and the tears and then the command to "stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about." As a rule, a natural response to that pain and humiliation was not allowed. ... Read More







 






In association with Amazon.com