Quotes from the Book The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self

“Many people who can tolerate the loss of beauty, health, youth, or loved ones and, although they grieve, do so without depression. In contrast, there are those with great gifts, often precisely the most gifted, who do suffer from severe depression. For one is free from it only when self-esteem is based on the authenticity of one ‘own feelings and not on the possession of certain qualities.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 34

 “If the repression stays unresolved, the parents’ childhood tragedy is unconsciously continued on in their children”Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 23

"The grandiose person is never really free; first because he is excessively dependent on admiration from others, and second, because his self-respect is dependent on qualities, functions, and achievements that can suddenly fail." Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 36

“We cannot really love if we are forbidden to know our truth, the truth about our parents and caregivers as well as about ourselves. We can only try to behave as if we were loving, but this hypocritical behavior is the opposite of love. It is confusing and deceptive, and it produces much helpless rage in the deceived person. This rage must be repressed in the presence of the pretended “love,” especially if one is dependent, as a child is, on the person who is masquerading in this illusion of love.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 23

“It is precisely because a child’s feelings are so strong that they cannot be repressed without serious consequences. The stronger a prisoner is, the thicker the prison walls have to be, and unfortunately these walls also impede or completely prevent later emotional growth. “Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 58

“No one can heal by maintaining or fostering illusion. The paradise of preambivalent harmony, for which so many patients hope, is unattainable. But the experience of one’s own truth, and the postambivalent knowledge of it, make it possible to return to one’s own world of feeling at the adult level---without paradise, but with the ability to mourn. And this ability does, indeed, give us back our vitality.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 14

“Several mechanisms can be recognized in the defense against early feelings of abandonment. In addition to simple denial, we usually find the exhausting struggle to fulfill the old, repressed, and by now often perverted needs with the help of symbols (cults, sexual perversions, groups of all kinds, alcohol, or drugs). Intellectualization is very commonly encountered as well, since it is a defense mechanism of great power.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 11

“A child can only experience her feelings only when there is somebody there who accepts her fully, understands her, and supports her. If that person is missing, if the child must risk losing the mother’s love or the love of her substitute in order to feel, then she will repress her emotions. She cannot even experience them secretly, “just for herself”;she will fail to experience them at all. But they will nevertheless stay in her body, in her cells, stored up as information that can be triggered by a later event. “Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 9

“Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and the unique history of our childhood.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 1

 “As adults we don’t need unconditional love, not even from our therapist. This is a childhood need, one can never be fulfilled later in life, and we are playing with illusions if we have never mourned this lost opportunity. But there are others things we can get from good therapist: reliability, honesty, respect, trust, empathy, understanding, and an ability to clarify their emotions so that they need not bother us with them. If a therapist promises unconditional love, we must protect ourselves from him, from his hypocrisy and lack of awareness” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 45

7 Indicators You’re Not The Narcissist

https://youtube.com/shorts/6QQRsm3lqjE?si=k11UYYZQ06jVWhd_

The Narcissism Doctor: “1 in 6 People Are Narcissists!” How to Spot Them & Can They Change?

Quotes from the Book The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

“Many people who can tolerate the loss of beauty, health, youth, or loved ones and, although they grieve, do so without depression. In contrast, there are those with great gifts, often precisely the most gifted, who do suffer from severe depression. For one is free from it only when self-esteem is based on the authenticity of one ‘own feelings and not on the possession of certain qualities.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 34

 “If the repression stays unresolved, the parents’ childhood tragedy is unconsciously continued on in their children”Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 23

"The grandiose person is never really free; first because he is excessively dependent on admiration from others, and second, because his self-respect is dependent on qualities, functions, and achievements that can suddenly fail." Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 36

“We cannot really love if we are forbidden to know our truth, the truth about our parents and caregivers as well as about ourselves. We can only try to behave as if we were loving, but this hypocritical behavior is the opposite of love. It is confusing and deceptive, and it produces much helpless rage in the deceived person. This rage must be repressed in the presence of the pretended “love,” especially if one is dependent, as a child is, on the person who is masquerading in this illusion of love.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 23

“It is precisely because a child’s feelings are so strong that they cannot be repressed without serious consequences. The stronger a prisoner is, the thicker the prison walls have to be, and unfortunately, these walls also impede or completely prevent later emotional growth. “Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 58

“No one can heal by maintaining or fostering illusion. The paradise of preambivalent harmony, for which so many patients hope, is unattainable. But the experience of one’s own truth, and the postambivalent knowledge of it, make it possible to return to one’s own world of feeling at the adult level---without paradise, but with the ability to mourn. And this ability does, indeed, give us back our vitality.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 14

“Several mechanisms can be recognized in the defense against early feelings of abandonment. In addition to simple denial, we usually find the exhausting struggle to fulfill the old, repressed, and by now often perverted needs with the help of symbols (cults, sexual perversions, groups of all kinds, alcohol, or drugs). Intellectualization is very commonly encountered as well, since it is a defense mechanism of great power.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 11

“A child can only experience her feelings only when there is somebody there who accepts her fully, understands her, and supports her. If that person is missing, if the child must risk losing the mother’s love or the love of her substitute in order to feel, then she will repress her emotions. She cannot even experience them secretly, “just for herself”; she will fail to experience them at all. But they will nevertheless stay in her body, in her cells, stored up as information that can be triggered by a later event. “Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 9

“Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and the unique history of our childhood.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 1

 “As adults, we don’t need unconditional love, not even from our therapist. This is a childhood need, that can never be fulfilled later in life, and we are playing with illusions if we have never mourned this lost opportunity. But there are other things we can get from a good therapist: reliability, honesty, respect, trust, empathy, understanding, and an ability to clarify their emotions so that they need not bother us with them. If a therapist promises unconditional love, we must protect ourselves from him, from his hypocrisy and lack of awareness” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 45

The great malady of our society

“Wherever I look, I see signs of the commandment to honor one's parents and nowhere of a commandment that calls for the respect of a child.” Alice Miller

The great malady of our society, implicated in all our troubles and affecting us individually and socially is the idealization of our parents and childhood and the denial of childhood suffering. When we idealize our parents and childhood and deny childhood suffering, it does not go away. It appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, greed, deceit, and loss of meaning. Our temptation is to isolate these symptoms or try to eradicate them one by one; but the root problem is the idealization of our parents and childhood and the denial of childhood suffering.

"...All social violence--whether by war, revolution or economic exploitation--is ultimately a consequence of child abuse should not surprise us. The propensity to reinflict childhood trauma upon others as an adult in socially-approved violence is actually far more able to explain and predict the actual outbreak of wars than the usual economic motivations, and we are likely to continue to undergo our periodic sacrificial rituals of war if the infliction of childhood trauma continues. The human race is now quite able technologically to satisfy its needs if we can live together without violence toward each other. But unless we employ our social resources toward consciously assisting the evolution of child-rearing, we will be doomed to the periodic destruction of our resources, both material and human. To Selma Freiberg's dicta that "Trauma demands repetition" I would only add "repetition through social action." We cannot be content to only continue to do endless repair work on damaged adults, with our therapies and jails and political movements. Our task now must, in addition, be to create an entirely new profession of "child helpers" whose can reach out to every new child born on earth and help its parents give it love and independence." -- Lloyd deMause www.psychohistory.com

Above excerpt from The History of Child Abuse by Lloyd deMause www.primal-page.com/ph-abuse.htm

Psychohistory Articles Menu www.primal-page.com/psyhis.htm#menu

The Primal Psychotherapy Page www.primal-page.com

“Inability to face up to the suffering undergone in childhood can be observed both in the form of religious obedience and in cynicism, irony, and other forms of self-alienation frequently masquerading as philosophy or literature. But ultimately the body will rebel. Even if it can be temporarily pacified with the help of drugs, nicotine, or medicine, it usually has the last word, because it is quicker to see through self-deception than the mind, particularly if the mind has been trained to function as an alienated self. We may ignore or deride the messages of the body, but its rebellion demands to be heeded because its language is the authentic expression of our true selves and of the strength of our vitality.” From the book “The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting” by Alice Miller

“Our parents project the repressed feelings of their own childhood onto us and without realizing it blames us for the things that once happened to them. Like the psychiatrist Henry in Brigitte’s story (see Chapter 2), parents often react blindly and destructively because they are still caught up in the reality of their childhood without realizing it. To survive cruelties---beatings, humiliations, and neglect---they had to conceal their own feelings from themselves. Now they have become slaves to those emotions they cannot control them because they cannot understand their meaning, and they cannot understand their meaning because, like Adam and Eve in Paradise, they have been told to regard cruelty as love. They have been taught to obey incomprehensible commandments and have been made to remain in a state of blindness all their lives, threatened with brimstone and hellfire should they dare to dissent” Alice Miller, taken from the book “The Truth Will Set you Free” page 96

"It is a never-ending source of acute distress for me when I think of the devastating power of denial in producing the barriers in our minds. One of the ways this obstructive power manifests itself is in the persistence of theologians and philosophers in discussing ethical issues without taking any account of the findings produced by brain research and the laws governing infant development. These factors are crucial to a clearer understanding of how evil originates and how we actively perpetuate it. For psychoanalysts, it is also high time to rethink the concepts of destructive drives and evil, "perverted" children, which they have inherited from poisonous pedagogy. But in order to do so they would have to take modern research on infancy seriously." - Alice Miller

Above excerpt from BARRIERS IN THE MIND

 Chapter 7 from The Truth Will Set You Free

 By Alice Miller

“Many people who can tolerate the loss of beauty, health, youth, or loved ones and, although they grieve, do so without depression. In contrast, there are those with great gifts, often precisely the most gifted, who do suffer from severe depression. For one is free from it only when self-esteem is based on the authenticity of one's own feelings and not on the possession of certain qualities.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 34

“It is precisely because a child’s feelings are so strong that they cannot be repressed without serious consequences. The stronger a prisoner is, the thicker the prison walls have to be, and unfortunately, these walls also impede or completely prevent later emotional growth. “Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 58

Getting through the strong repressed feelings of the child we once were -- is not an easy task -- but it's the most important work for us to do on this planet if we want to grow and liberate ourselves and if we really want to create a more peaceful world. Everything else we do is just a temporary and superficial fix. As long as people's repressed feelings of the child they once were remained repressed, they will be driven by them sooner or later in one form or another to hurt themselves, others, or both.

“Several mechanisms can be recognized in the defense against early feelings of abandonment. In addition to simple denial, we usually find the exhausting struggle to fulfill the old, repressed, and by now often perverted needs with the help of symbols (cults, sexual perversions, groups of all kinds, alcohol, or drugs). Intellectualization is very commonly encountered as well since it is a defense mechanism of great power.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 11

“We cannot really love if we are forbidden to know our truth, the truth about our parents and caregivers as well as about ourselves. We can only try to behave as if we were loving, but this hypocritical behavior is the opposite of love. It is confusing and deceptive, and it produces much helpless rage in the deceived person. This rage must be repressed in the presence of the pretended “love,” especially if one is dependent, as a child is, on the person who is masquerading in this illusion of love.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the True Self) Page 23

"We do not arrive in this world as a clean slate. Every new baby comes with a history of its own, the history of the nine months between conception and birth. In addition, children have the genetic blueprint they inherit from their parents. These factors may help determine what kind of temperament a child will have, and what inclinations, gifts, and predispositions.

But character depends crucially upon whether a person is given love, protection, tenderness, and understanding or exposed to rejection, coldness, indifference, and cruelty in the early formative years. The stimulus indispensable for developing the capacity for empathy, say, is the experience of loving care. In the absence of such care, when a child is forced to grow up neglected, emotionally starved, and subjected to physical abuse, he or she will forfeit this innate capacity. While I ascribe immense significance to the experiences of infants in the first days, weeks, and months of their lives to explain their later behavior, I do not wish to assert that later influences are completely ineffectual. Rather, if a traumatized or neglected child can later come to know what I call an "enlightened" or "knowing witness," he or she can deal positively with the effects of that childhood trauma.

We know today that the brain we are born with is not the finished product it was once thought to be. The structuring of the brain depends very much on the experiences of the first hours, days, and weeks of a person's life. In the last few years, scientific studies led by neurologist and child psychiatrist Dr. Bruce D. Perry (www.childtrauma.org/) have further established that traumatized and neglected children display severe lesions affecting up to 30 percent of those areas of the brain that control our emotions. Severe traumas inflicted on infants lead to an increase in the release of stress hormones that destroy the existing, newly formed neurons and their interconnections." -- Alice Miller

Narcissists need a lot of supply

 

Yes, they do! Good analogy! 

Narcissists develop a false self as a child to survive in a hostile environment and lack the courage to be authentic and consciously feel and understand their feelings within the context of their childhood. They are constantly unconsciously and compulsively looking for scapegoats to transfer and project their unresolved feelings of shame and hatred. 

Narcissists are the classic case Alice Miller describes beautifully in her book The Drama of the Gifted Child.

“It is precisely because a child’s feelings are so strong that they cannot be repressed without serious consequences. The stronger a prisoner is, the thicker the prison walls have to be, and unfortunately, these walls also impede or completely prevent later emotional growth. “Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 58

“Many people who can tolerate the loss of beauty, health, youth, or loved ones and, although they grieve, do so without depression. In contrast, there are those with great gifts, often precisely the most gifted, who do suffer from severe depression. For one is free from it only when self-esteem is based on the authenticity of one ‘own feelings and not on the possession of certain qualities.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 34

 “If the repression stays unresolved, the parents’ childhood tragedy is unconsciously continued on in their children” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 23

"The grandiose person is never really free; first because he is excessively dependent on admiration from others, and second, because his self-respect is dependent on qualities, functions, and achievements that can suddenly fail." Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 36

“We cannot really love if we are forbidden to know our truth, the truth about our parents and caregivers as well as about ourselves. We can only try to behave as if we were loving, but this hypocritical behavior is the opposite of love. It is confusing and deceptive, and it produces much helpless rage in the deceived person. This rage must be repressed in the presence of the pretended “love,” especially if one is dependent, as a child is, on the person who is masquerading in this illusion of love.” Alice Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self) Page 23

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/search?q=the+drama+of+the+gifted+child

Individuals with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) need "narcissistic supply," attention, admiration, and positive validation they crave and rely on to maintain their fragile sense of self-worth. 

What is Narcissistic Supply?

Narcissistic supply is a term used to describe the attention, admiration, and validation that individuals with NPD seek and require to bolster their fragile self-esteem. It's essentially the fuel that keeps their inflated sense of self-importance running.

Why do Narcissists Need It?

People with NPD often have a deep-seated insecurity and a lack of genuine self-love, making them highly dependent on external validation to feel good about themselves.

Without this constant stream of admiration, they may experience feelings of emptiness, inadequacy, or even depression.

Narcissistic supply can manifest in various ways, including:

Public Attention: This can include praise, accolades, or recognition for achievements or accomplishments.

Interpersonal Relationships: Narcissists often seek attention and admiration through relationships, manipulating others to feel important and special.

Excessive Praise and Flattery: Narcissists are drawn to people who constantly praise and flatter them, reinforcing their sense of grandiosity.

Attention-Seeking Behaviors: Narcissists may engage in attention-seeking behaviors, such as gossiping, lying, or creating drama to gain attention and validation.

Impact of Narcissistic Supply:

The constant need for narcissistic supply can lead to a number of problems, including:

Emotional Instability: The constant need for validation can lead to emotional instability and mood swings.

Lack of Empathy: Narcissists may lack empathy and struggle to understand the feelings and needs of others.

Exploitation of Others: Narcissists may exploit others to gain narcissistic supply, often without regard for their feelings or well-being.

Yep! All is connected to childhood. 

Good points 👉 

Yes, it's a virus.

Money addiction is one of the worst addictions ever.

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/search?q=Money+addiction+&m=1

Yes, most people are prostituting themselves. My passion is peace and quiet away from most people. 

Most people out there are prostituting themselves every day, and this is why they are unhappy and suffering from depression and are self-medicating with all kinds of things like religious cults or any other type of cults, food, sex, and codependent on unhealthy relationships or dependent on antidepressants. It’s a tragedy! I wish I had included the very truthful quote below of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in my book; I will definitely include it in my next book!

"Any human being that was born into a family that loves "if", will have problems in life, horrible problems, because they all become prostitutes. You will prostitute yourself with good behavior. Do you understand the word prostitution? What sense do I mean by that? You will believe that you can buy love with good grades, that you can buy love with good behavior, that you can buy love if you look pretty, and your need for approval will always be insatiable, and you will always be unhappy for the rest of your life."

 -- Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross excerpt from the video Understanding death & suicide - part 2 

"Pain is the way to the truth. By denying that you were unloved as a child, you spare yourself some pain, but you are not with your own truth. And throughout your whole life, you'll try to earn love. In therapy, avoiding pain causes a blockage. Yet nobody can confront being neglected or hated without feeling guilty. "It is my fault that my mother is cruel," he thinks. "I made my mother furious; what can I do to make her loving?" So he will continue trying to make her love him. The guilt is really protection against the terrible realization that you are fated to have a mother who cannot love. This is much more painful than thinking, "Oh, she is a good mother; it's only me who's bad." Because then you can try to do something to get love. But it's not true; you cannot earn love. And feeling guilty for what has been done to you only supports your blindness and your neurosis." -- Alice Miller

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/search?q=prostituting+

The son of Alice Miller should have given the title to his book - The Drama of the gifted child - the tragedy of my life

P: I just read the first article and I think the whole debate whether she failed on her son is absurd because when he was small his mother was not fully aware of how abusive education can be. She was a traditional mother as anybody else, and as a therapist she followed the traditional Freudian psychoanalysis of her time....only when she found out that this type of therapy does not really solve the problem but intensifies it, she started developing her own, very different theory....but by that was not until the 1970, resulting in her first book, the drama, in 1979...by that time her son was about 30 years old, so how could she protect him from a violent father??? So this criticism is bloody BS!!”

Hi P,

Thank you for writing. I completely agree with everything you wrote. This comment made by Makus Roth on the article you sent me, says also almost the same thing you just said above: “Alice Miller's life cycle is comparable to the conversion of Sau to Paul, from the unconscious to the conscious mother. when she wrote the first of her 13 books (drama dbk= Das Drama de begabten Kiindes, The drama of the gifted child), 1979, when her son was already 29 years old and she kept on developing every time clearer and clearer. Already years ago she apologized to her son for her misbehavior in his childhood, whereas her son had and still has trouble with it.” Makus Roth

I feel Alice Miller’s experience is very similar to mine. My love for my ex and my desire to help him made me look for help so we could save our relationship and in the process I freed myself. Alice Miller too saw that her son had problems, and how ironic they both have the same first name, my ex’s first name is also Martin! Alice Miller like me started lifting every stone to look for clues to help her son and in the process resolved her own repression and freed herself, just like me that I went out looking for clues how to help my Ex and I end up liberating myself in the process. And at the end, I had to let my ex-go, and Alice too had to let her son go because once a person is an adult, no one, not even the mother, can make up for what we need as children and we didn’t get. Once we are adults only we can save ourselves and anyone that tells us otherwise are fooling us with false hopes and promises.

Alice Miller was driven to write her books to warn society of the dangers of childhood repression to save the children of the future and help us to face and resolve our own repression. This is why it’s so important for people to face their own repression before having children or at least become aware of their own childhood repression before their children become teenagers and adults, because it’s not the trauma itself that causes long-term damage, but the repressed emotions that causes long-term damage and if parents become aware of the damage done before their children become teenagers or adults they can help their children express their true feelings of anger, fear and hurt, because the children are still emotionally dependent on their parents, but once the children become teenagers or adults the defense mechanisms and walls have been built and it’s out of the parents hands, they can become the most conscious parents, but it will be too late, because they can’t force the teenagers and adult children remove the walls to face and feel their childhood repression, if they don’t wish to do so. 

Alice Miller made herself very vulnerable to all the psychopaths in the world to warn us, her courage is astonishing. Psychopaths always feed on people's weakness to advance themselves and don’t care who they hurt, step on or destroy in the process as long they get what they want. In the interview Martin Miller is giving in the link you sent me, he is speaking in German and of course I don’t understand what he is saying, but the body never lies and the language of the body is universal, his body is telling his truth and you can see how this man has been repressing all of his life with the aid of food and probably also with all kinds of medications, and never allowed himself to consciously feel the full range of the repressed feelings of the child he once was within the context of his own childhood. And as long we go on repressing our feelings the compulsion to abuse ourselves, others or both will go on endless overtly or covertly and you can see he has been abusing himself by overeating to numb his feelings when present triggers trigger him because he is extremely overweight.  

The title of his book is “The true drama of the gifted child- the tragedy of Alice Miller” but the title of his book should have been: “The Drama of the gifted child - the tragedy of my life” because his life is the real tragedy and sad beyond words, because he still stuck in his childhood and probably will never break free, because he is already 63 and the older we get the harder it gets to resolve our repression. Alice Millers’ life is not a tragedy, because she broke free and died free, the beginning of her life was a tragedy, but not the end of her life, she became honest with herself and others and that is the most important achievement anyone can reach in this lifetime, not like most people in our society that are stuck in their childhood pretending and acting as if personality their whole lives, fooling themselves and others.

As Alice says in her book The Body Never Lies, page, 86: ““… For how can I prove to someone that freedom is within reach, if all his life he has clung to the constraints that were necessary for his survival, and if he cannot imagine life without those constraints? I can say that I myself have achieved such freedom by getting to the bottom of my own story, but I have to admit that I am not a good example. After all, it took me over forty years to arrive at the stage I have reached now. But there are others. I know people who have succeeded in unearthing their memories in a much shorter space of time, and the discovery of their own truth has enabled them to emerge from the autistic hiding place that used to be their only refuge. In my case, the reason the journey took so long was that I was on my own for most of it.”

Me too just like Alice Miller it took me over forty years to break free because I was alone in my journey most of it. 

Hi P,

Have you seen this? It’s in German! You don’t have to use Google translate like I had to, I am jealous you can read German because you lose a lot in translation, but I think it was enough for me to see where Martin Miller comes from.  I guess Martin Miller has finished his book! I feel so sad that this 63-year-old man is still stuck in his childhood and never found his own way in the world and got trapped in the labyrinth of psychoanalysis. It took his mother most of her adult life to free herself from the labyrinth of psychoanalysis. Just as his mother wrote below. With his book, he is transferring his childhood confusion into many people that still, like him, are stuck in the confusion of their own childhood and they too, like him, have fell victims of the labyrinth or traps of many seductive therapies that keep them stuck endless reenacting their own childhood dramas, where they either play the active role of mother/father to others or are endless stuck in the role of the child.

“, is not an accusation. But an attempt to understand deep-seated trauma.” I have learned that when people deny something that’s exactly what they are.

The fact he is saying is not an accusation that’s exactly what it is, disguised of wanting to understand deep-seated trauma. Anyone that has read all his mother’s books and work through their own repression understands deep-seated trauma and how hard it is to resolve it. He is being a great example of how difficult it is to resolve deep-seated trauma. He is still stuck in his childhood fighting and competing with his mother to make a name for himself by unconsciously attempting to destroy the great discovers and accomplishments his mother made late in life by stepping on his mother’s head to satisfies his own childhood narcissists needs and letting the unresolved repressed emotions of the child he once was, take revenge on his mother for the wrongs she did to him when he was a small child by attempting to kill his mother in a symbolic way in the public arena with his book, creating a smokescreen confusing many people already confused looking for a way out of their own labyrinths.

He mentions that his mother’s first three books are the most valuable, of course, he likes his mother’s first books, because when his mother wrote her first books, she had not broken free completely from the labyrinth of psychoanalysis, a labyrinth he still trapped in. In Alice’s first books she was still writing with the precepts of the labyrinth of psychoanalysis and still had hopes or the illusion psychoanalysis could help people break free. His mother’s last books are much clear and are the books that helped me understand and feel my own feelings within the context of my own childhood and finally break free from my emotional prison no longer be lost in projections reenacting my childhood drama with people symbolizing my parents or my parents substitutes, in my own case my older sisters, and prevented me from being trapped in the labyrinth of many seductive therapies out there.

As Alice Miller said: “…On the other hand, what has radically changed is my hopeful attitude towards psychoanalysis, from which, in 1988, I officially broke away by resigning from the Swiss as well as the International Psychoanalytical Association. I was forced to take this step when I realized that psychoanalytical theory and practice obscure—i.e., render unrecognizable—the cause and consequences of child abuse, by (among other things) labeling facts as fantasies, and furthermore, that such treatments can be dangerous, as in my own case, [and obviously in the case of her own son] because they cement the confusion deriving from childhood instead of resolving it. Ten years ago I was not yet so clear about this, my study of philosophy as well as my training in and practice of psychoanalysis having long prevented me from recognizing many facts. Only when I was prepared to end my repression, to liberate my childhood from the prison of pedagogic notions and psychoanalytical theories; when I reject the ideology of forgetting and forgiving, allied myself with the abused child, and, thanks to my therapy, learned to feel: only then did I gradually discover my hitherto concealed history.” From the book Banished Knowledge, from the edition 1990, vintage point

“This book [the drama] was written sixteen years ago in keeping with the precepts of psychoanalysis, precepts that I have long since moved beyond and today regarded as misleading. I, therefore, have had to revise the text thoroughly, salvaging those parts I still regard as valid and useful while clarifying certain points more than I was able to in 1978” From the Drama of the Gifted Child, edition 1994, introduction, page 1

Comments from the blog The Pain of a Mother

Liliane: I totally agree with your words and I feel sad that her excellent and very important work is brought into discredit by people like DM, BR, and MM. In their writings and words, you can read how they idealize, devalue and show signs of grandiosity. As you can read in the interview with Die Welt-15.10. MM says that it was thanks to his therapeutic work and with his book that the theory of his mother survives! However, it is clear to me that they are stuck in the repressed feelings of their childhood and that brings others in confusion and pain.

Sylvie: I am glad to see that are other people out there that can see it too. Sometimes I feel alone in my perceptions, how BR, DM, and MM are twisting Alice Miller’s work to manipulate the perceptions of others and deceive them. It’s very clear to me too that they are stuck in their repressed feelings and suffer from grandiosity. And they allow the fantasies of revenge of the child they once were into actions that bring others confusion and pain. It’s sad beyond words.

Also, read my blogs in the links below:

Then Pain of a Mother

In Most Cases is a Lie

Don’t let Others Exploit your Repressed Anger to do Harm

Psychoanalysis and most therapies hinders people’s liberation and autonomy

Open letter to Martin Miller 

Greta Thunberg's speech to UN strangely resembles a 1992 UN speech by 12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki

I included in my blog The Media Creates False Heroes and Only Pays Attention to False Heroes the interesting article and comments posted on Facebook in the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/monica.chelagat.77/posts/1519143211574263?comment_id=1519203994901518&reply_comment_id=1521298864692031&notif_id=1571734952225582&notif_t=feed_comment_reply

Greta Thunberg's speech to UN strangely resembles a 1992 UNspeech by 12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki

SEVERN CULLIS-SUZUKI CANADIAN This 1992 video of then-12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki addressing the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, titled "The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes,"

Caught red-handed. Tactics of distractions to save the real culprits of the catastrophic crises in this world.

Let the scripters come to the stage and play things openly, instead of playing the parrots.

Read more in the link below:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/greta_thunbergs_speech_to_un_strangely_resembles_a_1992_un_speech_by_12yearold_severn_cullissuzuki.html?fbclid=IwAR3wTK8alSftSOe6lVD8X-PrO0hSt8whxNNnx0uulaIIF3dT3UO9AnXGeOk

Sylvie Imelda Shene: I remember her! It's sad to witness these young people's repressed fears being exploited and becoming puppets. We live in a world of puppets and puppeteers.

M: Sylvie Imelda Shene, these are adolescents being used by the system and convenient for parents who distract them from their responsibilities in managing that difficult phase many go through.

Sylvie: M, It's very sad. These adolescents are the classic case of the Drama of the Gifted Child. I always want to scream when adults say how articulate and well-spoken she is --- YES, she's gifted, but that doesn't mean she understands the dynamics of the reenactments she's creating on the stage of the world and what really is happening to her. My sister, three years older than me, was gifted in the same way, and her adult life is a tragedy. When adults assign the role of hero to a child, they set children up for failure as adults, because no one can save us but ourselves. Most gifted children's adult lives are tragic because they never manage to escape this trap.

https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-drama-of-the-gifted-child/

M: Sylvie Imelda Shene Right. Too convenient for parents when their adolescent is distracted from issues that concern them too. The puppeteers take advantage of willing parents to use their children. Greta is said to be autistic too. She could well be. She seems genuinely mad for a problem so far from her capacities. Without the puppeteers, she has no platform and no clout with royalties to cross the Pacific. Whatever she feels, she is a puppet for corporatists.

Sylvie:  M, totally! I could not agree more with what you wrote. When she yelled at the politicians in the UN - that they have stolen her childhood - she doesn't realize that the politicians on the stage of the world -- they are just symbolizing her parents -- the ones that really stole her childhood -- we cannot ever liberate ourselves from the emotional prison of our childhood with unconscious reenactments with people symbolizing our parents or childhood caregivers. If she posed a threat to expose the manipulative tactics of the system, she would have been ignored, rejected, or attacked just like I was after I published my book. She's being embraced by the system because they can exploit and use her to manipulate the emotionally blind society.

B: Sylvie-- You must be kidding, saying she's not being attacked just like you were. The attacks are all over the media, particularly from the ultra-right-wing conservatives who ridicule and condemn her in the nastiest terms possible.

And what stolen adolescence? She's doing what many young people do or did, including myself, who was also an activist at that age, working in political campaigns of my choosing -- and not being pushed by parents or any adults to do so, not at all.

There are a great many young people who are independent of spirit and seek to forge their own path irrespective of whatever society, the stifling educational system, and scolding adults seek to do to repress their natural instincts. That is a very good thing, not something to condemn.

B: Sylvie -- "Most gifted children their adult lives are a tragedy,.." What a sweeping statement to make, a preposterous generalization. I was a gifted child. My life has not been a tragedy, far from it. I have led a life of independence and accomplishment in the fields I chose, doing my bit of good in the world. And I have seen the gifted children of friends doing truly wonderful things from tender ages, who have become among the most accomplished and happiest people I have ever known, largely because of their fierce independence of spirit. Why people insist on condemning those who choose their own path is beyond me, but I can tell you that I never allowed such people to deter me from my goals, try as they might. And I would encourage any bold young person, such as these two being criticized here, to continue making their own way in the world. Severn Cullis-Suzuki is the daughter of a prominent environmental activist scientist. Of course she would be far more aware of the issues than most others. She has gone on to have a stellar career of her own. What on earth is wrong with that? Certainly there is nothing to condemn in her life.

Sylvie: B, yes, she has one side attacking her, but has the other side embracing her and defending her because they can use and exploit her for their own hidden agendas; that's the tragedy of her life, she's lost between both sides and doesn't understand what's really happening to her. That's the difference with me! I was attacked by people on the left and on the right because either side saw me as a threat to expose their manipulative tactics. I can't be used and exploited by either side. We live in a world of puppets and puppeteers.

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2018/11/noam-chomsky-top-10-media-manipulation.html?m=0

S: B, you might act as if you're happy, but I don't feel much happiness in your comments. What I witness is that the world is being run by the once “gifted” and “well-behaved children,” and I don't see much happiness, peace, or love in it. So I would say the world is being fxcked up by the once “gifted” and well “behaved children”.

I suggest you read the book The Drama of the Gifted Child

https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-drama-of-the-gifted-child/?fbclid=IwAR1tbYZKht1ss2lSWn7fraEN7qao82i29Cb9ubaMCQZu5vGMkqbl-N7Yqlg

M: B, I have a lot of respect for people who have or put their lives on the line for the benefit of others, whether it is child abuse, the environment, or whatever aspect of life they are sensitive to. I abhor people, young or old, who allow themselves to be used by the elite. Before I took a stand on Greta Thunberg, I did my research, and it is clear that she is a puppet (she may or may not be fully aware of it; none of us know her personally). It is clear her parents are accomplices and at the service of the elite (their background and connections are clear indicators, and it is all documentable on the internet). They are elites too. No need for deep knowledge of human psychology; some intuition is enough to connect the dots. You may want to note that my Facebook profile and that of Sylvie Imelda Shene are sufficiently transparent for the public to see who we are and where we stand on issues we choose to share and debate on and why. Back to the 'gifted teenagers'.. The Canadian teenager launched her message on the UN platform but disappeared. If she is happy and accomplished, then it was a personal achievement; otherwise, she would have joined the indigenous activists in the forests who risk their lives every day of their entire existence, and some get killed. They have no prestigious scientists or elites/aristocracy supporting them. There cannot be. They are often shareholders in corporations and industries responsible for the devastation of the environment. Continuing on the teenagers.... I have seen this exploitation of emotions on other human tragedies, and the pattern is the same. Greta Thunberg is indefensible. I have no doubt her future will be 'bright' given the trillion-dollar business already in course by her promoters.

The Media Creates False Heroes and Only Pays Attention to False Heroes

One more illusion... I'm always amazed at how the masses fall for false heroes and the illusions they sell. Humanity has been trapped in a bubble since the beginning of time, unconsciously and compulsively reenacting the old painful dramas. Evil is born anew with every new generation.

The real conversation should be about the dangers of childhood repression in our society. Until this conversation starts happening on a global stage, no matter what Greta or anyone else says, it will not stop humanity from self-destructing. If people resolve childhood repression, it will stop hurting the environment, themselves, and others.

"When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you’re winning!

I have Asperger’s syndrome, and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And - given the right circumstances - being different is a superpower.

I'm not public about my diagnosis to "hide" behind it, but because I know many ignorant people still see it as an "illness", or something negative. And believe me, my diagnosis has limited me before.
Before I started school, I had no energy, no friends, and I didn’t speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home with an eating disorder.
All of that is gone now, since I have found a meaning in a world that sometimes seems meaningless to so many people."

https://www.facebook.com/gretathunbergsweden/posts/905823893118765?comment_id=133617761241214&notif_id=1567570244553656&notif_t=comment_mention

My comments on Greta Thunberg's Facebook post above:

Sylvie:. In this world, there are no winners. In the end, everyone loses. These words most likely didn't come from her. The adults around her wrote them and are exploiting her to feed their own unconscious needs. This is what's wrong with the world: adults exploiting children.

Zé, Exactamente, Sylvie.

Sylvie: Zé, the media creates false heroes and pays attention only to them because these false heroes keep the public distracted from the real roots of society's problems and are easy to manipulate. The established media will never pay attention to real heroes unless they are forced to do it, because real heroes require everyone to look in the mirror, and that's the last thing anyone wants to do, especially those in the media.

Just as I wrote in my book A Dance to Freedom: your guide to liberation from lies and illusions, pages 144 and 145:

“Thanks to Alice Miller, I came to understand that the widespread repression of early traumas is the great malady of our society. If we look closely enough, we can see that this repression is responsible for most of our individual troubles and our societal ills. It appears symptomatically in illnesses, obsessions, addictions, violence, greed, deceit, and loss of meaning. And it can lead to cruelty, violence, and criminal behavior. So many of us carry on as if all this perverse behavior is normal, while most of us who really want to find a way out go down the wrong path. All too often, we follow false prophets who get us to believe that eradicating individual symptoms is the way to solve our problems. Little do we know that in doing so, we always fail to get to the real heart of the matter — the denial and repression of childhood suffering. When I read about these ideas in Alice Miller’s books, I felt as if this amazing woman was talking directly to me! For once, someone was finally able to cut through all the BS pushed on me by people I could never figure out and through techniques that never worked — that could never work. All these people and techniques did was cement and strengthen the walls of my repression, making me feel like I used to feel as a child — that I was stupid and that something was wrong with me. The fact that I couldn’t do the techniques correctly or follow the advice of these people only added to my feelings of guilt and shame. By the time I had fully committed to Alice Miller’s teachings, I was already starting to feel what I learned I had to feel — the pain I had repressed from my childhood.”

The media doesn't tell the whole story. They only report tragic, disconnected stories that they can exploit for pure sensationalism. They provide the public with half-truths and misleading information to manipulate the masses and maintain the status quo. Read more HERE

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-silence-from-media-is-deafening.html?fbclid=IwAR3GDoP0mIjmGEhUpxS0kWIQj-OGNaI0WFjw7gk9OZWPvOhM9_I_ulnHEXU

As long as people's childhood repression goes unresolved, they will be driven by the repressed emotions of the child they once were to destroy the lives of the next generation. This has been going on since the beginning of human history. Evil is born anew with every new generation.
Alice Miller is a true hero, but the media doesn't pay much attention to them. Read her article at the link below.
https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-ignorance-or-how-we-produce-the-evil/

I agree with the comment above, but once someone has been elevated to cult leader status, if you say anything, the followers will attack you viciously, but it's sad because this 16-year-old has no idea what is happening to her -- that she's nothing but a pawn being exploited by the sociopaths in the stage of the world.

Interesting article in the link below:

Greta Thunberg's speech to UN strangely resembles a 1992 UNspeech by 12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki

SEVERN CULLIS-SUZUKI CANADIAN This 1992 video of then-12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki addressing the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, titled "The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes,"

Caught red-handed. Tactics of distractions to save the real culprits of the catastrophic crises in this world.

Let the scripters come to the stage and play openly, instead of playing the parrots.

Read more in the link below:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/greta_thunbergs_speech_to_un_strangely_resembles_a_1992_un_speech_by_12yearold_severn_cullissuzuki.html?fbclid=IwAR3wTK8alSftSOe6lVD8X-PrO0hSt8whxNNnx0uulaIIF3dT3UO9AnXGeOk

Sylvie: I remember her! It's sad to witness these young people's repressed fears being exploited and becoming puppets. We live in a world of puppets and puppeteers.

Monica: Sylvie. These are adolescents being used by the system, and it is convenient for parents who distract them from their responsibilities in managing the difficult phase that many go through.

Sylvie: M, it's very sad. These adolescents are the classic case of the Drama of the Gifted Child. I always want to scream when adults say how articulate and well-spoken she is --- YES, she's gifted, but that doesn't mean she understands the dynamics of the reenactments she's creating on the stage of the world and what is really happening to her. My sister, who is three years older than I, was gifted in the same way, and her adult life is a tragedy. When adults assign the role of hero to a child, they are setting children up for failure as adults, because no one can save us but ourselves. Most gifted children's adult lives are tragic because they never manage to escape this trap.

https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-drama-of-the-gifted-child/

M Sylvie, Right. Too convenient for parents when their adolescent is distracted from issues that concern them, too. The puppeteers take advantage of willing parents to use their children. Greta is said to be autistic, too. She could well be. She seems genuinely mad about a problem so far beyond her capacities. Without the puppeteers, she has no platform and no heat with royalties to cross the Pacific. Whatever she feels, she is a puppet for corporatists.

Sylvie:  M, totally! I could not agree more with what you wrote. When she yelled at the politicians in the UN - that they have stolen her childhood - she doesn't realize that the politicians on the stage of the world -- they are just symbolizing her parents -- the ones that really stole her childhood -- we cannot ever liberate ourselves from the emotional prison of our childhood with unconscious reenactments with people symbolizing our parents or childhood caregivers. If she had posed a threat by exposing the system's manipulative tactics, she would have been ignored, rejected, or attacked, just as I was after I published my book. She's being embraced by the system because they can exploit and use her to manipulate the emotionally blind society.

Bruce: Sylvie -- You must be kidding, saying she's not being attacked just like you were. The attacks are all over the media, particularly from the ultra-right-wing conservatives who ridicule and condemn her in the nastiest terms possible.

And what stolen adolescence? She's doing what many young people do or did, including myself, who was also an activist at that age, working in political campaigns of my choosing -- and not being pushed by parents or any adults to do so, not at all.

There are a great many young people who are independent in spirit and seek to forge their own path, irrespective of whatever society, the stifling educational system, and scolding adults seek to do to repress their natural instincts. That is a very good thing, not something to condemn.

Bruce: Sylvie -- "Most gifted children, their adult lives are a tragedy,..." What a sweeping statement to make, a preposterous generalization. I was a gifted child. My life has not been a tragedy, far from it. I have led a life of independence and accomplishment in the fields I chose, doing my part to make the world a better place. And I have seen the gifted children of friends doing truly wonderful things from tender ages, who have become among the most accomplished and happiest people I have ever known, largely because of their fierce independence of spirit. Why people insist on condemning those who choose their own path is beyond me, but I can tell you that I never allowed such people to deter me from my goals, no matter how hard they tried. And I would encourage any bold young person, such as these two being criticized here, to continue to make their own way in the world. Severn Cullis-Suzuki is the daughter of a prominent environmental activist scientist. Of course, she would be far more aware of the issues than most others. She has gone on to have a stellar career of her own. What on earth is wrong with that? Certainly, there is nothing to condemn in her life.

Sylvie: B, yes, she has one side attacking her, but has the other side embracing her and defending her because they can use and exploit her for their own hidden agendas; that's the tragedy of her life; she's lost between both sides and doesn't understand what's really happening to her. That's the difference with me! I was attacked by people on the left and on the right because either side saw me as a threat to expose their manipulative tactics. I can't be used and exploited by either side. We live in a world of puppets and puppeteers.

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2018/11/noam-chomsky-top-10-media-manipulation.html?m=0

Sylvie: B, you might act as if you are happy, but I don't feel much happiness in your comments. What I witness is that the world is being run by the once “gifted” and “well-behaved children,” and I don't see much happiness, peace, or love in it. So I would say the world is being fxcked up by the once “gifted” and well-behaved children.

I suggest you read the book The Drama of the Gifted Child

https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-drama-of-the-gifted-child/?fbclid=IwAR1tbYZKht1ss2lSWn7fraEN7qao82i29Cb9ubaMCQZu5vGMkqbl-N7Yqlg

M: B, I have a lot of respect for people who have put their lives on the line for the benefit of others, whether it is child abuse, the environment, or whatever aspect of life they are sensitive to. I abhor people, young or old, who allow themselves to be used by the elite. Before I took a stand on Greta Thunberg, I did my research, and it is clear she is a puppet (she may or may not be fully conscious about it; none of us know her personally). It is clear her parents are accomplices and at the service of the elite (their background and connections are clear indicators, and it is all documentable on the internet). They are elites too. No need for deep knowledge of human psychology; some intuition is enough to connect the dots. You may want to note that my Facebook profile and that of Sylvie Imelda Shene are sufficiently transparent for the public to see who we are and where we stand on issues we choose to share and debate on and why. Back to the 'gifted teenagers'.. The Canadian teenager launched her message on the UN platform but disappeared. If she is a happy and accomplished person, then it was a personal achievement; otherwise, she would have joined the indigenous activists in the forests who risk their lives every day of their entire existence, and some get killed. They have no prestigious scientists or elites/aristocracy supporting them. There cannot be. They are often shareholders in corporations and industries responsible for environmental devastation. Continuing on the teenagers... I have seen this exploitation of emotions in other human tragedies, and the pattern is the same. Greta Thunberg is indefensible. I have no doubt her future will be 'bright' given the trillion-dollar business already in course by her promoters.

Comments From A Facebook Post About Greta's Mother

Sylvie: Being talented and having special gifts doesn't mean anything. It can be used to exploit others. "If a person is exceptionally gifted, they can use that gift to reinforce the refusal of the truth and keep it away from themselves and others.

 ...It is a great mistake to imagine that one can resolve traumas in a symbolic fashion. If that were possible, poets, painters, and other artists would be able to resolve their pain through creativity. This is not the case, however. Creativity helps us channel the pain of trauma into symbolic acts; it doesn't help us resolve it. If symbolic revenge for maltreatment received in childhood were effective, then dictators would eventually stop humiliating and torturing their fellow human beings. As long as they choose to deceive themselves about who really deserves their hatred, however, and as long as they go on feeding that hatred in symbolic form instead of experiencing and resolving it within the context of their own childhood, their hunger for revenge will remain insatiable." Alice Miller

Climate change is a symptom and is just a half-truth that is being exploited by some members of the elite for name recognition and to enrich themselves, so they can build their bunkers to protect themselves from climate change and other threats. 

The root causes of the world's problems are childhood repression, but I don't see that conversation starting anywhere in the stage of the world -- who wants to face their own painful childhood repression?! 

So if we really want to change the world  -- let's start the conversation about the dangers of childhood repression in our society. Greta is being exploited first by her parents and now by everyone else...

Sylvie: J P P, you're welcome to write in Portuguese. I have no trouble reading in Portuguese, but I struggle with writing in Portuguese or any other language due to my dyslexia; however, I have less difficulty writing in English. I don't have time to respond to your last comment, but I've included two blogs I've written that may answer some of your questions.

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2019/10/greta-thunbergs-speech-to-un-strangely.html?m=0

https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-media-creates-false-heroes-and-only.html?m=0

Sylvie: I have learned that nothing is ever what it seems. What the public sees and what goes on behind the scenes are two totally different stories. 

Good for her that her bubble has not burst yet, and she is still cashing in on her talents by focusing on symptoms rather than dealing with the root causes of society’s problems. 

We live in a world of puppets and puppeteers, and people are free to give their minds and souls to whoever they choose. 

The world has no lack of good speakers, performers, actors, and actresses. If lectures and sermons by well-articulated speakers worked to change human behavior -- the world would have changed many times over. 

It might help us feel better in the short term, like taking medication, but in the long run, it will make things worse. 

As I wrote in my book A Dance to Freedom: Your Guide to Liberation from Lies and Illusion, pages 75, 76, and 107 

“The extremes to which people go to avoid facing the pain of their own truth — even though such a confrontation would set them free — will never cease to amaze me. “To many people,” Alice Miller says, “it seems easier to take medication, to smoke, drink alcohol, preach, educate or treat others, and prepare wars than expose themselves to their own painful truth.”42 

…too many of us think that simply praising ourselves or visualizing ourselves in perfect circumstances is all we need to do to change. Even those who realize that real change is more difficult still take the easy way out and focus their energy on getting rid of symptoms, instead of searching out the root cause. 

“There are plenty of means to combat symptoms of distress: medications, sermons, numerous ‘treatments,’ ‘miracles,’ threats, cults, pedagogical indoctrination, and even blackmail,” Alice Miller says. “They can all work for a while, but only because they reinforce the repression and reinforce the fear of resolving it.

 … A lot of money and fame comes from this business of repression because it satisfies the longing of so many grown-up children: to be loved as a good child... In the long term, we have to pay a high price for this repression.”58 The typical methods people use to search for answers — which are really ways to run away from the truth — are futile because our real, repressed story continues to attempt to make itself heard no matter what we do. Alice Miller believed that our true plight, the root cause of all our repeated problems, will keep trying to gain our attention in more extreme ways until we finally take notice.”

https://www.facebook.com/josepedro.pinheiro.10/posts/2412820985601599?notif_id=1575511233357368&notif_t=comment_mention

Sylvie: I was not going to make any more comments on this post, but I thought you might like reading the book The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self. In this book, Alice Miller shows how gifted children mastered the art of repression to perfection by developing a false self to accommodate the adults around them and get positive attention from them.

https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-drama-of-the-gifted-child/

Troubled teenagers don’t drop out of the sky and are actually more authentic; they are unconsciously trying to bring attention to the facts and the true state of affairs, and if they are lucky to find an enlightening witness to help them deal with the pain that they were born to parents who could not really love them, then they might grow up -- into mature conscious adults. But unfortunately, our world lacks true enlightened witnesses, and these troubled youth might never get the help they need. And some sadly end up in jail for petty crimes.

https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-essential-role-of-an-enlightened-witness-in-society-2/

The world is run by gifted, once well-behaved children because most people cannot see beyond their gifts and talents—that they are corrupted to the core.  The white-collar crimes committed by gifted and once well-behaved children cost more money to society at large than all other petty crimes combined, but they rarely get punished in our society.