About this title: People can regain their long-lost authentic sense of truly being alive by understanding how that they, as children, adapted to their parents' narcissistic needs and locked their true selves away in "solitary confinement".
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780465016914ISBN:046501691X
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. Nice soft cover, lightly read, light shelf wear to cover, light yellowing to pages, bend on bottom corner of back cover, light rippling to bottom edge of pages, stk #2214x8. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 118 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780465016914ISBN:046501691X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. pb text clean but tanning from age 1983 solid smoke free. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 118 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780465016914ISBN:046501691X
Description: Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Moderate corner, edge wear. Pages good, slight discoloration at top. People can regain their long-lost authentic sense of truly being alive by understanding how that they, as children, adapted to their parents' narcissistic needs and locked their true selves away in "solitary confinement. " Good reading copy. 118 pages. Name inside cover. read more
"I've been hearing about this book for a while (mostly from Bill!) and wanted to give it a try. Some parts I liked a lot; I thought her points about how emotionally insecure and unstable parents raise children who are unable to fully access their emotions because their emotions have been blocked in order to accommodate their parents' needs were pretty insightful. I also thought she got it right when she wrote about how people's needs for achievement often stem from the feeling that their parents' love was contingent on those achievements. These parts of the book definitely gave me food for thought regarding how to be a truly loving and mature parent. However, I had issues with other parts of the book, most especially points about how difficulty with breast-feeding connects to a woman's own hatred of her mother and that the need for political activism dissipates once one has come to terms with one's anger against one's parents. Also, I wonder if *any* parents could be as good and selfless as the ideal, self-actualized parents of Miller's imagining. And perhaps raising children who have *some* degree of sensitivity and awareness of other people's feelings from a young age is not a totally bad thing? In the afterword of the book, Miller mitigates some of her dogmatism by acknowledging that there may be other ways of becoming an emotionally healthy person other than totally reliving all the pain and humiliation of one's childhood through therapy; I found her comments that happiness can be just as therapeutic as pain and suffering to be heartening."
"perfect for those looking to blame mommy & daddy for all those nastly little bits of self-spewage. just kidding!! It moved me to tears at times (though not too hard a thing to do!). miller's study points to the growing problem of living through our children due to unresolved issues with our own upbringing & how therapists may in fact be detrimental to our psycological health if they themselves be still enraptured by their "mothers" (read "caregivers"). this book is a fantastic eye-opener & anyone planning on babies needs to read it!! watch out for freud, though...she references the oedipus complex a bit too much for my taste."
"This was a good start, but I need more guidance! I feel like the book could have been shorter, she spends way too much time making her case: depression and other psychological problems stem from having been mistreated as children, and as a result we're repressing our true feelings and it's manifesting as depression or grandiosity, etc. It also means that we're likely to mistreat our children in the same way, even if we make a conscious effort not to. She says that we need to discover the hidden truth about our childhood and mourn for the love we didn't get, in order to end the cycle of mistreatment, but doesn't really tell us HOW, except that it should be done in therapy. Well damn you, Alice Miller, not all of us have time or money for therapy right now but we'd still really like to get to work on this stuff! I'm going to read some of her other work to see if there's more help there.. but I have a feeling I'm barking up the wrong tree."
"Unfortunately, I think that this book could be read by many, many people who see their lives played out in Alice Miller's words and psychological analysis. It offers up a better understanding of the actions of those that raise us and how that effects the ways we think about ourselves. Not your typical "I'm messed up because of my mother" book. This book might just leave you feeling more understanding, acknowledged and ready to move past that inner conflict between the life you want and the snags you keep running into."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
