Alice Miller: A Critique of Her Limits & Strengths (1 of 2)

A two-part exploration of Alice Miller, my favorite psychology writer and the best well-known writer on the causes and consequences of child abuse and childhood trauma. Here I explore her strengths, which are many, and her limits, which, unfortunately are significant as well. For those interested, I go into much more detail about this on my website in my essay on Alice Miller:

www.iraresoul.com/alicemiller.html

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• Alice
• Miller
• healing
• childhood
• trauma
• child
• sexual
• abuse
• narcissism
• narcissistic
• parents
• iraresoul.com
• Daniel
• Mackler
• critiques
• criticism
• analysis
• Hitler
• psychology
• Stettbacher

[MissesPapillon]

Hello, just want to let you all know that Alice Miller died on April the 14th 2010.

May she rest in peace- we have lost a true fighter for the children of our world!

[dmackler58]

@MissesPapillon --- thank you for sharing this--- i did not know that alice miller died. even though i have been critical of some things about her, overall i think she was a wonderful and powerful person and an inspiration to me. she was a true leader. i feel quite troubled that she has died.

[CounterActPsych]

I read all of these too and found them extremely helpful and on target.

[musicbill123]

If this person is a therapist then why make Miller a crutch for as he states she is on to something very important correct? Then why restate what I have read also? What she has already written in her books? I don't understand? Your ego is compromised? Ex. A woman in reality Geologist came up with a solution to the problem of why extra unexplained carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere. She was fought over and over again by males in the same field.

However she was after many years correct - egos

[musicbill123]

Evidently some of us still want to lean on our angry pasts dismissing science all together? Because we want to believe that evil or of the devil etc? If one resorts

to (as Alice Miller states ) this type of thinking - That is exactly what Hitler relied on also and that the Nazi's violence actually stemmed only from religion as well and appearance. You can dance voodoo around someone's head and lie about it behind the scenes but that doesn't mean the truth- Oh by the way Miller was very welcoming

[musicbill123]

@musicbill123 In this critique you are simply restating what Alice Miller mentions in many books. Why do the

redundant? Because you have unresolved issues yourself there are no exceptions to the rule in which are now

provable via science actually. Making it look like you know a subject can be actually looked at if one has seen

the books that Alice Miller actually wrote. That again no one especially people with educations are looking for praise from as this man states from a hopeless Mother

[musicbill123]

Alice Miller said exactly what this young gentleman is re- saying. That in order to

confront childhood sometimes you have to create images of them such as and I quote 'sailing away waving good-byes to you '

If you really have something to say regarding her being negative or that she did not receive feedback from other therapists your incorrect she very much did.

She was also invited to the new MRI results concerning how the brain of a child

results in no empathy for others if abused/ isolated

[belugavision]

About b. ”rigid”-She got no excuse from her own parents, no feedback among other psychologists. Quite an uphill for a brain that once was programmed that everything is your fault. Also, i wonder if she was aware how people that speak emotive tend to bring out "the worst”-all other peoples stored and experienced bad behaviour. They want nothing but to put that out on a kind and nonauthoric person in life of human hierarchy. People agree with what considered ”strong", not the one that is right.

[belugavision]

advanced experiences outside itself, I mean. That is why the trauma and emot. are stored, but without the left-side ”explanation” and logic to it besides weird connections in the brain She wrote that in that weird therapy it was some kind of hypnosis, but it was like nightmare without the awake and grown up logic there to re-explain those past and misunderstood experiences. I truly think she was worried about misleading others to experience horror for no use, since that was what she wrote

[belugavision]

I think the part of stuttb. is pure bullshit since I have read about what she wrote about it herself. She just had hasty conclusions and wrote them early. She was experiencing like an scientist and she wouldnt ”punish” someone for a ”broken heart” since it was all about cause and effect and it was important for her to enlight and help people. first thrilled and then no. If makes sence since why trauma is trauma for a small child is because the brain yet cant cope with advanced ”outside itself"

[belugavision]

Also, she mixed up apathic children with autistic and wrote that autism is nothing but a conseq. of abuse which is terrible wrong. she was born 1923 and others took care of the part with ”DNA" and measuring brains and we all know that worked out well.She was wrong about that small kids does not beat eachother. they do it for surviving and since they still dont have a moral view since they are a big ego at age 1. The part of analysing mechanism of built up rage and Hitler etc is stunning. I agree

[belugavision]

A lived in a time where they didnt talk about the things she talked about so the rigid side is to PROVE she was right although she was surrounded by ”wise men” who knew better. Now science proves she was perfectly right. The part ot Stuttb. is that she LATER came to the conclusion that regression in itself makes no sense excp. fear, since the ”grown up logic” is not awake and reflective during those primal therapy experiments so regressing was nothing but horror. she didnt want others to do it

[SovereignBeing]

We teach what we most need to learn, so perhaps this is why she was so forthright in her work. Sounds like she is a pioneer in her field, and cant wait to read some of her works. If she knew anything she should know that conventional therapy does not work, that i has to be spiritually based, otherwise we are just perpetuating old, outdated tenants of an agenda, which have never solved any issues, but increased them.