Paths of Life: Seven Scenarios - Hardcover

Miller, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375403795 ISBN 13: 9780375403798

Publisher: Pantheon, 1998

Synopsis

"Her writing is lovely, and speaks to the nature of the human soul."--Newsday

From the world-famous Swiss psychologist whose book The Drama of the Gifted Child has become a classic, here are seven "life stories" exploring the countless ways in which our families and our childhood experiences form us and turn us into the people we are today.

How do early experiences of love or suffering affect our adult relationships? What effect is child abuse likely to have on the victim's later life? How does hatred evolve and take root? How do people develop into cult leaders or political tyrants? Through the seven hypothetical scenarios and two essays that make up Paths of Life, Miller examines these questions and many others. Her narratives demonstrate that with knowledge and understanding of our past we have the power to change our future, freeing ourselves from the curse of repeating our parents' mistakes. In this, her eighth book, Alice Miller has given us yet another wise and profound study of the inestimable importance of childhood.

"Alice Miller wrote the book on narcissistic parents and the havoc they wreak on children. Twenty years later, she's still on the case with a new book and even more radical ideas."--Mirabella


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this title

About the Author

Alice Miller lives in Switzerland.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

iting is lovely, and speaks to the nature of the human soul."--Newsday

From the world-famous Swiss psychologist whose book The Drama of the Gifted Child has become a classic, here are seven "life stories" exploring the countless ways in which our families and our childhood experiences form us and turn us into the people we are today.

How do early experiences of love or suffering affect our adult relationships? What effect is child abuse likely to have on the victim's later life? How does hatred evolve and take root? How do people develop into cult leaders or political tyrants? Through the seven hypothetical scenarios and two essays that make up Paths of Life, Miller examines these questions and many others. Her narratives demonstrate that with knowledge and understanding of our past we have the power to change our future, freeing ourselves from the curse of repeating our parents' mistakes. In this, her eighth book, Alice Miller has giv

Reviews

Psychoanalyst Miller's important message is poorly served by her choice of medium in this collection of composite dialogues intended to show the consequences of childhood abuse and neglect. In her introduction, Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child) explains that people are marked for life by their family experiences in early childhood, and that knowledge of how childhood suffering affects us in our adult lives is crucial. Even violent offenders, says Miller, can learn empathy for their victims once they begin to understand how their own adult behavior is rooted in cruelty they experienced as children. To show how this type of understanding can develop, Miller presents seven "scenarios" in which fictionalized characters talk out their problems. Miller intends these as stories but they read more like lectures than narratives. Though they deal with significant issues?childhoods filled with neglect, physical cruelty, sexual abuse?they lack emotion, drama and concrete detail. The characters' voices are indistinguishable?perhaps because each is really the voice of the detached analyst herself. At times, the book's message seems overstated, as when a mother agonizes that a difficult childbirth could have been avoided if only she had received proper encouragement. But the section dealing with the parent of a girl with Down's syndrome is, ultimately, quite moving. The two essays with which Miller ends this slim volume, "Gurus and Cult Leaders" and "What Is Hatred?," offer more intellectual substance and engaging insights than do the scenarios.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Swiss psychoanalyst Miller has long been one of the most powerful--and nuanced--theoreticians on child abuse; particularly, the notion that parents repeat with their children patterns of behavior they experienced with their parents. Here, she invents characters and lets them tell their stories--in letters or conversations--to elucidate the range of harm the phrase "child abuse" encompasses and the ways adults endeavor, with more or less success, to deal with the consequences of that harm. In tabloid headlines and the "recovered memory" movement, child abuse seems always to be sexual--and some of Miller's stories involve sexual abuse. Most characters, however, describe other forms of early childhood pain: physical abuse; emotional withdrawal; adults seeking support that children are simply not old enough to provide. Adults must recognize their past pain, Miller urges, to avoid transferring that same pain to their children: a point she expands on here in discussing the appeal of gurus and cults, as well as the childhood roots of the hatreds a despot like Hitler displays and manipulates. Mary Carroll

Miller, a world-famous Swiss psychologist and author (e.g., The Drama of the Gifted Child, BasicBks., 1994. reprint), here demonstrates that early childhood experiences contribute to adult behavior. Thus, while human nature is not inherently destructive, exposure to parental ignorance and neglect often results in the perpetuation of destructive behavior from one generation to the next. Miller provides detailed accounts of fictional characters, associating their childhood traumas with adult problems and abnormal family relationships; the scenario concerning a Holocaust survivor is especially poignant. Miller suggests that only by confronting hidden truths can an individual be released from a cycle of interpersonal destructiveness. The final segments, "Gurus and Cult Leaders" and "What Is Hatred?," summarize major concepts. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
-?Yan Toma, Queens Borough P.L., Flushing, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375403795
• ISBN 13: 9780375403798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 188