Soul Murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivation - Softcover

Shengold, Leonard

  • 3.94 out of 5 stars
    90 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780449905494: Soul Murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivation
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0449905497 ISBN 13: 9780449905494
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 1991

Synopsis

To abuse or neglect a child, to deprive the child of his or her own identity and ability to experience joy in life, is to commit soul murder. Soul murder is the perpetration of brutal or subtle acts against children that result in their emotional bondage to the abuser and, finally, in their psychic and spiritual annihilation. In this compelling, disturbing, and superbly readable book, Dr. Leonard Shengold, clinical professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, explores the devastating psychological effects of this trauma inflicted on a shocking number of children.

Drawing on a lifetime of clinical experience and wide-ranging reading in world literature, Dr. Shengold examines the ravages of soul murder in the adult lives of his patients as well as in the lives and works of such seminal writers as George Orwell, Dickens, Chekhov, and Kipling. One hopeful note in this saga of pain is that a terrible childhood can, if survived, be a source of strength, as Dr. Shengold finds in the cases of Dickens and Orwell.

Provocatively original in its approach to literature and psychology, unsettling in its vivid portrayal of the darker side of human nature, far-reaching in its conclusions, Soul Murder will stand alongside such works as Alice Miller's The Drama of the Gifted Child as one of the most important studies of the psyche to appear in decades.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Leonard Shengold is a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University Medical School and the recipient of the 1997 Sigourney Award, honoring achievements for the advancement of psychoanalysis. Dr. Shengold is best known for his work on the long-term affects of childhood trauma and abuse, which he explores in his books Soul Murder and the later Soul Murder Revisited.

From the Back Cover

To abuse or neglect a child, to deprive the child of his or her own identity and ability to experience joy in life, is to commit soul murder. Soul murder is the perpetration of brutal or subtle acts against children that result in their emotional bondage to the abuser and, finally, in their psychic and spiritual annihilation. In this compelling, disturbing, and superbly readable book, Dr. Leonard Shengold, clinical professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, explores the devastating psychological effects of this trauma inflicted on a shocking number of children.
Drawing on a lifetime of clinical experience and wide-ranging reading in world literature, Dr. Shengold examines the ravages of soul murder in the adult lives of his patients as well as in the lives and works of such seminal writers as George Orwell, Dickens, Chekhov, and Kipling. One hopeful note in this saga of pain is that a terrible childhood can, if survived, be a source of strength, as Dr. Shengold finds in the cases of Dickens and Orwell.
Provocatively original in its approach to literature and psychology, unsettling in its vivid portrayal of the darker side of human nature, far-reaching in its conclusions, Soul Murder will stand alongside such works as Alice Miller's The Drama of the Gifted Child as one of the most important studies of the psyche to appear in decades.

From the Inside Flap

neglect a child, to deprive the child of his or her own identity and ability to experience joy in life, is to commit soul murder. Soul murder is the perpetration of brutal or subtle acts against children that result in their emotional bondage to the abuser and, finally, in their psychic and spiritual annihilation. In this compelling, disturbing, and superbly readable book, Dr. Leonard Shengold, clinical professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, explores the devastating psychological effects of this trauma inflicted on a shocking number of children.

Drawing on a lifetime of clinical experience and wide-ranging reading in world literature, Dr. Shengold examines the ravages of soul murder in the adult lives of his patients as well as in the lives and works of such seminal writers as George Orwell, Dickens, Chekhov, and Kipling. One hopeful note in this saga of pain is that a terrible childhood can, if survived, be a source of strength, as Dr. Shengold finds in th

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Publication date
1991
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0449905497
ISBN 13 
9780449905494
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
352
Rating
  • 3.94 out of 5 stars
    90 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780300045222: Soul Murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivation

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0300045220 ISBN 13:  9780300045222
Publisher: Yale University Press, 1989
Hardcover