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When our children can consciously experience their early helplessness and rage, they will no longer need to ward off these feelings, in turn, with the exercise of power over others.

— Alice Miller Prisoners of Childhood / The Drama of the Gifted Child (1981)

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More quotes by Alice Miller

Clinging uncritically to traditional ideas and beliefs often serves to obscure or deny real facts of our life history.

Prisoners of Childhood / The Drama of the Gifted Child (1981)

A genuine relationship is possible only if both partners can admit their feelings, experience them and communicate them to each other without fear.

The Body Never Lies (2005)

The mother can feel herself the center of attention, for her child's eyes follow her everywhere. A child cannot run away from her as her own mother once did.

Prisoners of Childhood / The Drama of the Gifted Child (1981)

Those children who are beaten will in turn give beatings, those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation, and those whose souls are murdered will murder.

Parents are indeed capable of routinely torturing their children without anyone interceding.

Breaking Down the Wall of Silence (1991)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alice Miller (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.