The Truth Will Set You Free

I read all her books and this one is as brave and clear and is a help to me in my own personal growth. A great book for those who have not yet looked closely at their own childhoods and also for those who have. I recommend it to both.

Alice Miller, the best explanations for the direst of situations locked inside us as we grow up

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It covers what Miller calls "Poisonous Pedagogy" that stems from parents and religious teaching. If you truly want to free yourself from a toxic and traumatic past buy this book - your mind will undoubtedly be opened to the horrors of accepted childcare and religious teaching practices.

proffessional vender!! book was NEW just as he advertised. received the book quickly. I am enjoying reading this book right now on a cold winter's night.

The terrorist, the mass murderer, the anorexic . . . At the very beginning of human history, well before the Ten Commandments, we were presented with a supreme and destructive commandment. "Thou shalt not be mindful of the things done to you or the things you have done to others." For thousands of years, this "commandment of ignorance" has undermined our education and our childrearing, and has prevented us from telling good from evil. And although evil is learned and is not innate, it is reproduced with each new generation. When we deny our childhood wounds, we will inflict them on the next generation--unless and until we act in favor of knowledge. "Only by knowing the truth can we be set free." Alice Miller continues to impress and inspire. The Truth Will Set You Free (published in Europe as Eve's Awakening) challenges us to reflect about our secrets and our shortcomings. Miller exposes one of society's dirtiest secrets--that we are "emotionally blind" to the abuses suffered by prisoners of childhood. Innocent children--no matter their country, class, or generation--are neglected, humiliated, abused. Small children cannot survive such truths and can only repress them. But, because "the body never forgets," one's cauldron of pain seethes in the unconscious. Fortunately for these young victims, psychological defenses offer partial protection against pain and anxiety. But repressing childhood traumas leaves mental barriers, an inner void, and the emotional blindness that prods one to harm themselves and others. These young victims become the suicides and psychopaths, the criminals and killers, the prostitutes and self-mutilators . . . as well as the everyday parents who abuse us "for our own good." All are trapped in unconscious compulsions to reenact their destructive childhood dramas on themselves and others. Throughout this work, Miller questions the Bible. She notes that the Bible contains much that is fine and true, but much "poisonous pedagogy" as well. We must have the courage to eat the apple from the tree of knowledge, to question that which is illogical. Is obedience a virtue? Is curiosity a sin? Is ignorance of good and evil an ideal state? Miller argues that it is our duty to overcome childhood wounds and to acquire knowledge--by overcoming our defenses and our "emotional blindness"--so that we may come to know good from evil, and thereby become more fully responsible for our actions. We are responsible for future generations, too, so we must love and protect all children, no matter the hostility, condemnation, or ostracism that we may encounter. But how can we overcome our "emotional blindness"? Not through medication, not through meditation, not through relaxation training. Only by embarking on an indispensable journey of self-discovery, in which we confront our childhood traumas and uncover our early emotions. Telling the stories of our childhood allows us to break down walls and reclaim banished kno