Alice Miller
“I see it as my task to sensitize the general public to the sufferings of early childhood,” Alice Miller (1983) wrote in her book, For Your Own Good, ( p. xv). This one sentence accurately describes Miller’s life’s work. Alice Miller had unparalleled compassion for children and absolutely no tolerance for their maltreatment. She wrote many books and articles on the subject of child rearing and its impact on society. Miller is also known for her outspoken views on religion and its impact on children’s psyches. She used the term “Poisonous pedagogy” in many of her writings to refer to the toxic forms of child rearing that have been employed as far back as can be remembered.
Alice Miller lived in Europe during Adolf Hitler’s reign, and the atrocities that he is infamous for had a profound impact on her life and work. Many of her writings include information on Hitler’s childhood as well as speculation on how he would have been different if he had been raised in a loving environment. In fact, Miller (1983) did extensive research on Hitler’s childhood and best summed it up with the phrase: “When Hitler was grown and came to power, he was finally able to avenge himself a thousand fold” (p.196).
Miller’s work however, was not confined solely to Hitler. In an article for The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, she was quoted as speculating that extreme damage can be done to abused children if they try to obey the fourth commandment, to “Honor thy father and thy mother”. She believed this was not possible without repressing and detaching from their true emotions regarding their parents and the abuse they had suffered at their hands (Elkins, 2013, p. 149). This concept along with her break from conventional F...
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References
Demause, L. (2011). Alice Miller Dies at 87. Journal of Psychohistory, 289. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete.
Elkins, K. (2013). Biblical Studies and Childhood Studies: A Fertile, Inerdisciplinary
Space for Feminists. Journal Of Feminist Studies In Religion, 29(2), 146-153. doi:10.2979/jfemistudreli.29.2.146. Merkin, D. (2002). If Only Hitler’s Father Had Been Nicer: According to Alice Miller, the world’s troubles can be traced back to tormented childhoods. New York Times
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Miller, A. (1983). For Your Own Good. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Miller, A. (2013). Selective Amnesia. The American Scholar, 82(3), 6-9. Retrieved from ProQuest Research Library.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.
his goal is to bring back proof of the wolves decimating effect on the northern
Lisa Genova, the author of Still Alice, a heartbreaking book about a 50-year-old woman's sudden diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia Advocacy, Support Network International and Dementia USA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Genova's work with Alzheimer's patients has given her an understanding of the disorder and its affect not only on the patient, but on their friends and family as well (Simon and Schuster, n.d.).
Few individuals have been able to change the ideals of others; Adolph Hitler was one such individual. His worldly impact began in the 1920’s and continues today. He is associated with both chaos and the complete destruction of many innocent lives. Hitler’s ideology developed when an economic collapse occurred in Germany. He offered ideas to the desperate people of Germany that they could not refuse. These ideas are responsible for the beginning of Western Racism, the singling out of a specific race as inferior. He also has been called the eliminator of the entire Jewish population. One must ask why the German people eagerly welcomed his radical ideas. World-renowned Hitler biographer Alan Bullock expresses the problem with understanding the madness of Hitler in his statement "The more I learn about Hitler the harder I find it to explain." To find an explanation for Hitler’s madness the first question to be answered is; "When did it begin?"
For as long as man has walked the earth, so has evil. There may be conflicting moral beliefs in this world, but one thing is universally considered wrong: serial killers. Although some people may try to use insanity as an explanation for these wicked people, they cannot explain away the heartlessness that resides in them. As shown in The Stranger Beside Me, infamous serial killer Ted Bundy is no exception to this. Even though books about true crimes may be considered insensitive to those involved, the commonly positively reviewed book The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule handles the somber issue of Ted Bundy’s emotionally destructive early life and the brutal crimes he committed that made people more fearful and aware of the evil that can exist in seemingly normal people well.
In 1903 Alois died, and Adolf took his mothers last name of Hitler. Adolf's mother Klara, died in 1907 from a long series of painful and expensive surgeries for terminal breast cancer. Hitler was permitted to visit Vienna where he was turned down for admission into a prestigous art school. He spent six years in Vienna, surviving on his father's orphanage pension. By 1909 Adolf was penniless and lived life as a transient, sleeping in the backs of bars, flophouses, and homeless shelters. It was during this perios that HItler gained his prejudices, his interest in politics, an...
Adolf Hitler, born on Easter Sunday, baptized as catholic, didn’t live up to his childhood. Adolf Hitler’s dream before becoming a dictator, was to become an artist. He fought and fought with his father to let him pursue his dream, but his father stayed demanding to the Habsburg civil service. After his father’s death, Adolf Hitler took the entrance exam to the Vienna Academy of the Arts and failed to gain acceptance. Adolf Hitler’s childhood motivated him to create the youth movement. To Hitler, the youth movement was to involve every German child with the community and ready to take on challenges when they grow up. Hitler wanted the German children to turn out perfect,
Hitler’s rise to power was influenced by several events in his life, starting as early as when he was a boy, his entry into the military and his leadership of the Nazi Party. In this paper you will learn about all the aspects that made Hitler such a powerful man and the events that made him reach total power or dictatorship.
]Haffner, is a book which is hard to define. Only 165 pages long, Haffner has crammed more relevant information into this book than many twice its length. He observes Hitler's roller coaster ride through life and the country that he eventually took along. From Hitler's private life to the complete betrayal of Germany, Haffner evaluates the conditions and impetus for Hitler's accomplishments and failures. These include not only Hitler's psyche, but also the political arena of post World War I Europe.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Hitler Youth [growing up in Hitler's Shadow]. New York: Random House/Listening Library, 2006. Print.
In the book by Carl Rogers, A Way of Being, Rogers describes his life in the way he sees it as an older gentleman in his seventies. In the book Rogers discusses the changes he sees that he has made throughout the duration of his life. The book written by Rogers, as he describes it is not a set down written book in the likes of an autobiography, but is rather a series of papers which he has written and has linked together. Rogers breaks his book into four parts.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
The Play "Sure Thing" from David Ives examines the endless variations of boy meets girl and the ensuing pick up lines. The central theme throughout the play displays a few varieties of a possible conversation that end with a ringing bell that symbolizes a fresh start and a second chance to make a good impression.
Who is the birthday party a rite of passage for, the birthday boy or his mother?
Palmer, S. (2006). Toxic Childhood: how the modern world is damaging our children and what we can do about it . London: Orion Books Ltd.