from 1983 "Am Anfang war Erziehung", the childhood of Adolf Hitler and child murderer Jochen Bartsch ( )

Old but never dated, this is among the 10 most important books ever written about psychology and human behaviour. The subject is intense but the book itself is easy to read, no technical jargon here. Should be mandatory in every school. ( )

Old but never dated, this is among the 10 most important books ever written about psychology and human behaviour. The subject is intense but the book itself is easy to read, no technical jargon here. Should be mandatory in every school. Certainly not an uplifting book but one we really need. ( )

This book explores the backgrounds of extreme cases of self-destructive and violent individuals to further her theories on long-term consequences of abusive child-rearing. Her conclusions about what creates a drug addict, a murderer, even a Hitler, stray far from psychoanalytic dogma about human nature. Miller paints a jolting picture of the violent world each generation helps shape when traditional upbringing, with its hidden cruelty, is perpetuated. She also offers a way out by striving to resensitize the child in the adult, to unlock an emotional life frozen in repression. Selected Reading Questionnaire.

This book should be required reading for everyone. The way we raise and treat children is a reflection of the violence and chaos in the world we live in. Our fate as a decent, loving, and dynamic species lies in our ability to take the claims in this book seriously. Children's pain is real, and needs to be witnessed, respected, and honored. When we injure children, we create damaged adults who act through their unresolved and repressed childhood pain. We don't take children's pain seriously at the risk of annihilating ourselves as a species. ( )