Table of Contents

The Drama of the Gifted Child and How We Became Psychotherapists * The Poor Rich Child * The Lost World of Feelings * In Search of the True Self * The Therapists History * The Golden Brain Depression and Grandiosity: Two Related Forms of Denial * The Vicissitudes of the Childs Needs * The Illusion of Love * Depressive Phases During Therapy * The Inner Prison * A Social Aspect of Depression * The Legend of Narcissus The Vicious Circle of Contempt * Humiliation for the Child, Disrespect for the Weak, and Where It Goes from There * Working with Contempt in Therapy * Depravity as Evil in Hermann Hesses Childhood World * The Mother as Societys Agent During the First Years of Life * The Loneliness of the Contemptuous * Achieving Freedom from Contempt and Respecting Life

About the Author

Alice Miller has achieved worldwide recognition for her work on the causes and effects of childhood traumas. Her books include The Drama of the Gifted Child, Banished Knowledge, Breaking Down the Wall of Silence, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware, and For Your Own Good. She lives in Switzerland.

Reviews

"An unpretentious little book with an amazing impact...Many readers find themselves portrayed with an accuracy and empathy that seem uncanny, as if the author had been a silent, unseen witness to their childhood [and] their innermost and secret selves."--Vogue

"Full of wisdom and perception."--The New Republic

"Rare and compelling in its compassion and its unassuming eloquence...her examples are so vivid and so ordinary they touch the hurt child in us all."--The New York Magazine

"Narcissism has rarely been written about with the clarity and quiet insights of this modest, thought-provoking work."--Washington Post Book World