ALICE MILLER Books for Parents

As a psychologist specialized in parenting, Alice Miller is achieving the difficult task of reaching out and communicating her wisdom. After her book The Drama of the Gifted Child got published, Miller became famous. The book made her an internationally bestselling author.

 

The Drama of the Gifted Child from the year 1979 focuses on Alice Miller’s views on the outcomes of child abuse, a problem that we severely face today. Not using psychoanalysis, Miller used her own strategies to discuss how a little kid can be influenced by abusive behavior.

Another notable work by the psychologist is For Your Own Good in which the writer continues to deal with the issue of abuse towards children. Giving examples from a heroin addict to a serial killer, Miller argues that German way of raising children by the motto of “for your own good” creates these problematic individuals.

Parents tend to force their kids into doing things that the children do now wish to do, like forcing a little boy into studying mathematics even though the kid does not like the subject. Parents act in this way and force their kid into studying even more than necessary, because they believe it is essential for their future. Briefly, this abusive act is for the children’s own good.

Last book of the writer is Breaking Down the Wall of Silence and the issue is still child abuse. Miller continues to depict how harmful the problem of child abuse can be not for the individual itself but for the whole society. This time all social institutions and their way of ignoring an abusive society are brought into light. Using the name as a metaphor of Berlin Wall, Miller shows yet another “wall” that create generations of hatred and sorrow.

Vocabulary

Notable: Important

Sorrow: A feeling of distress

Abusive: An act of violence and cruelty

Severely: In an intense degree

Individual: Person

Questions

According to the passage, what can be said about Alice Miller?

1. She is a famous teacher
2. She is a psychologist specialized in mad people
3. She writes books of romance
4. She is a psychologist specialized in child abuse

What can be said about the first book of the famous psychologist?

1. It is a dramatic novel about a heroine
2. It focuses on abusive behavior towards children
3. It is a translation from a Polish book
4. It is a work of child literature

Which of the following statements is a brief conclusion of the passage?

1. The passage sums up the personal life of Alice Miller
2. The passage manages to explain child abuse in scientific detail
3. The passage severely criticizes modern psychologists
4. The passage talks about Alice Miller and her books about child abuse

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(4) She is a psychologist specialized in child abuse

(2) It focuses on abusive behavior towards children

(4) The passage talks about Alice Miller and her books about child abuse
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