Verified Quotes
Every quote on this page is verified against the named source work.
Alice Miller, Polish born Swiss psychoanalyst who broke with her profession to speak plainly about childhood harm, gets quoted everywhere and sourced almost nowhere. The 6 quotes below are different: each one is checked word for word against the cited work, starting with The Drama of the Gifted Child, not copied from aggregator sites that pass misattributions along. The source is named under every line, so you can trace each quote back to the page it came from.
Read Alice Miller's full profile and how they reason →4 verified quotes
On finally addressing childhood pain instead of pushing it down:
It is not the experience of childhood but the repression of that experience that is the root of much emotional distress.Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child
On what a child needed that you did not get:
A child can experience her feelings only when there is somebody there who accepts her fully, understands her, and supports her.Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child
On trusting your own judgment after years of criticism:
Free of the destructive judgments of others, and of the fear of scorn, we can learn to trust our own judgment.Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child
On naming the depression you have been avoiding:
Depression consists of a denial of one's own emotional reactions.Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child
1 verified quote
On why the old wound keeps resurfacing in the body:
The truth about our childhood is stored up in our body, and although we can repress it, we can never alter it.Alice Miller, The Body Never Lies
1 verified quote
On telling your own values apart from your parents' rules:
Our conscience is not automatically the voice of God. It can just as well be the internalized voice of our parents.Alice Miller, For Your Own Good