Description: The emotional instability and troubled relationships people experience as adults often stem from abuse and misguided upbringing in childhood. Childhood violence and education that forces blind obedience not only close off the self but leave embedded wounds that perpetuate a cycle of violence across generations. In this book, Alice Miller draws on case studies of people suffering from psychological disorders and a loss of connection to their own emotions to scientifically demonstrate the negative consequences of harmful childhood upbringing. Beyond simply raising the need for a childhood free of violence and corporal punishment, this book guides adults who still carry the wounds of their childhood toward discovering their true selves. Author: Alice Miller Born in Poland in 1923, she moved to Switzerland in 1946. She studied philosophy, psychology, and sociology at the University of Basel, earned her doctorate in 1953, and trained as a psychiatrist in Zurich. After twenty years as a practicing psychiatrist, she grew disillusioned and in 1979 left both psychoanalysis and medical practice behind, devoting herself entirely to writing ever since. Part 1: The Truth About Childhood We Have Turned Away From Chapter 1: The Sickness of the Heart That Medication Cannot Cure Chapter 2: The Limits of Psychotherapy That Avoids the Truth of Childhood Chapter 3: The Childhoods and Corporal Punishment of Dictators Chapter 4: The Emotional Time Bomb Hidden Within the Body Chapter 5: The Silent Church Chapter 6: Understanding a Person Is Impossible Without Understanding Their Childhood Part 2: What Are the Consequences of Childhood Corporal Punishment and 'Poisonous Pedagogy'? Chapter 7: The Numbing of Emotion and the Closing Off of Thought Part 3: Breaking the Cycle of Violence and Corporal Punishment Chapter 8: Overcoming the Wounds of an Abused Childhood Chapter 9: Letting Go of Outdated Frameworks in Education and Psychotherapy Chapter 10: The Healing Power of Truth — Facing the Truth of Childhood