Diane Doering

“Obliviousness swirled in her cycloptic gaze. For all I knew, she didn’t recognize me at all.”
― Nick Medina, Indian Burial Ground

“Their personalities are like stunted bonsai trees, trained to grow in unnatural shapes. Because they had to bend to fit their families, they were unable to develop fluidly into the integrated, natural people they might have become.”
― Lindsay C. Gibson, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents

“he knew. He was a part of something. Something you could dance to.”
― Tommy Orange, There There

“Not realizing the magnitude of their parents’ developmental limitations, many children of emotionally immature people think there must be a genuine, fully developed person hiding inside the parent, a real self they could connect to if only their parent would let them. This is especially true if the parent was occasionally affectionate or attentive.”
― Lindsay C. Gibson, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents