Olivia

“After all, it is quite normal for us to owe a debt of gratitude to our parents and grandparents (or the people standing in for them), even if the treatment we experienced at their hands was sheer unadulterated torture. This is an integral part of morality, as we understand it. But it is a species of morality that consigns our genuine feelings and our own personal truth to an unmarked grave.”
― Alice Miller, The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting

“Children who are respected learn respect. Children who are cared for learn to care for those weaker than themselves. Children who are loved for what they are cannot learn intolerance. In an environment such as this, they will develop their own ideals, which can be nothing other than humane, since they grew out of the experience of love.”
― Alice Miller

“What is addiction, really? It is a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It is a language that tells us about a plight that must be understood.”
― Alice Miller, Breaking Down the Wall of Silence: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth

“The victimization of children is nowhere forbidden; what is forbidden is to write about it.”
― Alice Miller, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware: Society's Betrayal of the Child