Research Catalog

The drama of the gifted child

Title: The drama of the gifted child / Alice Miller ; translated from the German by Ruth Ward.
Author: Miller, Alice
Publication: New York : Basic Books, ©1981.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Book/text	Supervised use	ReCAP 24-5211	Offsite

Details

Additional Authors

Series Statement

Basic Books ; CN5097

Uniform Title

Basic books ; CN5097.
Drama des begabten Kindes. English

Alternative Title

Drama des begabten Kindes.

Subject

Note

"How narcissistic parents form and deform the emotional lives of their talented children"--Cover.
"Originally published as Prisoners of childhood"--Title page verso.
Translation of: Das Drama des begabten Kindes.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 115-116) and index.

Audience (note)

1230L

Source (note)

of the Family of Robert Motherwell;

Local note

Copy in ReCAP 24-5211 inscribed.

Contents

1. The Drama of the Gifted Child and the Psychoanalyst's Narcissistic Disturbance -- 2. Depression and Grandiosity as Related Forms of Narcissistic Disturbance -- 3. The Vicious Circle of Contempt.

Call Number

JFD 86-8411

ISBN

9780465063475
0465063470
046501691X
9780465016914
9780465016198
0465016197

LCCN

80050535

OCLC

29296022

Author

Miller, Alice.

Title

The drama of the gifted child / Alice Miller ; translated from the German by Ruth Ward.

Publisher

Description

x, 118 pages.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Basic Books ; CN5097

Basic books ; CN5097. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84703657

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 115-116) and index.

Summary

The "drama" of the gifted - i.e., sensitive, alert - child consists of his recognition at a very early age of his parents' needs and of his adaptation to these needs. In the process, he learns to repress rather than to acknowledge his own intense feelings because they are unacceptable to his parents. Although it will not always be possible to avoid these "ugly" feelings (anger, indignation, despair, jealousy, fear) in the future, they will split off, and the most vital part of the "true self" (a key phrase in Alice Miller's works) will not be integrated into the personality. This leads to emotional insecurity and loss of self, which are revealed in depression or concealed behind the facade of grandiosity. Alice Miller defines the ideal state of genuine vitality, of free access to the true self and to authentic individual feelings that have their roots in childhood, as "healthy narcissism". Narcissistic disturbances, on the other hand, represent for her solitary confinement of the true self within the prison of the false self. This is regarded less as an illness than as a tragedy. In her psychanalytical work, Dr. Miller found that her patients' ability to experience authentic feelings, especially feelings of sadness, had been for the most part destroyed; it was her task to help her patients try to regain that long-lost capacity for genuine feelings that is the source of natural vitality.

Audience

1230L Lexile

Local Note

Copy in ReCAP 24-5211 inscribed.

Source

Gift; of the Family of Robert Motherwell; 2024. NN

Added Author

Family of Robert Motherwell, donor NN

Robert Motherwell Book Collection (New York Public Library. Art Division)

Research Call Number

ReCAP 24-5211

JFD 86-8411

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