Paths of Life - Six Case Histories (Paperback, -10th Anniversa)

From the world-famous Swiss psychoanalyst whose book The Drama of the Gifted Child has become a classic, here are seven "life stories" that explore the countless ways in which our families and the emotions and events of our childhood form us and turn us into what we are today.

How do early experiences of love or of suffering affect our adult relationships? How does hatred evolve and take root? What effect is child abuse likely to have on the victim's later life? How do people develop into cult leaders or political tyrants?

Through seven hypothetical scenarios and two essays, Alice Miller explores these questions and many others, focusing on a range of issues from birth, motherhood, and partnership, to cults and the Holocaust. Paths of Life invites us to look back over our own early years, to recognize the forces that have molded us, and to free ourselves from the tendency to repeat our parents' mistakes. In this, her eighth book, Alice Miller has given us yet another thoughtful and profound study of childhood's importance and its resonance throughout our lives.