I am half-Jewish myself, and indeed, had uncles who must have been born fairly near where she was, decades earlier. Having read and re-read her books so carefully I was extremely surprised that she had never referred to her own origins. In her very last book she did say some very pointed things about her parents–that they had not even wanted to marry one another and that they had not wanted her. Earlier books had said a lot about her mother, but I don’t remember anything about her father. I would point out that she says some pretty scathing (and in my opinion, very acute) things about the Old Testament and its impact in Thou Shalt Not Be Aware, which in breadth of vision may be her best book of all.

The market for truth, as I have discovered myself, is a specialty market. I’m afraid Alice Miller’s views will never become mainstream–they are too threatening–but her work will always be a source of great comfort and insight for those lucky enough to discover it.

http://www.psychohistory.com/originsofwar/06_childhoodOrigins.html

Doug Bremner, author of
Does Stress Damage the Brain?

Also noted in a comment above is to distinguish between suspicion and conviction of child abuse; a distinction between subjective charges and objective proof.

To explain Hitler and Holocaust as grounded in child abuse, is simplistic, blind and mistaken.

-yohananw, Jerusalem

I met Alice in the 1980s when she visited London’s ICA. I was one of only two Black people present. We talked for a good while. She even mentioned me in one of her books. I loved that lady. She saved my life when I happened across her book at Islington Central library. I was 18 years old. Now she is dead. I will miss her sooo much! But she will always be with us in her work and in her spirit.

God Bless You Alice Miller!

Menelik Charles
London

Alice Miller also presented me with Konrad Stettbacher’s work on which I have profited enormously.I have by myself used his method to work on my trauma and nothing has helped me as much.

I was in panic some years ago when I found Miller didnt like Stettbacher any more.Now I hear Stettbacher has been charged for sexual abuse…can somebody tell me what happened?
Anyway Stettbachers method has helped me and I will continue to use his method….of course. Best wishes to him if he reads this.

If Miller was the victim of abusive parents – and then those parents were murdured by the Nazis, the contradiction of focusing on both these things would have been too much. She could hold onto one of these things, but not both of them at the same time.
time. There are other people who have a similar background to her who did the opposite – they idealised the life they had with their parents before losing them.
.One can also wonder if people would have understood her work differently if they knew more about her background – and it might have been exploited by different interest groups.

I am saddened by her death. Of course her personal life is hers, not ours. She was smart to keep it herself, knowing that one takes an enormous risk revealing too much of oneself to the general public, especially when one who has suffered abuse, which she certainly had.

I am sure that for Dr. Miller, her Jewish identity was not nearly as critical to her as her identity as a psychologist and a victim of abuse. Even so, she made a great and profound contribution to the Jewish cause when she explained Hitler to the world. She needed to do or say no more for the Jewish people, and the world at large, to be forever in her debt.

Daniel Levin

Dr. Masson, I am an absolute fan of your critical books on psychoanalysis and I’m thankful for your work (I especially enjoyed Final Analysis). Let me say however that Miller was a very fragile person. Remember when you approached Anna Freud with the same sort of questions (back in 1973 IIRC)? My educated guess is that while those sort of *intellectual* questions were OK for someone like Anna Freud, who was not a direct victim of the Holocaust (and who didn’t reply to you anyway), in the case of Miller it was the wrong approach. Your former wife could have asked, in private, the same questions from the *emotional* side and perhaps Miller could have opened her past to her.

Anyway, biographical information is not lost forever. Surely Martin, Miller’s son (her daughter is retarded and probably can not help the biographers), knows her mother’s real Jewish name, and whether her grandma did indeed die in the Warsaw ghetto or in a camp. Sooner or later the details of Miller’s life with come up to the surface.

This was a beautiful piece — another reminder that we all have quirks and foibles and secrets no matter how wise and evolved.