Reviews

Bit overstated on how often this effect occurs and that it's solely the motivation for things like modern wars, but other than that this book describes something personal remarkably. The family dynamic she details is the story of my upbringing and how I reacted to it. I'm astonished and felt very exposed while reading it.

sophiaonthefarm's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.0

coravinia's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

birbmcbirb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I've read a lot about childhood trauma / PTSD over the years, and so especially seeing how short this book was, I didn't expect it to have much of an emotional impact on me. Boy, was I wrong. She manages to pack in a lot of info, in a very matter of fact way, that can be a bit overwhelming (although I do listen to audio books slightly sped up so ymmv). This managed to make parts of my childhood seen that I didn't know were still sitting in the shadows. I thought her point that children who grow up abused sometimes become adults who are drawn to, or completely miss the obvious signs of, facism and authoritarianism happening in front of them, was a good one. That's something I think about a lot.

This book was written in '79, which I'm pretty sure is when psychology still viewed promiscuity and kink as a sign of mental illness, and I felt like that view showed up a few times in Miller's writing. It wasn't the worst, and I think she made a few valid points, but heads up for anyone who might have trouble with that.

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