Synopses & Reviews
How do our first experiences of pain and love affect our future adult lives and our relationships with others? This is the key question which runs through the seven 'life stories' collected here. Each scenario is a fictional account of a damaged past and the repurcussions it has in later life. The narratives explore the suffering and loneliness felt in the individual's formative years. For some, the pain and inner isolation has dominated their adulthood and prevented them from enjoying fulfilling relationships despite the desire and need for contact and communication. For others, old fears and defensive patterns have been conquered, enabling them to enter into healthy relationships and find contentment.
By creating these 'case histories', Alice Miller's intention is to encourage us towards an awareness of the need to learn from experience, adapt to change and regain trust in order to break free of the negative effects of childhood trauma.
Paths of Life is a positive and important book, inviting us to think back over our own lives and see what has formed us and how we yet may become free.
About the Author
Alice Miller taught and practised psychoanalysis for more than twenty years. She has achieved international recognition for her work on child abuse, on violence towards children and its cost to society.
Author of The Drama of Being a Child, Paths of Life is her first book in seven years.