Childhood sexuality

Childhood sexuality
Sunday June 25, 2006

Dear Alice and team,

Firstly, I would like to thank Alice for her astounding books. I first read ‘The Drama of Being A Child’ a year ago. I found it a very frightening and yet also reassuring book to read. I am 36 and do not have children. The reasons for not having children have become clearer and clearer to me over the past year or so (as well as the reasons of my previous partner for not wanting children), and Alice’s books have helped very much with this process.

My own experiences in childhood include depressed distant angry parents, the ‘silent treatment’ (as opposed to physical or other abuse), and the death of my 18 month old sister when I was 4. Only recently have I begun to unravel the effects of all of this, after 30 years of telling people that I had a happy childhood and that I did not feel my sister’s death had had a significant effect on me as I was only a child!

I have been in therapy for the past year and have recently been looking for positive representations of childhood sexuality. I have read a lot about abuse, incest etc and I only seem to be able to find books on this subject. If you could recommend a book or writer which/who describes what CAN and SHOULD happen during a child’s sexual development, I would be very grateful.

Thank you again,

B. C.

From the team: Maybe you would appreciate reading “Thou Shalt not be Aware” by Alice Miller.