Questions to Alice Miller

Questions to Alice Miller
Monday April 07, 2008

Dear Alice Miller,

My name is I., I live in Paris, I’m 41 and I’m so glad to to tell you how grateful I am to you for writing “c’est pour ton bien” that was such a confort for me when I’d first read it. As far as I am concerned I’ve been more affected in my chidhood (and still) by psychical violence than physical one and I felt so close to your feelings when you described your relationship with your mother in “Images d’une enfance”. Congratulations for your artistic work. I have been reading a lot of your work and I quite agree with what you said about the so-called need for forgiveness that grows our feeling of guilt instead of diminishing it by getting the hidden and painful emotions back to the surface of our memory. These are opposite mouvements to make with opposite results!! I’m afraid to say you may be ahead of your time, on this matter and on the theory about the narrow link between the state of emotional health and our body that is the illness, between emotions and the health of the body.

However I would like to tell you that with your knowledge your honesty and humanity, it is a pity that you don’t practise as a psycho-analyst any more because this is precisely clear-minded analysts who are required by people locked in suffering; analysts who had set them free from old terryfying emotions. I wish I could tell you into it.
Well I’ve got a question about this. Do you really think no analyst can be lucid enough to make people progress in the way of getting rid of their sense of guilt if they had for themselves before?
I want to thank you for reading but I’ve got another question about painting and the fact that hitler had painted when he was young. Have you seen his painting and if so what do you think of it? This is an enigma for me that he could have been expressing himself by creativity. For what good ??!!

I don’t know where you live but wherever you may be I wish you happiness hope and success for all you might do and thank you again for what you have brought to our mind and conscience.

I would be very honoured if you could have the time to give me your opinions about these questions.
I look forward to (any) reading (of) you, from my mail box or my book shop.

Yours faithfully, I. M.
Ps: I forget to add, I’m not an analyst, I’m a teacher

AM: Thank you for your letter. Concerning psychoanalysis, I do think that it is not capable of helping. Please read my portrait on the first page of the web site so you will understand my arguments. As to Hitler, I don’t see his paintings as creative. They are boring and not authentic at all.