I’m re-reading the works of the late, great psychotherapist, Alice Miller, who died on April 14, 2010, at the age of 87. Currently I’m inching my way through her last book, “Free From Lies: Discovering Your True Need”, and I found a passage that so accurately predicts what the USA is currently experiencing politically and socially.

In a nutshell, Dr. Miller believed that the almost universal practice of meting out corporal and psychological punishment to our children sets them up, unconsciously, to become vindictive, bigoted and cruel adults. Those who are able to acknowledge and deal with their childhood abuse are often able to avoid being lured into a life of unwittingly passing on that mistreatment, but those who remain unaware of their cruel upbringing are the group of humans from which dictators and other psychopaths are liable to emerge. See if this quote for “Free From Lies” rings any bells with you:

“People brought up cruelly (and unfortunately that is still the majority) willingly submit to dictators and cheer them on when they supply them with an enemy they can execrate. In democratic states it is by no means unusual for them to elect an egocentric, slovenly exploiter if his attitude reminds them of their fathers. All he needs to do is to assure them that with God’s aid his absurd enterprises and plans will turn out well . . .”

I have found few people who share my admiration for Alice Miller’s contribution to our understanding of the roots of human evil/cruelty, and that frightens me, because without awareness of these origins, our species is destined to continue its path toward self-destruction.