As luck would have it, this morning I stumbled onto a passage that mentioned both Galileo and Truth vs Illusion. I happened to be re-reading a book titled "Drama of the Gifted Child" by Alice Miller. (This book is still recommended by many therapists for those who were raised by disordered parents.)
As luck would have it, this morning I stumbled onto a passage that mentioned both Galileo and Truth vs Illusion. I happened to be re-reading a book titled "Drama of the Gifted Child" by Alice Miller. (This book is still recommended by many therapists for those who were raised by disordered parents.)
Note: the following excerpt was written in 1984.
Miller's prediction of what could happen (if we stay with illusion) starts in the 2nd paragraph.
(Link to full book at end)
*********************
"In 1613, when Galileo Galilei presented mathematical proof for the
Copernican theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the
opposite, it was labeled "false and absurd" by the Church. Galileo was
forced to recant, and, perhaps as a result, subsequently became blind. Not
until three hundred years later did the Church finally decide to give up its
illusion and remove his writings from the Index.
Now we find ourselves in a situation similar to that of the Church in
Galileo's time, but for us today much more hangs in the balance. Whether
we decide for truth or illusion will have far more serious consequences for
the survival of humanity than was the case in the seventeenth century. For
some years now, there has been evidence that the devastating effects of the
traumatization of children take their toll on society, leading to inconceivable
violence in society and to the repetition of child abuse in the next
generation-a phenomenon that we are still forbidden to recognize. This
knowledge concerns every single one of us and-if disseminated widely
enough-should lead to fundamental changes in society, above all to a halt
in the blind escalation of violence. The following points are intended to
amplify my meaning:
1. All children are born to grow, to develop, to live, to love, and to
articulate their needs and feelings for their self-protection.
2. For their development, children need the respect and protection
of adults who take them seriously, love them, and honestly help them to
become oriented in the world.
3. When these vital needs are frustrated and children are, instead,
abused for the sake of adults' needs by being exploited, beaten, punished,
taken advantage of, manipulated, neglected, or deceived without the inter-
vention of any witness, then their integrity will be lastingly impaired.
4. The normal reactions to such injury should be anger and pain;
since children in this hurtful kind of environment, however, are forbidden
to express their anger and since it would be unbearable to experience their
pain all alone, they are compelled to suppress their feelings, repress all
memory of the trauma, and idealize those guilty of the abuse. Later they
will have no memory of what was done to them.
5. Disassociated from the original cause, their feelings of anger,
helplessness, despair, longing, anxiety, and pain will find expression in
destructive acts against others (criminal behavior, mass murder) or against
As luck would have it, this morning I stumbled onto a passage that mentioned both Galileo and Truth vs Illusion. I happened to be re-reading a book titled "Drama of the Gifted Child" by Alice Miller. (This book is still recommended by many therapists for those who were raised by disordered parents.)
Note: the following excerpt was written in 1984.
Miller's prediction of what could happen (if we stay with illusion) starts in the 2nd paragraph.
(Link to full book at end)
*********************
"In 1613, when Galileo Galilei presented mathematical proof for the
Copernican theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the
opposite, it was labeled "false and absurd" by the Church. Galileo was
forced to recant, and, perhaps as a result, subsequently became blind. Not
until three hundred years later did the Church finally decide to give up its
illusion and remove his writings from the Index.
Now we find ourselves in a situation similar to that of the Church in
Galileo's time, but for us today much more hangs in the balance. Whether
we decide for truth or illusion will have far more serious consequences for
the survival of humanity than was the case in the seventeenth century. For
some years now, there has been evidence that the devastating effects of the
traumatization of children take their toll on society, leading to inconceivable
violence in society and to the repetition of child abuse in the next
generation-a phenomenon that we are still forbidden to recognize. This
knowledge concerns every single one of us and-if disseminated widely
enough-should lead to fundamental changes in society, above all to a halt
in the blind escalation of violence. The following points are intended to
amplify my meaning:
1. All children are born to grow, to develop, to live, to love, and to
articulate their needs and feelings for their self-protection.
2. For their development, children need the respect and protection
of adults who take them seriously, love them, and honestly help them to
become oriented in the world.
3. When these vital needs are frustrated and children are, instead,
abused for the sake of adults' needs by being exploited, beaten, punished,
taken advantage of, manipulated, neglected, or deceived without the inter-
vention of any witness, then their integrity will be lastingly impaired.
4. The normal reactions to such injury should be anger and pain;
since children in this hurtful kind of environment, however, are forbidden
to express their anger and since it would be unbearable to experience their
pain all alone, they are compelled to suppress their feelings, repress all
memory of the trauma, and idealize those guilty of the abuse. Later they
will have no memory of what was done to them.
5. Disassociated from the original cause, their feelings of anger,
helplessness, despair, longing, anxiety, and pain will find expression in
destructive acts against others (criminal behavior, mass murder) or against
themselves (drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, psychic disorders,
suicide).
6. If these people become parents........."
https://www.academia.edu/41496318/The_Drama_of_the_Gifted_Child_The_Search_for_the_True_Self
This choked me up and perfectly encapsulated why I have chosen to forgo parenthood.