The Untouched Key: Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness by Alice Miller

The Untouched Key: Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness Reviews

• 
  Michael Perkins

  Most of this book is about Nietzsche. The author is correct that most biographers of Nietzsche prefer to skim over his childhood. His childhood was brutal. His father died young. And his mother and sister were judgmental, repressive, and controlling toward Nietzsche. They came to represent the Christianity he would attack as utterly loathsome in his adult writings.
  
  It doesn't take a genius to understand that the adults who are in control of a child from infancy have a profound effect on that child, for good or evil. I have raised two children and now help care for a young granddaughter. A child who is loved and given positive attention will grow up happy. A child who is abused emotionally and/or physically will be full of distresses that he or she will carry with them the rest of their lives.
  
  By taking a close look at the childhood of Nietzsche, the author lays bare the horrible level of abuse that would haunt him until he went insane. (The explanation that it was from syphilis was a cover story).
  
  I know from a new biography of Nietzsche that he did not write "The Will to Power" that was ascribed to him. His nasty, anti-Semitic sister and her likeminded husband took passages from Nietzsche's journals and letters and distorted them, while overlaying their own philosophy that fascists would find so attractive. It's unfortunate that Nietzsche is remembered for this.
  
  
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 
  Annette

  This book probably would have made a marginally interesting dissertation for a dual Ph.D. major in art and psychology. But it lacks footnotes and citations, which irks me to no end. The basis on which the book rests can be aptly summed up with Miller's own quote: "I wanted to share what I had found with biographers and pscyhoanalysts, but I soon learned that I was dealing with forbidden knowledge, by no means easy to share with 'the experts.' And so I decided not to publish my study but to keep the knowledge I had gained to myself..."
  
  Translation: my "study" would have been eviscerated had I published it in medical journals.
  
  The book is an excellent idea though...that abusive and traumatic childhoods can, and often do, create a creative adolescent and/or adult. Though Miller oddly does not discuss the point, abused and neglected children must oftentimes resort to their own imaginations in order to explain and cope with their own horrific circumstances.
• 
  Evelyn

  The subtitle of this book is “Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness.” The premise of this book is that a child can endure any kind of trauma if he or she has a witness, that is, a person who supports the child emotionally or sympathizes with the plight of the child even if that person cannot change events.
  
  When children are traumatized by cruel child rearing practices, external events such as war, or outright abuse and they have no sympathizing witness, it creates evil and Alice Miller has written extensively on Adolf Hitler as her poster child of the effects of child abuse. In this book she discusses the trauma of several artists by examining their work and exploring their childhoods. She discusses repressed childhood experiences expressed in the art of Pablo Picasso, Kathe Kollwitz, Buster Keyton, Chiam Soutine and the work of Frederich Nietzche. She uncodes the story of childhood trauma no longer remembered in adulthood of these artists.
  
  “All well-brought up children are afraid that their angry words might kill those they love”. Alice Miller states in her discussion of Frederich Nietzche who lived with the contradiction between the morality preached to him and the actual behavior of the people who raised and taught him, clinging to idealization of these abusive people. His father, though affectionate, forbade certain feelings and severely punished his son for expressing them. His father died when he was four and left him in a household of females all trying to outdo each other in teaching him self-control and other Christian virtues. He grew up to hate all forms of weakness. Alice Miller gives text examples Nietzsche’s attempts to find his way out of the mists of confusion moral principles and attain clarity.
  
• 
  Stargazer

  All her books worth reading, an inspirational woman
• 
  Edita Kazakevičienė

  „Visuomenės abejingumas žalojamiems vaikams kelia didelį pavojų žmonijai.”
  
  Kai perskaičiau A. Miller knygą „Kūno maištas”, nusprendžiau, kad skaitysiu ir kitas šios autorės knygas. Jos nedidelės apimties, tačiau sukelia labai daug minčių, emocijų ir apmąstymų. „Nereikalingas raktas” yra ketvirtoji, į lietuvių kalba išversta jos knyga.
  
  Šioje knygoje, ji tyrinėja žymių menininkų (filosofų, dailininkų) darbus per skausmingų vaikystės patirčių prizmę. Labai dažnai ankstyvosios vaikystės patirtys prasiveržia teptuko potėpiais, paveikslų linijomis ir spalvomis, eilėmis ir sakiniais. A. Miller išdrįso pažvelgti giliau į jų kūrybą, ir tai ką ji atrado, trikdo, glumina, netgi baugina.
  
  Kas tas nereikalingas raktas? Atsakymą nesunku surasti. Labai nustebino faktas, jog meno tyrinėtojai labai mažai kreipia dėmesį į menininkų vaikystę. Tikrai buvo įdomu daugiau sužinoti apie įžymius žmones, jų gyvenimo detales bei kūrinius, bet mano nuomone – Nyčės veikalų ištraukų cituojama per daug.
  
  Taip pat, autorė pasitelkdama tokių žymių žmonių biografijas, kaip Hitleris, Stalinas, Abraomas, patvirtina savo hipotezę, jog smurtas gimdo smurtą. Ji skatina sustoti ir atsimerkti, sustabdyti smurtą prieš vaikus, kurie yra visiškai priklausomi nuo juos globojančio žmogaus.
  
  Čia taip pat akcentuojama būtinybė leisti vaikui išreikšti savo jausmus, vaiką atjaučiančio ir palaikančio žmogaus svarba. A. Miller – tai žmogus, psichoanalitikė, kuri man pirmiausia asocijuojasi su žmogumi, stovinčiu skriaudžiamo vaiko pusėje ir nebijančia sušukti, jog „karalius yra nuogas”.
  
  
  https://profesionalimama.wordpress.com
• 
  Alana Voth

  "If Neitzsche had not been forced to learn as a child to master an 'unbearable fit of sobbing,' if he had simply been allowed to sob, then humanity would have been one philosopher poorer, but in return the life of a human being named Nietzsche would have been richer. And who knows what that vital Nietzsche would then have been able to give humanity?" (Miller, 133).
  
  Five stars. Thumbs up. I admire and appreciate Alice Miller's insights into the long-term impact childhood trauma has on creative types, in particular, but also on humanity as a whole.
  
  Miller's examination of Friedrich Nietzsche's childhood is stunning, as are her observations regarding Pablo Picasso, Kathe Kollwitz, Buster Keaton, Paul Celan, and Adolf Hitler's childhoods. Rest assured, Miller never attempts to excuse Adolf Hitler's crimes. She simply attempts to understand his childhood in order to help us all avoid perpetuating sins of the past. We must look in order to see and we must see in order to think and we must think in order to understand then act for the betterment of ourselves and humanity rather than for our collective destruction.
  
  Miller's thesis here is simply this: child abuse has catastrophic results on humanity as a whole.
  
  XO.
• 
  Sarah

  If you haven't read this book, you don't understand anything about anything.
  
  I'd love to hear her thoughts on every art piece ever created!
• 
  Jesse

  Three and a half stars—when Miller is on point, she’s got insight like no one else. However much of this book is devoted to digressions—her long section on Nietzsche includes SEVENTEEN whole pages of Nietzsche’s original texts. Why was that necessary? Why was a five-page reproduction of the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes necessary?
  
  I feel Miller is weakest when she’s trying to draw present-day political conclusions from her work. I don’t disagree with her conclusions, but they seem awfully precariously stated compared to the largely well-argued arguments about childhood itself.
  
  On those topics, Miller is so full of wisdom that massive insights can appear virtually anywhere, meaning you want to read every paragraph quickly. To be that drawn in by part of a book only to find other parts more wasteful of your time is a strange reading experience, but this is still worth reading.
• 
  Sheziss

  Nietzsche, Picasso y otros artistas. Con imágenes de fotos y obras de arte.
  
  Me gusta la metáfora de El traje nuevo del emperador.
• 
  Sara

  The second time this highly recommended author has been awful. Random Freudian speculation and psychobabble about famous artists and the trauma and psychodynamics that the author guesses might have inspired their art. Total bullshit. After The Drama of the Gifted Child I cannot see why anyone loves this author's works.
• 
  Alejandro Ortega

  Saldo de lectura: La llave perdida (Tusquets, 2013) de Alice Miller.
  Este librito de ensayos de la psicóloga y filósofa nacida en Basilea viene a encararse con biógrafos, historiadores y críticos del arte que han reducido y minimizado a simples contextos las obras de artistas y pensadores, y han omitido las zonas de olvido del alma humana donde habitan los traumas y las angustias, que para Alice Miller, están en la niñez. Por eso la infancia es la llave perdida que utiliza la autora para analizar las obras de Nietzsche, Picasso y Buster Keaton, entre otros, y adentrarse en esas moradas interiores que estaban cerradas. Culparé a la autora de ya no querer reír cuando vea a Buster Keaton y en vez de eso me ponga a llorar.
• 
  Jonathan

  I was excited to read this book, based on the author’s own description of it in another work. I was surprised, upon receipt of this hard-to-find title, at the thinness of the book. I soon began to wish it thinner still. It’s a slog. The chapter on Chaim Soutine devolves into a study of Hitler, as if a simple tweak in childhood experience creates an either/or scenario. The chapter on Nietzsche is half the book, larded with lengthy quotations from his writings. I did like the author’s likening of politico-military leadership to the mentality of Abraham, sacrificing youth to serve perceived duty.
• 
  Natalie Van Niekerk

  This book is all about Nietzsche, fascism, and philosophy. Merely a psychology book on the matter of childhood trauma, it lacks citation of most things mentioned.
  The beginning offered some interesting points on Picasso and his opus but as mentioned it is all about observations and personal opinions of Miller. At some stage, Miller goes on to quote/paste PAGES of Nietzsche's text and any explanation of the text is poorly constructed. I lost track of what the author said and whether she was actually quoting another person or not. It is not a light book and her prose is poem like.
• 
  Norent Khy

  I came to read the book for the gossip it contains on our dear Nietzsche.
  
  The Preface bode very well, as the author excused herself for "opening someone else's house and rummaging around in other people's family histories".
  
  In part 1, Alice (the author) gave me a nice appetizer in the form of manifestations of childhood experiences in the work of artists.
  
  In part 2, she gave me the dinner that I came to consume — an analysis of Nietzsche's writing and his childhood.
  
  In part 3, she made it relevant to us all today, at least in my eyes.
• 
  Victoria Sttew

  Alice Miller siempre me sorprende, creo que hasta el momento, me he leído todo lo que ha escrito y siempre me hace reflexionar cada vez más en la importancia de la infancia, en la importancia de la buena educación, en las necesidades del niño y sobre todo en las consecuencias que no suplirlas tiene para nuestro presente.
• 
  Jason Prodoehl

  A fascinating look into how childhood and later behavior. Picasso, Hitler, Soutine. Very interesting.
• 
  Gjalt

  Indrukwekkende waarschuwing dat je niet alles moet geloven wat je ouders zeggen 🥸
• 
  Caroline

  Toujours pertinent mais celui n’est pas bien construit : aucune conclusion.
• 
  Esmeralda GB

  psicoanálisis e infancias
• 
  Sunday

  Why do some children who suffer a troubling childhood become brutal monsters like Adolf Hitler whilst others appear to develop into highly sensitive people capable of expressing their suffering via creative pursuits? This is the question Miller attempts to answer as she explores the childhoods of the likes of Picasso,, Kathe Kollwitz, Buster Keaton, Hitler, Soutine and Friedrich Nietzsche.
  Miller's work has been criticised for its lack of evidence and indeed many of her conclusions are based on speculation, but it is not speculation entirely without basis. Even if only some of Miller's conjectures about the childhoods' of these individuals are correct her conclusion is noteworthy. If a child suffering a troubled childhood has just one witness to his suffering who can help him understand that along with cruelty there can also be goodness, that he is indeed a lovable child, this child will be able to integrate into his consciousness the injustice of what he has experienced without completely repressing it. This is the commonality Miller believes she was able to find in the childhoods of artists. Whilst her investigation into the childhoods of Stalin and Hitler revealed a cold brutal harshness with no protective presence to show them otherwise than justified violence. Miller suggests this mistreated child will not be able to express their suffering through art, rather his repressed misery will be mercilessly unleashed onto others.
  A thought provoking read.
• 
  Jane

  Este libro es una joya de la psicología en el área del maltrato infantil y su repercusión en la vida adulta. Se explota un tema ya muy conocido y persistentemente ignorado acerca del impacto de las experiencias tempranas sobre la psicopatología del individuo. Alice Miller nos plantea el sufrimiento infantil como eje para el rumbo que toma el mundo. Cuestiona temas casi sagrados como la veneración ciega a los mayores, dándole un giro a la mítica historia del sacrificio de Abraham. Nos recuerda lo ciegos que podemos volvernos ante el traje nuevo del emperador por ser aun esclavos de la creencia de que el conocimiento se adquiere únicamente en función del envejecimiento. A pesar de que los dos primeros capítulos acerca de Nietzsche y Picasso pecan un poco del sobre-análisis que puede hacerse de una psicopatología cuando no se toma en cuenta el aspecto orgánico de la enfermedad mental, en general el mensaje que se intenta transmitir con el libro es fuerte y claro. No se puede justificar el maltrato infantil sólo para la satisfacción de los deseos o complejos paternos bajo la cortina de humo de un respeto injustificado que se basa únicamente en el orden jerárquico-cronológico y no en la razón
• 
  Alex

  This book is primarily concerned with the work and history of select individuals, for the sake of illustrating that themes of trauma persist into adult life, through both acts of creativity and destructiveness. Miller looks at Pablo Picasso, Buster Keaton, Friedrich Nietzsche, and others, analyzing their works and actions, while pointing towards traumatic themes that she believes are evidenced in the history of these individuals. Miller is critical of many of these individual’s biographers, whom she believes did not pay close enough attention to the impact of trauma in later work.
  
  At a very basic level, the difference between the split of creativity and destructiveness appears to be the presence of at least one empathic adult during the individual’s childhood. To have someone that takes the child seriously and recognizes the cruelty that is being perpetrated against him or her appears to have a lasting influence. This is illustrated anecdotally, through the critique of artwork and the study of each individual’s early history. But within the context of Miller’s larger body work, it is an influential argument.
  
  This is not one of my favorite books from Alice Miller, but I appreciate the place this text has in the greater exploration of the impact of trauma.
• 
  M

  WIth utmost respect to Alice Miller's gifts to the world, Drama of the Gifted Child is really the only one of her books that is crucial to read. The others, including The Untouched Key, seem to differently-package the same ideas. Though to her credit, The Untouched Key sparked in me an interest in reading biographies (though I'm perennially disappointed by an almost universal lack of insightful explorations into early childhood).