The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self - Alice Miller, Ruth Ward

I picked up this book thinking it was going to be about what everyone thinks of when they hear the words 'gifted' children....the academic or artistic kind. That it was not.

The context of gifted in this book refers to a child who is a victim of their parents actions and how the child deals with those actions by suppressing their wants & needs and becomes ultra sensitive due to the narcisisstic parent(s). (Narcissism in this book does not necessarily mean self-centered, and the author touches on that subject as well.)

I think everyone could probably see bits and pieces of their life in some of the examples shared in this book. No parent is perfect and many different generations of parents believe in different things. The main focus in this book is that children suppress their feelings, wants and needs to please their parents. Not exactly earth-shattering information to me, but important because if a child continues to do this, they lose their true-self and will most likely struggle with this throughout their life, which introduces the need for therapy later on to uncover why they're suppressing what they really want out of life.

The book is definitely written for other psychologists and not necessarily the general public.
I found myself bored at times because it seemed as if points were being restated over again.
I wish I had highlighted some of the 'light bulb' areas of the book because there were definitely some good nuggets within the text. I just think the book was a bit drawn out on the topic it covered.