NCJ Number
142257
Date Published
1986
Length
282 pages
Annotation
This book attempts to sensitize the general public to the sufferings of early childhood and its consequent effects.
Abstract
The book describes the harsh methods of child rearing of the previous two generations and recounts the childhoods of a drug addict, a political leader, and a murderer of young boys, all of whom were subjected to severe humiliation and mistreatment as children. For two cases, shattering personal testimony is used. Extreme destructiveness emerges in all three cases: Christine F. directed it against herself, Adolf Hitler against his real and imagined enemies, and Jurgen Barsch against little boys, in whom he was repeatedly murdering himself while simultaneously taking the lives of others. This destructiveness is interpreted as the discharge of long pent-up childhood hatred and its displacement onto the self or other objects. All three were severely mistreated and subjected to humiliation as children on a regular basis. None had an adult to whom they could confide their feelings in their entire childhood, especially their feelings of hatred.