The dependence of the small child on its parents, its trust in them, its longing to be loved and to be able to love knows no bounds. Exploiting this dependence, abusing trust, deceiving and confusing these longings—Alice Miller condemns these traits of conventional upbringing as criminal acts committed daily out of ignorance and the refusal to change. The author of the worldwide success "The Drama of the Gifted Child" exemplifies the terrible consequences such hypocrisy can have for entire nations through the example of the tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu. Alice Miller, the great explorer of the buried yet ever-present realm of childhood, breaks the wall of silence surrounding the sufferings of early childhood in this book, which is now being released in a revised and updated edition.