Alice Miller was born in Lwow, Poland on January 12, 1923. She studied philosophy and literature at the University of Warsaw, which operated underground during the war. After the war, she continued her studies at the University of Basel and received a doctorate in 1953. After undergoing Freudian psychiatric training, she went into practice as a psychoanalyst. She believed that parental power and punishment lay at the root of nearly all human problems. By the time she wrote her first book, she had stopped practicing psychiatry. Her works include The Drama of the Gifted Child; The Truth Shall Set You Free; Banished Knowledge: Facing Childhood Injuries; For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence; Thou Shalt Not Be Aware: Society's Betrayal of the Child; The Untouched Key; The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Cruel Parenting; Breaking Down the Wall of Silence; and Free From Lies: Discovering Your True Needs. She died on April 14, 2010 at the age of 87.
