The phenomenon of child abuse plagues societies, often remaining a well-hidden family secret. The denial of the ignorant parent to abandon a "upbringing" that exploits the child's unconditional trust and longing for love is destructive.

The anguish of the abused child, etched into their soul and body, later manifests in self-destructive actions or in violent behavior towards their own children and others. Alice Miller, through numerous examples and, primarily, through a psycho-historical analysis of the cases of Adolf Hitler and Nicolae Ceaușescu, illuminates how the horrors of childhood turn into horrors that concern entire nations, and indeed... "for their own good."

This vicious cycle can be broken if the stories of people who have experienced a traumatic childhood are recognized at a conscious level, if society chooses to heed the warning signs emitted by their bodies, and if the wall of silence that rises around the pain of childhood is fundamentally dismantled.