" This is the situation in which many children find themselves. They try to help themselves by burdening themselves with guilt. They cling to the illusion that they must be able to do something to change their situation—the state of neglect, demeaning attacks, mistreatment, and deception in which they find themselves—if they would only try hard enough. And they do try. They try to forgive everything that they have had to endure so that at long, long last they might be loved and accepted. "

― Alice Miller , Breaking Down the Wall of Silence: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth