Hi Daniel, i thank you for your work in looking for cures for mental illnes without any medications. My sister has been at the hospital for schyzofrenia, just 1 month ago. i\'m sure this desease has causes in the childhood, and not (only) in biological system of anyone of us. Hope science grows up in resolving mental illnes just with psychology! tahnk you.

Hi Daniel, your website and truth has had a profound impact on me. The other day my wife brought home the book \"The Body Never Lies\" by Alice Miller. I\'d never known of her before and upon looking her up online I came across your review of one of her books which is how I happened upon your website. Thank you for your courage to self heal and your transparency in your writings. This site has been hugely grounding and enlivening to my soul. The truth found here regarding the insidiousness of the parental dynamic makes sense to me on gut level and resonates in every way with my personal philosophy and life journey. The stance you take with regards to having children prior to fully healing is the exact reason I got a vasectomy prior to marrying my wife (though I wasn\'t fully aware at the time). Your the first voice of reason I\'ve heard that has made that decision of mine not seem so crazy afterall. Your also the first voice of reason that resonates with the truth of my soul that I\'ve always know to be true from the beginning but had been conditioned to deny because my very survival depended on it as a child. At 17 yrs of age I was involved in a form of chi gung, a kind of breathwork. I began to experience my true Self again but also began to prematurely awake to the traumas of my child within. It was overwhelming and I went through a nervous breakdown as a result. Because I was living at home with the perpetrators of the trauma, the twisted power plays and manipulation kicked into full gear. The pain of the trauma became a literal living hell to me that my parents took full advantage of to further their manipulative and sick agenda. They in essence made it very clear to me that my real Self was not welcome in the family and only the charade of denial and self hate would be adequate if I were to be welcome or accepted. It is so wild to me now to see the role I played in my family as the proverbial dumping ground. I was coerced into wearing a cloak of shame that perpetuated itself because it was the only way I knew to be. I\'m 37yrs old now and have gone through extensive psychotherapy and bodywork over the last 7yrs. I\'m on a healing journey but only because I\'ve learned it\'s ok to have permission to call bull shit on the cult of family; to grieve and process the pain of the deepest, most wounded parts of myself. Learning to feel acceptance and what real love actually is. The Spirit in me Is Unconditional Love! Your message, Daniel, has been a windfall for me because it deftly summarizes what my instincts and heart have been trying to tell me all along. I feel permission to feel more fully now in ways that just weren\'t being accessed before because of the limitations of therapy (and limitations of the therapist). Your message to \'go inside, take back what is yours, mourn and grieve over the evil that was done to you and alas deliverance will begin to unfold\' is the most damn refreshing thing my heart has taken hold of since my healing as an adult had started it\'s course. This tiny shift of pointing out the real root of all insecurity and realizing to what extent the motives of my parents were, has been a windfall for me. It\'s brought clarity of mind and continuity to my philosophy that had been, up until 6 days ago, still rather fractured and segmented, despite how far I thought I\'d come. My deepest appreciation and gratitude extends from my heart to you, brother.

Hi, I was wondering about something. Great work by the way with this site, espescially the psycological reasons to bag on this site, as soon as I saw the humor one I couldn\'t help but laugh X) anyway I stuck around because I thought it would be intringuing to take some of this advice. So about the dream analysis concept, will recording these dreams improve my focus in life, will it make me smarter as a person and open up more cognotive ablilities, I might not have considered buring all that emotion as I grew up and what not?

Dear Daniel I want to thank you very much for your helping me to heal through your writing and your videos. It so beautiful to see that there are so smart and honest people like you. I\'m older than you (I\'m 50) but I feel you\'re much wiser than me and i hope I can learn more from you. Sorry for my very simple English, I\'m Italian speaking.

Hi Daniel I included a link to our you tube channel on m site if thats ok , really its just films I find interesting, I heard your interview on madness radio ..which is excellent ..I\'m making a documentary about a bipolar rd trip across USA at the moment some clips of my work are through www.moonblue.org good luck joe

Oh Daniel, who are you and where did you come from. The wisdom you impart to others on your videos has been invaluable to me. I\'m on my journey from broken to enlightment right now (at 52 years old). I\'m probably entering stage 2 right now...the painful part. You have such a soothing way about you. Each and everything you talk about resonates with me. I will be definitely seeking out all of your works as I progress through my journey to wholeness. I also wanted to tell you that if you ever need some excellent research material, I believe the family I come from and the intensity of the childhood neglect that me and my 12 siblings suffered is a unique and exaggerrated version of all the issue you talk about. Now we are all middle aged and no one escaped the damage, but it manifests in many ways. My family is very broken....it\'s so sad. I\'m at a point right now where I\'m in the process of distancing myself from my mother and most of my siblings in order to protect myself from the on going abuse and hopefully to eventually find the enlightenment you speak of so eloquently. Thanks Daniel Mackler!

Hello Daniel, I am Hiroyuki Matsuda, who bought some copies of Open Dialogue from your website. I am teaching social work at a university in Osaka, Japan, When I visited US, Dan Fisher, one of the best friends of mine, let me know about Open Dialogue. I have been interested in it since that time. I was very glad to know that it has the subtitle in Japanese. I have one question. If I bought the DVD for public/educational use, would there be any condition that I should follow? I would like to share this video with more people. I am thinking that inviting consumers/survivors, professionals, and students and holding a screening event might be a good idea. The purpose is not for profit. Could you tell me the condition please?

Hidden4love 3/22/2013 9:36:13 AM I don\'t think your crazy Daniel 🙂 I\'m watching your \"Childhood Trauma and the Process of Healing\" i found somewhere on youtube 🙂 It\'s super helpful. I really wanna heal from my truama, i\'ve been having truama and panic attacks for 3 yrs now. only watched 13 mins, but i suppose in a nut shell how to heal is accept how we feel, accept the pain and let it go. ^^ Stefanie denz 3/20/2013 7:10:59 PM Hi Daniel I just read your article as I am a fan of Alice Miller, and found your words quite intriguing. I am a nartist on a residency in Berlin, and am struck by how little females are represented internationally in the art world, realizing I have been in denial. I believe this is becuase it is a world that relies greatly on influence, and projected value as opposed to other professions where a person male or female can systematically fulfill the requirements by following rules-the ladder of academia and what not. Maybe I am in denial here too, but there does seem to be more female representation in medicine, sciences politics etc. So when I read your observations I can not help but see that Alice\'s trauma is mutliplied by her being female, and this is not something she really addresses. Or? One of our prime needs is to belong. As a woman you belong automatically as secondary, ancillary, and to challenge this is to lose one\'s place in society. In my experience we need to be seen, responded to and we fulfill what is required so that we have response. Her letter to the pope clearly shows that this role is being played out. She remains as so many other women as a victim in her own mind, for indeed the reflection back of something else is not there. Cheers Stefanie. www.stefaniedenz.com Wendy 3/20/2013 12:59:45 PM Hi Daniel, it is awesome that you put this stuff out there. I\'ve been listening to your \'Childhood Trauma and The Process of Healing\' video, from 2011. It is so strengthening and helpful. What a life this is!! Bless you. Wendy Amy 3/18/2013 3:02:59 PM HI Daniel, I have been reading this site, and listening to your interviews and conversations on Amy Childs\' podcasts from a few years ago (just discovered these). I have been listening to Paul Levy, who wrote about Awakening in the Dream. As I have been listening, I keep thinking that, because you are doing similar work, and expressing similar things in your owns ways - if the two of you do not know each other, you might like to...thus, i introduce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kigmklazxPE Thank you for all of this good food for thought! M Reynolds 3/16/2013 7:30:46 PM Posts/comments individual write is sometimes more interesting and entertaining than the article that it is posted for. I had to inquire to the person who commented about the new Pope serving the poor: \"serve the poor: provide them with free birth control education and contraceptives. it\'ll be the gift that keeps on giving.\". I can\'t completely disagree with you. However, as a Catholic, gay, not the best childhood, but my parents did the best they could with what they knew, I would like to remain optimistic that Pope Francis will walk the talk - he already has. I do wonder why some couples or individuals, in some cases, have children - I say individuals because the other, whether female or male, is doing so for the purpose of sex and pleasure only - not caring one bit of the consequences of raising and taking care of a child(ren). From what I scanned on your website, your thoughts etc are very familiar to Iyanla Vanzant. MR Chicago, Illinois Bet 3/14/2013 3:15:42 PM Hello Daniel: I fell into a situation renting a room from strangers, and I feel the screaming, angry, loathing each other parents are affecting their 2 sons in a horrible way. The elder has so much rage toward his mother, he has begun to direct it at his younger smaller brother. Do I report this family to Child Welfare Services? I am moving out at the end of the month, do I wait until I am safely gone? I\'ve never been so conflicted, but your article helped me immensely. I know what I need to do... Claudia 3/8/2013 9:01:14 PM Hi Daniel! I just read you`re working on the translation of your documentaries, I would be interested in the Italian version, if you plan on having one. If not, I can help translating it! Take care! Claudia Maya 3/6/2013 7:24:04 AM Hi Daniel, just wanted to say thank you. bob zimmerman 3/2/2013 8:02:09 PM I have a daughter that was bullied in high school and in the last 7 years gained over 150lbs from antiphysic meds. Labled schiozophrenic. its been a nightmare. Thanks for your website. england_97 2/27/2013 5:26:53 AM Hi Daniel, As much as I love your work/essays - I have to say that I can\'t disagree more about your stance on meditation. As a child I was sexually abused for 3 years and went through a lot of psychical abuse from my parents in the form or beatings, and being locked up in an outdoor cellar. I have been through both psychotherapy and practiced vipassana meditation for the past 5 years. Although psychotherapy helped me a great deal... it failed to go to the root of the issue (which still lived deep in my psyche & body), after 2.5 years of psychotherapy I eventually took my 3rd 10-day Vipassana meditation course and ALL of the memories of my abuse finally came to the surface. It felt as though I was re-experiencing the entire thing. I\'ve read several articles since then about people with similar experiences. http://www.primals.org/articles/wright.html http://www.events.dhamma.org/presskit/2012-12/pauls-writings-en arjuna 2/26/2013 3:32:07 PM Hi Daniel, There is a lot on your website that I can relate to. Although personally I would not be as absolutist about some things as you are, I do think the absolutist view you take on things is a necessary part of the whole picture regarding trauma and the consequences of it. I take part however with your writing about dissociated people. Having suffered from dissociative problems myself, I can assure you that in no way this contributed to me feeling really safe or happy. In fact I found it so unbearable that I came close to ending my life because of it. I am not alone in this. If you look at the suffering that people with dissociative problems as severe as what was formerly known as Multiple Identity Disorder go through, as well as the suffering that people with milder forms of dissociative problems experience, you would know that dissociative problems can cause immense suffering. Yes, dissociation develops as an (unconscious) way to deal with traumatic situations and as such, it does serve a protective function. However, not without the very real possibility of creating enormous confusion, lack of control over one\'s life and immense suffering as it\'s consequences. vivian 2/20/2013 8:23:48 PM Dear Daniel, I am reading Alice Miller\'s work. Do you know of any therapists in North America who recognize and incorporate her theories in their work? Kind regards, Vivian deanna clayton-richardson 2/15/2013 8:52:27 AM excellent site thank you for your wisdom and awareness blessings Justin Paul O\'Brien 2/14/2013 8:43:20 PM 8137201247 I can\'t even think right now. I got a really bad head ache. I love your website though. Jenny 2/13/2013 4:32:50 PM Hi Daniel, Just been referred to you by a colleague. Wanted to send you this blog post I wrote last week. Happy to chat sometime. I run a teleseminar programme for my colleagues. Would be good to have a live conversation with you that others can listen to. http://theopenmindtherapist.com/2013/02/05/unearthing-26-year-old-medical-records-reveals-extent-of-schizophrenia/ Going to take a better look at your site. But feel a resonance already from home page. Best wishes Jenny (therapist - uk) anniechapman 2/7/2013 2:35:32 AM Hi Daniel, HUGE thanks for your wonderful videos. I am currently doing a Hikoi (protest walk) through the North Island of New Zealand re the issue of over-medication and lack of choice for mental health \"consumers\" in this country. I was able to borrow a copy of Healing Homes, watched it with a friend and was moved to tears by all that is shown and implied...the beauty of possibility and the tragedy of what is actually happening on the ground most everywhere... I would love to show excerpts from your docos at public meetings, but I am sorry my funds do not stretch to your public charging rate... would you consider selling the Finnish Open Dialogue at the private rate? I would have thought that this would be good for business ultimately in more people being exposed to your docos. Anyway, let me know what you think, warm regards, Annie Claudia 2/7/2013 1:52:45 AM Hi Daniel, I`m an Italian 33yo, I`m in the middle of a huge process of self-discovery, abuse memory recovery and self-healing (even if that`s a way too rational description of it, the real feeling more often than not is that I`m in deep s**t). I know this is the way because it sounds true to myself, it started in my childhood with some major psychosomatic symptoms, underestimated by my parents and totally inexplicable for traditional medicine, and went on until now, through the reading of Miller`s books (blessed woman!). Until now I`ve done all by myself, not finding any therapist contact/site/description I felt I could trust. But I`m starting to grow restless about the chance of being listened to by someone who doesn`t feel the need to alleviate or deny my pain and fear. I have so so much pain to let out... And the other problem I`m facing now is that I don`t have a job and I`m still so confused that I have no idea how to start about finding one. And the social/financial/rational pressures are part of my family problems, they just stick me deeper in every s**t I`ve been taught by my parents about how the world works. So, my question is, do you know any place in Europe, managed by people open and understanding towards this kind of process, that could allow me to do some work exchange/volunteering job in exchange for food and a bed for an indefinite period of time? Does a community/retreat/center like this even exists in the world? Thank you for your site, Daniel, you`ve been a great support in times of need! I wish you all the best in your life! Claudia Julie Huntington 2/4/2013 3:06:23 PM Thank you so much Dan Mackler. We have not met....but your making of these films has brought me to a new understanding in my life and the world. We need to be humans more often and share our humanness, mistakes can be made, life is lived, but keep an open mind, keep asking questions, keep trying to answer questions. Be. I am sharing your videos with others. Daniel Mackler 2/3/2013 7:12:58 PM Hello All! Good to hear from everyone. I answered some emails privately. But the public ones I\'ll answer here. Pat, you asked how hard it was for the Family Care Foundation to find host families... Well, I think it\'s not so much that it\'s hard to find host families, but finding really good ones! They advertise is local papers, and they also get referrals from other host families, and then the families go through a pretty intense interview process. I\'ve met most of their families and they\'re lovely people. Daniel Yvonne 1/30/2013 2:59:39 AM Dear Daniel, I have truly ENJOYED watching your videos and have forwarded them to friends. I also had a VERY abusive parent and traumatic childhood. Later, I tried traditional worthless \"therapy\" and it\'s too long and traumatic to go into here, suffice to say that I actually had to work on more healing issues from being traumatized by these \"therapists.\" I\'m over 40 now and I only wish that there was the Internet, and Youtube videos and amazon reviews right after my high school graduation to help me clear and heal my past. I really believe in my heart of hearts that it will be the awareness of the general public to the horrors of \"therapists\" and \"psychological drugs\" through authors/websites like yours that will turn this country around for the best! The average person does not really understand abuse and alternative treatments for their issues. I have worked hard through the years on my own personal healing in a very eclectic manner by talking with mentors/friends (who have also recovered from my same abuse issues), reading books, and metaphysical work like astrology, and psychic readings. Please continue writing your books and making videos. Thanks for everything.

Lluís Martí Olfers 11/13/2012 10:11:42 PM Thank you for your very well explained clarifications on enlightement and dissociation. I am happy and surprised to meet somebody that doesn\'t profess as a guru but has a clear and honest mind about both terms. Your experience must have been difficult, but rewarding to you and to us. I guess music teaches you a lot. Best wishes and thank you again! Levy Arnold 11/6/2012 9:39:12 AM Hello, I\'m very much interested in open dialogue therapy. I\'m looking for stopping medicaments, (that I have been taking for 3 years.) I can\'t find any mail for the center in Finland. Could you help me in giving me a link or a way to join them? thanks to all, Arnold chakula 10/31/2012 1:18:33 PM Learned so much from you, I will be here often Jack 10/31/2012 11:48:45 AM Cool site, keep it up or I\'ll follow you around all day :3 Milly Macker 10/30/2012 5:17:14 PM Just wanted to say hi Ana Ochoa de Eribe 9/21/2012 11:50:56 AM Dear Daniel, Thank you for your energy and deep presence. I watched your video on \"Bullshit -Anti psychiatry and Anti medication and laughed as I know well all this to be true. I am a transpersonal psychotherapist and I have worked in \"the system\" and seen all that you describe in the video in a humorous way. We know how sad this is and how many people are affected by it. The reason I have been interested in the abuse performed in the psychiatric system is because I have a brother, who was labelled with schizophrenia in Spain when he was 15 or 16 years old. He has been in an out of the psychiatric hospital for many years (he is 48 years old now) and now is incapacitated. His last destination has been an old people’s home, where he now lives. He is on leponex for life. His prescription is fixed and even when he is out of the psychiatric hospital this medication has not been revised and is compulsory for him until he dies. I live in England so my communication with him is only by phone. I have to hear him talking about stomach pain, deep cold in his bones, feeling dizzy knowing well that these are all side effects of the clozapine. It looks as if what I can do for this particular situation is limited to talking to him once per week and sharing the love of a sister with him. However I would like to help prevent this situation for someone else and do anything I can to help people understand that following the psychiatric system leads to desempowerment and destruction. If you can think on any way in which I can help you get this message out there please count on me, or if you know any contacts that might be interested in doing something in this area and I could work with them. Thank you so much for caring for the people and the planet and showing up here for all of us. Lots of love and blessings. Ana moe 9/7/2012 4:19:50 AM Your essay begins with: \"I could just as easily start by asking why straight people are straight. Few ask this, because they consider the answer so obvious – “it’s human nature.” But what isn’t human nature for a human to do? Are chimpanzees suddenly not chimps or penguins not penguins when they engage in homosexual behavior (which they sometimes do)?\" \"Straight people\" is a label taken out of its context: \"morally straight\" people. Morals refer to right and wrong. Your reference to human nature is ill-defined as well and, as such, is not an answer to the question you pose. Your statement that since chimps or penguins sometimes engage in homosexual behavior does not make them less of a chimp or a penguin makes no sense. What they do sexually does not define their nature--what sexual behavior does display are normal and abnormal behavioral patterns. When abnormal behavioral patterns are apparent one typically searches for either external or internal problems. Most gay people chose to be gay usually because of trauma with the opposite sex. Heather 9/6/2012 7:03:44 AM Thank you. Joe Tein 9/3/2012 6:51:47 AM Hey Daniel, Nice to read about you ... I tracked down your web site after looking at the YouTube videos you sent me! I like the caring and respectful tone in those Finnish settings ... very different from the standard psychiatric hospitals I\'ve worked in, and I think the main difference is in the people who are running them. And no wonder I enjoy being a translator/interpreter/language teacher a lot more than working in mental health right now! I\'ll be in touch some more via email. Ciao for now 🙂 Erna 8/29/2012 9:51:48 PM hello daniel, i wrote here some months ago so far. i \"consume\" your essays and films for my personal help and because i want to work as psychologist. i just listened to your interview in madness radio and feel very inspired. i also read morton schatzman´s \"persecution in the familiy\". i start to think, that it´s no mystery about the reasons, why people show, what is called psychosis. i would like to ask you one question to this subject, which makes me questioning about whom you speak, when it is about the so called psychotic people. there is a discussion between psychiatrists, if some of the patients, who are called schizophrenic, are diagnosed wrong and if their disorder should better be \"dissociative identity disorder\" (former MPS). what do you think about that? James 8/29/2012 6:38:49 PM Just wanted to say hi crystine Hershberger 8/24/2012 8:43:50 AM D. Are you aware of the term \"political correctness\".. I know it\'s over used and all. But it may be the most simplistic way I can explain linguistic stigmatization to you ... If you have cancer: are you a \"canceric/cancerous\" If you have depression: are you a \"depressic/depressionistic\" If you have indigestion are you an \"indigestionic\" ? If you\'re of African/Austrialian liniage are you a \"Black\" or a \"Coloured\" ? If you\'re of East-Asian descent are you a \"Chinamen\" , \"Oriental\" or \"Slant-Eyed\" ? If you\'re smoking marijuana are one \"the drug doorers\" .... Or if you\'re, let\'s just say A HUMAN, and different from yourself or other regular people you see on a day to day basis; be it language, socio-economic, health, culture, religion, etc : do you refer to \"all of those\" as THEM, THE, A, AN, THOSE PEOPLE, as oppose to \"people who are\" \"people who have/people with\" ??? *** I apologize for the pissy-rantiness, but if you are truly a parody, you SHALL display my message. take care. Crystine Hershberger 8/24/2012 8:40:11 AM DISCLAIMER: I started writing this after reading like 7 of your 32 reasons... and I actually thought you were being serious, and followed some of the links. .... I then began to type a very loquacious response, mid-way through I realize that you were actually [HOPEFULLY] being sarcastic. Anywhom here\'s part of my response: _ I started out liking how you seemed to be gender unbiased... but then, you seemed to become \"scientifically/factually/imaginarily unbiased\". I have a few simple questions: A. Which addition of the DSM are you using? _ B: Where/what are your resources? I mean like REAL resources, peer-reviewed and shit? _ Iris 8/20/2012 11:51:48 PM Hello David. Just now I watched you on youtube and got so surprised, to find someone beside Alice Miller, who speaks out loud what I only dare to think. I hope you never let yourself be intimidated by unsuitable criticism. Your work is precious and I admire you for your courage. I am now at age 40, still struggling to express myself in any form, although it`s my deepest need. I look forward to explore your website( what I`m going to do as soon as I finished this). I am german, writing from Switzerland, please excuse possible language errors. Take care and continue..........The World Needs People Like You. All the best, Iris. rex 8/20/2012 7:08:05 PM just wanted to say hii...

amanda thompson 5/9/2012 4:04:00 PM Dear Daniel, Thank you so much for speaking at the Salt Lake City Library on May 7, at the event sponsored by Empowerment Services! I want to let you know how much I thoroughly enjoyed and was fascinated by your talk - I could have listened to you for several more hours and continued to ask questions. As a person myself who has been diagnosed with several diagnoses, and who has been on more medications than I care to remember (antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics), and who is currently on seven psychotropic medications, you inspired me to take the step that I have been wanting to take for some time, and finally get off off these harmful medications. Since I started the last couple of medications, I have gained 70 pounds, my blood pressure has gone up and I physically feel horrible. I feel like listening to you very well will add years to my life. I want you to know that I will continue to spread your message through Empowerment Services and will be contacting you in the near future about screening one of your films here in Salt Lake City. Thanks again and warm regards, Amanda Thompson, Empowerment Services Jeroen 5/7/2012 5:50:06 PM This letter can be read on Alice Miller’s website: Monday January 22, 2007 Dear Alice Miller, I would like to ask you if you think Mr. is right, namely that total exploration of my child history is possible (and therefore total healing), or if you are right, that total exploration is \'hubris\' ? J. W. AM: Usually, I don\'t respond to people who don’t really know my books and got confused by people who WANT to confuse them. But as you say you know my books and want to understand my meaning of the word hubris, I will try to respond. In your quotation, the word hubris is taken out off context. You can find the context in the DRAMA and read the whole text on your own. Around 1997, I heard of some people who became addicted to primals in the hope to eventually liberate themselves from their past and empty the \"pool of pain.\" They tried to do their best, they cried and cried, without any resolution. They felt not good enough if they didn\'t succeed in healing. At the same time they were unable to question even the cruelest behavior of their parents. To me, this was exactly the reason why they were blocked. I do think that you don\'t need to recall every traumatic event if you deeply felt the devastating effect that your mother\'s or father\'s hatred for you created in your soul. It is not only a hubris, but it doesn\'t make much sense to mistreat oneself. Of course, flashbacks may come again and again and will help us to understand our feelings (of the past and of today) once we are open to our feelings. You can find my concept of effective therapy in my recent articles on this website. Leslie 5/6/2012 4:21:23 PM David, I just found your website late last night and have spent the whole morning checking it out. I\'m amazed at the parallels between your own story and mine and just as Mikel (above), I have no formal college education but I have come to almost all of the same conclusions as you have. Until today, I was seriously considering that I might be the only one in the universe who had survived this depth of trauma long enough to get to those conclusions. You\'re an amazing person, and so courageous in your truth telling. Thank you so very much for being you! I feel on more tiny step closer to my own healing just by the feeling of validation I\'ve received from reading what you have here. 🙂 juliestoneham 5/3/2012 4:39:05 AM ps.. I sent this out The Advantages of Being Conventional The world loves the conventional. No one attacks you. No one hates you. No one criticizes you. No one rejects you. No one steps on your toes while at the same time accusing you of stepping on theirs. But the conventional are dead. They were long since routed out of the best of themselves. They were long since hated and criticized and civilized into soul-numbing defeat. They were long since divorced from the best their potential had to offer. Their now-loving parents once injected poison into their veins. This prepared them for life in the soft lane. This prepared them for conventional work, conventional relationships, conventional parenthood, conventional life expectancies, conventional nights of warm sleep, and conventional perspective. The sick take care of their own. But so do the healthy. The healthy freely share of their gifts. The healthy know greater truth, because they nurture their relationship with their deepest selves. The healthy don’t love you because you are dead. They healthy love you for your spark. The healthy are not your parents. Your parents love your placid success because it reminds them every day how good of a job they did in trimming off the sharp edges of your radical truth. Your deadness proves to them that they are worthwhile people, because they are dead too. Our world doesn’t need more conventional people. Our world is a mess, and we need a new breed of super-people to rise from the ashes of the old and truly call this stinking garbage dump of lies by its rightful name by Daniel Mackler julie stoneham 5/3/2012 4:30:08 AM I really really appriciate what I have read and heard from you on your website. I am graduating with my msw in 3 days at 52. I undertand what you say, as I have become an msw because of experience, yet am amazed at how few get it.... in the field.. I hope to make a difference, and yes, I already have. I have put my neck out there more than once.. but now as i enter the field as a proffesional, I see so much more than when I started.. I would like to talk to you if you have the time. I admire your work and your insight... Julie Linda harrison 5/2/2012 3:39:29 PM I first came across ur hilarious smell bullshit song on tube. I posted it straight to Peter Breggin via Facebook and they laughed and said u had been very helpful if not a little eccentric I. Getting all ur messages across. As a survivor of psychotropic meds.... Well still have a ways to go on the xanax (man is that stuff the bomb) I agree with all ur tube vids finally a voice for what I\'ve always Believed about the world being in a mess... The norm being sick n the dangers of getting stuck in therapy! I especially agree about ur views on not having kids... If u wanna read something tragic type in \" I hate being a mother\" via google... What comes up is \"I hate being a fucking mother\" n the monstrosities on that forum r hideous. I\'ll look into your friend Alice as she sounds great. I like realists hope to find ya on Facebook Linda yvonne 4/23/2012 10:10:09 AM Just saw your youtube \"Childhood Trauma and the Process of Healing (by Daniel Mackler)\" and totally happy in finding someone who has the same idea\'s an similar childhood and finding the same solution (inner search, keeping a dairly as a companion and explaining own dreams to understand the unconsiousness). Thanks for charing!! Kelly Jameson 4/17/2012 6:42:07 AM Our paths and where it has taken us are eerily similar, the difference though is in the expression. I have found the experience of spiritual non-duality to be of great importance to my own evolution. I reached this in part by living an asexual life as both genders exposing me to the extremes of yin(she) and yang(he) creating a fusion of both that resulted in needing neither. This was not a conscious intention but it was an inevitable one. If you are searching for something you may find it in the non-dualistic thinking of the East if you can avoid the trap that belief creates. Alulia Baca 4/7/2012 10:14:53 PM Hello Daniel! I found you on Mad In America and thought I would drop you a note. I was on neuroleptic meds for more than 30+ years. It was very stressful to get off of Abilify (my last med) but I did around 2.5 years ago. The changes were extremely positive for me except I began experiencing trauma because of betrayal, condemnation and people trying to force a pill down my throat with implications that I am evil. I finally had to cut my family almost totally off of me. My positive changes have been: 1) creativity greatly boosted, 2) I can cry now, 3) I feel like a woman instead of a zombie, 4) my vision has improved so much I have probably 20/20 or close, 5) I\'m much more active than I ever was, 6) my biological clock turned back as I look much younger now, 7) my mind is sharper, etc. Please don\'t send an email to me because I think my computer is hacked. Also, I can\'t get anyone in my home state to listen to me because I\'m sure they have been warned I\'m a \"nut\" case without meds. I was wrongfully evicted out of my home and was psychologically tortured in a detention center for one night as I was held there in my hometown for a hearing to be evaluated to see if I needed to be in a psych ward. My case is truly bizarre as I wondered for a few months mostly in Oklahoma and Missouri trying to find help and survive. I would love to speak to you about this personally. Thanks! Jennifer Kanary 4/6/2012 9:28:20 AM Dear Daniel, Thank you so much for making and sending the films. I received them yesterday and am halfway through. They are great! I look forward to quoting them in my research. As a filmmaker you might find the project Labyrinth Psychotica that I am working on interesting, it is a project in development that tries to understand, from an artistic perspective, what it is like to be psychotic. On of the aspects is \'The Wearable\'. It forms an augmented reality multimedia interactive cinema multipath \'game\' that is first experienced and then discussed. Here is a link to a draft of the first 7 mins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkA8hHSU3PM&feature=relmfu Hope you like it. In any case, cheers! Jennifer Kanary NL 4/1/2012 2:56:19 AM Accidentally came across your website while googling about trauma. Found your writing reflects a lot of what I\'ve been thinking, reading and my own journey of self discovery and healing. thanks so much. Nice to know that there are others out there who are on similar journeys. Love & peace. Linda 3/17/2012 2:27:32 AM You are truly speaking to me. I am a frightened and sad little child in a grown up (and old) body. I have wanted to heal from past trauma inflicted by my family members for a long time. I love your video The dangers of psychiatric medications. I have tried to live without them and invariably end up in the lock up. I know I need help and that the only one who can really do this is me. The saddest part is that I am also a Mom who has traumatized her child. I have not physically or sexually abused him. I admit that I was not a very good Mom. I will refer him to your website. I think that maybe he would be better off to be away from me geographically and emotionally. I am very concerned for his mental well being. Do you believe in hopeless cases? I do not. I wish you all the best. Wayne Lambright 3/10/2012 7:07:22 AM Thanks for speaking the truth for many. David Hopkins 3/5/2012 8:01:33 AM Hi Daniel, Hey thank you for making the film about Open Dialogue Therapy. What a great service you did going there and helping us to see for ourselves what is going on. Really appreciate that. I am excited to show other folks the dvd. You also sent it so quickly. I so enjoyed watching. It gave me more fuel in my hope burner. That is even brighter now. Cheerio David Jessica Lee Daley 2/23/2012 6:49:59 PM I stumbled upon your website while researching a project for a Psychology of Drugs and Human Behavior course. Found what I needed for my project (with appropriate credit cited) - thank you! But I\'ve found your essays and video series speaking far more loudly to my personal life, and coming at a much needed time, as I\'ve recently begun to struggle with parenting ... the advice I receive from other parents, pediatricians, etc. is so unhelpful and blase. \"It\'s just the terrible two\'s,\" I heard. But I couldn\'t shake the feeling that it\'s me - not him. He\'s a baby, his world is limited by only two years of life experience, so I kept thinking that if he\'s frustrated - it\'s because I\'m giving him a reason to be. I\'m not in tune to something he needs - not sure yet what specifically it is (it may be multiple things), but I am inspired to work harder to find out without becoming frustrated or exasperated back. Looking forward to the journey! Mikel Sims 2/21/2012 5:07:39 PM Daniel, I was astounded while reading your essay “ALICE MILLER IN A NUTSHELL: A BRIEF CRITIQUEâ” I only found out about Alice Miller today and stumbled upon your page by accident five minutes later. Your opinions and the expressions you voice of Alice’s resound deeply with me and project volumes of likeminded conclusions I have come to alone. I am an uneducated person academically and not a reader of books although I have reached exactly the same opinions you discussed about the inappropriateness of people having kids. (And others) I applaud you for having the courage to openly discuss what I believe to be a major downfall of society. Too many people are having children that should not be having children. Humans have evolved so far that they should have the intellect to resist the urge to procreate until their minds and souls are healthy enough to become perfect parents to their perfect babies. Congratulations Daniel and good luck.

Sally 10/25/2011 8:12:41 AM Just came across your website. Exploring it still but so agree with you about unrecognised child abuse. Children are such precious, malleable beings and they are often treated as second class citizens by their own parents. It is so conditioned and accepted - I even have to catch myself when I do it to my 5 year old and I am aware of it! Martin 10/18/2011 11:08:49 PM Daniel, I think you are deserving of great praise and admiration for your efforts. I too have come to many of the same conclusions you express in your writings, through many years of experience. I look forward to the day when I can be as open in expressing them as you are today. My father was diagnosed schizophrenic before I was ever conceived. In my life I have witnessed my older sister subjected to relentless emotional abuse by him with our mother facilitating this abuse by minimizing and covering up for him. My sister, as the years of abusiveness took their toll, suffered from anxiety. depression, OCD, and ultimately full blown schizo-affective disorder. She has suffered under psychiatric \"care\" with medication for over 25 years. I find myself quite alone in the extended family, as the only person who recognizes the profound importance, to us as a family, and the future of humanity, in coming to grips and fully airing the consequences of what has transpired and committing to ending its propagation. The \"old guard\" in the extended family will have none of it, past attempts to put a focus on it have been met with hostility and being walked out on. But the old guard won\'t last forever. I have survived the onslaught, emotionally battered, but spiritually intact thanks in large part to the 12-Step Program of Codependents Anonymous (www.coda.org). I fear retribution from the family and the long term consequences to myself, my sister, and to my potential to play a significant part in the great healing project humanity so desperately needs, should I imprudently speak out too publicly, too soon. Thanks for what you do, and keep the faith. Anne-Marie 10/17/2011 5:34:33 PM Hi! I just read your critique of Alice Miller and I totally agree! I am reading \"Thou Shalt Not Be Aware \" (well I believe this is the one but it\'s in french so I\'m not sure it\'s the same one). I read \"Prisonners of childhood\" and \"For your own good\" already. My therapist made me read her and I love it, even if this is so scary. When I read and realize how we repeat our patterns on our children, I realized like you said that it would be wrong to have children before being healed. I totally agree with what you said, that we should heal before having children, or we WILL repeat the abuses on our child. I don\'t have children, but I have cats and I realize that I repeat some patterns on them. I also repeat a lot of patterns on my boyfriend, and I can\'t have children before being healed because I know that my relationship with him won\'t survive. I have anxiety disorders when I am in couple only, and when I\'m not in couple I look to find a boyfriend to repeat the patterns all the time. I can\'t have children in these circomstances! Now it\'s so obvious to me! I believe everyone in the world needs to go see a therapist (with Alice\'s philosphy and yours) and heal themselves, right now! We should consult therapists like we go to the doctor for physical problems. About self-therapy, I haven\'t read your book and I just watched your first part video of self-therapy, but what I\'m wondering is: Isn\'t it dangerous to do a self-therapy without any outside help? I am doing a therapy witha therapist and we\'re working with PNL techniques and talking about Alice\'s theories, but sometimes it is so terrifying... like, I can have panic attacks sometimes, and I need someone to tell me I\'m not crazy and that I can trust, someone that can give me that compassion I never had in my childhood to go through my healing. I don\'t think I can do this alone. You believe we can do this alone? I\'ll continue reading and watching your stuff, thank you for sharing all of this. 🙂 Paul Boulton-Bland 10/15/2011 2:16:06 PM Thanks for making this site,I am currently writing about the buse I suffered as a child and the effect it has on my life now.Best wishes Paul Jailen 10/13/2011 12:21:21 PM #Which female professionals do you know out there to help work with women on their trauma issues? #My fear is recommending Somatics and CBT too early in the process or a professional, who in her own struggles with countertransference would unconsciously promote decompensation. #We are definitely going to stay away from hypnosis (like you mentioned), and over-fetishsizing the unconscious world, prior to stabilization of factual surroundings. #Laymen\'s terms for everyone here-I don\'t want to recommend someone who has too many unresolved problems to work with a traumatized woman just because she needs trust and stability to begin soon. Which women in the field have books you could recommend? #I realize that you are a man, and that perhaps your trauma was RA from a female \"role model\", esp. in light of this, she wants to know who you see would be a rational choice and why? #As an anecdote, I can think personally how men have been failed and in this world. P.S. The \"How to Love\" by Lil Wayne is how her life was/is going, and she needs a change. Thanks, J Marian 10/10/2011 2:16:51 PM Daniel, I, too, am working to heal childhood trauma and wish us both success in that effort. Do you know the Tao de Ching? (I like Stephen Mitchell\'s translation/interpretation.) I\'m guessing you will not take to it at first, but might over time. FWIW, I have experienced a Kundalini awakening, offering Grace for days at a time, which affirms for me every word in the Tao. Blessings on your journey... Garlena 10/10/2011 1:07:50 AM Hi Daniel, It is very obvious that there is a higher power working in your life and you are listening. I am on a journey based in faith, moving into new and exciting things. Working on my PhD as a Counselor Educator & Supervisor, focusing on what I can do to make a difference. I always look for the good in others and know whatever path I walk down God will bring people into my life to assist, encourage, motivate and love. Keep up the good work. Pat 10/7/2011 1:17:49 AM \"My goal, after all, is not just to heal myselfâ??but to change the whole world.\" I have no doubt you\'ll have a major influence. It\'s wonderful that you have the opportunity to explore the possibilities (esp. with all this varied experience behind you) - and your own potential further at a relatively young age. Wish I had started earlier (I\'m 70) but let\'s not waste a minute on regrets - or others\' not \'getting it\'.... Thanks for all you\'ve done so far! 🙂 J. T. Turner 10/6/2011 4:37:04 AM I was intrigued by your film \"Take These Broken Wings\" and produced a film myself called \"Crazy Art\" about three schizophrenics in California who use their art to help them cope with their symptoms, perhaps even take some steps on the road of recovery. If you want to find out more, check out www.crazyartonline.com Lorre Mendelson in Nashville,TN 9/17/2011 8:41:13 PM LOVED your song on the Wellness works site- very creative, best, Lorre Mendelson Katy Tomlinson 9/17/2011 2:34:55 PM Are you anti-abortion? I just read in your critique of Alice Miller that you say abortion is murder. I have had an abortion. You are in essence calling me a murderer. Are you a vegetarian? If not you are just as much a murderer as I am. meg chadwick 9/15/2011 4:00:29 AM I found your \'dissociation mimics enlightenment\' section very helpful, thankyou 🙂 You may be interested in the following site http://www.clarity-of-being.org/index.htm Goddard also produces music and has lots to say about psychiatry.... Regards, Meg Maximus Peperkamp 9/4/2011 3:03:05 AM Dear Daniel, thank you sharing your insight about Alice Miller. I would love to talk with you and share with you something I have found out. My skypename is limbicease I am a 4rd year Ph.D. psychology student and I think we have a lot in common. I look forward to hear from you. Katty 8/20/2011 3:25:55 AM This is way more helpful than atnyhnig else I\'ve looked at. Martin Camden 8/19/2011 9:53:40 PM All of your words could have come straight out of my mouth. I have recovered from \"bi-polar disorder\" through self-therapy and through teaching myself life skills. I think that we could both take each other to the next level. We really must have a conversation. +44 (0)20 3551 8688 Skype=optimaxim. Andrea 8/18/2011 12:19:02 AM What you have to say is true about childhood trauma. But, you do seem to have extremely high standards for parents such as a child strapped in a stroller is abuse. Do you have children of your own? How do you raise these children in your perfect world and still get all the chores done without a fuss? Sandra 8/16/2011 8:15:03 AM I basically completely agree that people should work on themselves a Lot before having children. i have two children and I have worked on myself Some, still in process, and I am doing it for them, because I want them to at some point be free. It is my hope, though the problem is even if one person clears out traumas, there are many people in a child\'s life. Only so much can be done at a time, at least for me. Though healing children and people and then raising healthy children is probably the absolutely BEST thing! I love it, I hope someday it is the new Norm! I am hopeful. One thing I wanted to suggest though, is that on the therapy level alone it is probably impossible to clear out all trauma, it is not a powerful enough method. i know this is a not accepted yet, but energy healing works, and can get to the trauma on its most subtle level. Even so it takes time and effort. But I think even with the most strict personal examination it is impossible to clear All the Trauma and not carry some to children!!!!!! As I said i am not clear yet, but I am still working on it. I recognize that, and I know I probably should have done better, I am sorry to my children for that. Michael Goldfield 8/14/2011 3:18:24 AM Daniel, you have a superb site. I would love to see you add a link to www.nospank.net Thanks! You degenerate. 8/10/2011 4:29:44 PM Omg, you are so fucking retarded. I just read the article about Van Winkle. If you think science is not big of a proof about findings for personal trauma and inner sight is and thinking or whatever than you should make Winkle your guru because no one have lived more traumatizing thing than her. Omg, go suicide yourself and stop reading only pathetic american authors. Omg,omg. DionysusVictorious 8/10/2011 2:35:43 PM Life is a tragedy itself, those who seek to make it normal are fighting the roots of life itself and that\'s the only reason they are..sick...decadents. Affirm life as horrible as it is in it\'s deepest roots and relieve yourself from the pathetic lies of modern normality. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Michael Goldfield 8/10/2011 4:18:54 AM Loved your \"Brief Nutshell of your POV\" Katrina Masterson 8/10/2011 1:33:24 AM Hi Daniel, One of our Facebook members from Project NoSpank shared your link on our wall - he posted your short essay and you got a lot of \"likes.\" Your journey is commendable. You broke the intergenerational cycle of abuse and now you offer a path of healing for others. And your introspection is giving others permission to do the same. And, I like that you\'re marching to the tune of your own drummer. We grow and change over a lifetime so it makes perfect sense that your career path no longer fits you now. I\'m sorry for your painful, early path. But I\'m grateful for the insights you\'ve learned, and which you\'re sharing with others. I\'m writing my own survivor memoir and learning that contact with my family is becoming more and more difficult. It\'s ok. Your advice makes perfect sense and it\'s synchronistic I should find your website tonight. Thank you for your insight and guidance, here. I wish you the very best! Sincerely, Katrina Masterson Sandra Stanley 8/9/2011 9:40:59 PM I am an ally....:)) thx! san and \'lil san Stephen G. Boren 8/9/2011 5:37:09 PM Thanks for standing up and speaking out for many who can\'t speak for themselves. I find you ideas very interesting and agree with most all of them. I can\'t stand what Big Pharma is doing to, not only the American people, but what they\'re attempting to do all across the world. Such greed as theirs has never been witnessed before!

Dr. Chu 5/7/2011 2:34:37 PM As a clinical psychologist and a survivor of child abuse, I appreciate Miller\'s work tremendously. Still, I too found her limitations in what you have mentioned in your writing. Thank you for sharing your thoguhts. p 4/27/2011 1:33:23 PM Very impressed of your efforts to cure schizophrenia without drugs. I am mildly surprised that a talent as young as yours has decided to move onward to other things! I trust you know best! I appreciate your past contributions, watching for more in the future wherever they may be. p 4/27/2011 1:28:17 PM Daniel, don\'t get me wrong, I\'m not trying to troll at all! I happen to disagree with maybe 50% of your content, well, what else is new? Maybe an opportunity for both to learn from each other. I\'m touched by your first paragraph of your \'about the writer\' page, I too am part of that large population of \'not so well cared for\' grown up kids. I wish you growth on your journey and perhaps some good conversations! If you have the patience or the time, have a look at tarpley.net, he\'s a historian who is popular everywhere except the USA, viz. listen to his \"From Guy Fawkes to 9/11...\" video at http://tarpley.net/speeches-and-lectures/?page_id=&id=#From-Guy-Fawkes-to-9-11 as it addresses scientific reductionism via Occam\'s razor. He also comments about Darwin, Galton, Malthus, all being either wrong, plagiarists, or paid lackies re the overpopulation debate. John Paul Gatto also touches on the real work we should be wary of by Darwin, The Descent of Man, but he\'s a New Yorker so you\'ve probably already heard of him. I think it\'s a cop-out to cite overpopulation as an excuse not to have kids (I didn\'t have the time to read your site, just guessing). p 4/27/2011 1:13:19 PM Did a fast read of your \"enlightenment/children\" essay. You don\'t really know what enlightenment is. Try visiting Toronto, there\'s a sifu who teaches enlightenment to students who can heal independent of distance and time. Sounds as nutty to me as it probably does to you. My best friend in high school is a student there, as hard nosed and skeptical as anyone you\'d meet (engineer, atheist, brilliant at his work) but he described to me how they obtain this enlightenment through very specific instruction. I\'d be happy to let your readers know how to find this little teaching institution but it\'s all done in Mandarin. I\'d imagine I\'ve just scratched the surface of \'enlightenment\' and I gather you can use that term any way you choose, but I think it\'s too loose to be useful or valid. p 4/27/2011 1:08:17 PM Adigo comments to your review of it were not convincing. You need a better map. For instance, I spoke to my uncle in 1985 when he was working with 4 NIH grants at the same time. He was 35 at the time. He said he\'d travel throughout the world and inspected a large number of alternative cures and treatments, ALL having nonsensical explanations or protocols; he said they worked but he could not explain how. Anyhow, he was in Time Magazine\'s \"America\'s Top Scientists\" cover story, I won\'t divulge who he is, since I don\'t know you well enough to pester him the way you argued in that amazon.com comment thread. ina 4/24/2011 9:25:36 PM Wow...finally i heard someone speaking some of my thoughts and words for the first time. I wish I could turn my life into something with more sense...i felt many callings in my life, but didn\'t have the strength to follow through with anything and didn\'t overcome the obstacles yet. I didn\'t manage to learn anything properly in my life so far. I didn\'t have time to learn much or think about what I want because of troubles others caused me or I had myself...now I have some freedom and support for the first time and nothing seems to work. Your website was one of these signs in bad times...it is good to see that I am not alone thinking common sense that does not fit with most people...even if they had a lot of painful experiences and are traumatised. Yet they don\'t want to face it, have all kinds of addictions and make others feel guilty and weird who try to sort out their traumas for themselves and the rest of the world. Everyone who managed to keep or find emotions will do that. I hope there will be more people like that too in the future. To me it seems being in the world means a lot of responsibility...tiering sometimes. Thank you for sharing your journey, you\'ve come so far. And inspire others. A Good Mother 4/19/2011 2:55:09 AM You should become a father before you start judging parents in such harsh ways...I used to talk like you before I became a mother. I was sexualy abused as a child but had a pretty ok family/parents. I simply cannot and do not feel towards my parents as you do towards yours and the way you judge other parents. I now give my kids as much of me as possible but I am sure not to your standard...which does not make me a bad parent. Colin Hughes 4/13/2011 11:02:03 AM If you ever took the trouble to examine the book Alcoholics Anonymous you nwould find that it has a Chapter entitled Spiritual Experience. At the bottom of the first page it says \"With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected INNER resource which they presently identify with THEIR OWN conception of a power greater than themselves\" It then goes on to say if you happen to be religious you can call it god. It really annoys me that people like yourself assume that all of the 12 Step fellowships are made up of \"God Botherers\" this is just not trueas you would find out if you took time to investigate. I am a recovered alcoholic of many, many years who doesn\'t believe in god of any sorts but through actually doing the steps I found my real self within me under many years of false beliefs, lies I was told etc and the steps are designed to facilitate this discovery!! Brenda Burningham 4/7/2011 2:07:02 AM Daniel : I do apologize I may have begun my first comment to you by using another name. This is another issue that has plagued my for many years. It was not meant as a slight. Brenda Burningham 4/7/2011 1:53:31 AM Nick : Just found your website, after being linked to your long and insightful critique of Alice Miller\'s thoughts as published in her books, translated to English for us. It\'s obvious that my own intellectual development (something that was very important to me) was hampered by my own unresolved childhood issues, for you voiced many of the responses and inconsistencies that I myself noted while reading her works, yet dismissed within myself by criticizing my own assessment as that of an amateur intellectual (because I did not have the credentials she had). So I have bookmarked your website and will explore it some more. Thank you! What the... 4/1/2011 6:31:29 PM Many parents go wrong with the approach...the childs needs outway everything else...this creates grown people that have a hightned sense of entitlement. We are all equal. the needs of the child do not outway the needs of the family. The needs of the family do not outway the needs of the community. James Richardson 3/27/2011 4:29:15 PM Excellent review on Stephen Mitchell\'s \"The Enlightened Mind\" book. Perceptive. Your comments on dissociation should be more widely expressed by others. And that much religious behaviors are nothing more than hypnosis. I find compartmentalization the main operator in educated religious folk I run across. It is amazing, as though there are several separate selves in there, which others have suggested is quite typical (Shah, Ornstein). That said, the topic has always been my favorite one , and I do like many of these sages\' suggestions in the book. I just read above in one of your guestbook comments \"The purpose of life is to depend on God and to glorify him.\" Uh, sure...that will improve the world for us all (not). God\'s Fan Club has not done a great overall job so far, IMO, no matter which god one picks. I am becoming more convinced each year that the materialists are correct. At any rate, you have a fine website. Len Lempa 3/4/2011 7:52:37 PM Hello. Just recently found this website. I am a social worker from Illinois and am currently working in a hospital setting. I am increasingly dissatisfied and frustrated with what passes for treatment here in the states. Just want to put out that some of us need to start coming together and creating programs modelled after the work that is happening in Finland and Sweden. We also have the models that Loren Mosher worked with at Soteria House back in the 1970s. Our system is so entrenched in the biomedical pharmaceutical institutional model that it is hard to imagine breaking out of it. If it can be done elsewhere though there is no reason change can\'t happen here. I am curious if there are places where people of a similar mindset may be able to meet up. Nick Arrizza M.D. 3/3/2011 5:45:50 PM You may find my work particularly resonant with much of what you speak of. If ever you wish to talk kindly let me know. Thanks Nick Arrizza M.D. http://telecoaching4u.com K.Sarvela 2/25/2011 5:54:02 PM Thanks for your wonderful youtube clips of childhood traumas and healing processes. I would have like to order your booklet (Childhood Trauma and Enlightment) but your system did not accept my finnish telephone number. It told me that it is unvalid :). I sure would have liked to get it. I am a hypnotherapist and I have done my healing process by journaling using the method of ego state. I created an inner theater and went through retrospective and teleologial process after a chaotic life situation. I wrote everyday about 4-6 hours for oone year. Your book would have been so interesting! Androulla 2/15/2011 8:51:46 PM Daniel I\'ve just had a weekend fest-a-thon on your YouTube videos, which were very timely, much needed & gratefully received. I\'ve been through much & agree with pretty much 99% of what you say. So, am just saying \'thank you very much\' for taking the time to reach out and help others, like me. Kind regards Androulla, London, UK Cathy 2/13/2011 6:13:57 AM Daniel! I stumbled across your work on Youtube and couldn\'t stop listening. The words you speak touch my heart. I am overwhelmed. As an educator for 25 years and a mother of two grown sons, I understand your thoughts about going back to childhood issues. I wonder if you have touched on forgiveness for your parents\' mistakes as a part of your self-therapy. Forgiveness is a powerful tool to allow a person to heal deep wounds and to then take personal responsibility for one\'s own growth and enlightenment. Thank you very much for sharing your insights with the world... David Rouge 2/12/2011 5:44:01 PM Great to see you today. Will read up shortly.. Just wanted to let you know I am organizing a presentation at Good Shepherd Church by James Gilligan, a shrink/scholar in residence at NYU who studies/writes about violence. Hope you can come if you are still in New York. David

Juliano 12/15/2010 7:40:40 PM Hi Daniel I have just heard your interview you did with Madness radio. HOW can I communicate how it made me feel....? my whole organism wanted to cry with ecstasy. I am So inspired by you and your loving energy--not only for seeing right through the crap, but acting on that. I am not a down-like person though I can be as I am human. I do a lot of research and come up against a lot of dehumanization that makes my whole organism want to be sick, but you Daniel, and people like you restore my faith in humanity. Any more of this and YOU may be sick....LOL haha, but seriously I cannot express how you make me feel. SO INSPIRED I WANNA DANCE AND SICG AND LAUGH AND CRY Peace and Love Juliano mary 12/15/2010 9:41:17 AM am interested in listening to your music but cannot seem to do so. Is there some trick to listening that i am missing. Living in Ireland and am passionate about the whole area you are involved in. Have moved out mostly of conventional, institutional areas and carving a new niche which continues to benefit all. Have been a single parent for 20 years !! and do very very well considering. www.dancingtheworlds.com Mary Michele 12/8/2010 11:24:34 PM Hello, I am a 35 yr old female I just found out about your film \"take these broken wings\" I have been diagnoised with schizophrenia. I have been on and off medications(many different anti psyotics, all have horrible side effects) for years with some success at times other great failures. I perfer to hear my voices so often i will take a small dose of med to \"take the edge off\" other times I try to do it on my own. I have finally found a psychiatrist that is willing to support me regardless of I am on and off medicataion. I have a wonderful therapist that is not sold that i can be of medications but continues to work with me. I have currently been off medications a few months with minor problems but am slowly regaining my footing and going on with life. Its really encouraging to know there are others out there that have the same illness as me and have done it without medication espicaly when I have been told since diagnosis that I would be on an anti psyotic for the rest of my life. TS 12/8/2010 10:45:47 PM I know you and you know me, we have met before. We have seen each other on the streets talked with little words but much meaning, I apologize for not realizing who you were and for not knowing who I was. Although I know now that we will find each other again. There are so many people but so few souls. This world is covered with seeds but is starving for trees and water. We have all the time in the world to play with but little time to live it. I have been watching closer than I ever have before. I am awake now and ready to play this game of peace. We are so lucky to be here. We will have more fun than we ever had before. Itâ??s time to live our lives and not the lives of others. If you feel it you will be looking as I have been for you. Itâ??s lonely but there is hope. We can help others help themselves. You will meet me when I am down. I will meet you when you are hurt. When your car has broken down on the road I will be the one with tools. When you are lost I will be the one to hand you the map. There is only one way to meet each other and you know where to look. I wait in your memories and your dreams. If you have ever met me you will never stop looking for me. There is much to share; we will grow faster and stronger when we find each other. We were learning from our history as none have before us. We now wear a mask not to hide from who we are but from fear from others if they see our face. We were not born to play the role of statues but to be the ones to carve them. Suzi Wong 12/6/2010 11:06:08 PM I have been looking at your views on Alice Miller and as someone who has faced her own history (depths of my soul) I find your challenge of her rather Narcissistic. I totally get Hubris. I get the context and I feel you are the one confusing things. It seems like an infantile and pointless challenge. Why would you bother? What are you trying to prove? Have you faced your own history? This is the truth of how I feel after reading your piece. God Bless Suzi Eveline MacDougall 12/4/2010 10:01:08 PM I just watched \"Take These Broken Wings\" and I think your work holds so much essential hope. People like you help to save the world by speaking the truth about so many things. You are no doubt labelled by some \"misguided\", but I think you are the real deal. Thank you. Keep at it. I would guess you have changed lives, and will change many more. I don\'t believe in buying holiday gifts (I usually make my own) but this year, even though I am fairly low-income, I am purchasing your DVD for each member of my immediate family. Rock on. Colin Hughes 11/20/2010 11:34:40 AM Sorry that you\'ve never met a recovered alcoholic or really read the AA book if you had done you would have a different view of the 12 Steps and their outcome. I sincerely hope that you change your views especially as you seem to be about helping others. Stephen 11/19/2010 11:31:56 PM Hi, Is it possible to buy take these broken wings as a download? opeyemi parham, M.D. 11/14/2010 3:29:45 PM So good to met you, Daniel! I am spreading the word abut your DVD, and this website. We \"feral\" healers (having left the domesticated end of the spectrum and now thriving in the wild) should support each other. Check out my essay at my website, \"Why I stopped doctoring\" http://ceremonyheals.wordpress.com/2008/06/ and this great new book \"Hope Beneth Our Feet\", in which I have an essay titled, \"Waking From Despair\": (http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Beneath-Our-Feet-Restoring/dp/1556439199) Sharon O\'Farrell 11/14/2010 11:30:55 AM Hi Daniel, I am a psychotherapist in Ireland and am also an adult survivor of trauma and abuse. I \'\'accidentally\'\' stumbled across your work here this morning and am reading all your essays with great interest. I\'ll be back in touch soon as I would like to connect with you to discuss some issues you have highlighted that I also see in my day to day life and work. Siobhan Ni Laighin 10/31/2010 5:05:14 AM Hi, I stumbled on your website after listening to an interview on Madness Radio (interview with Cathy Penny). At first glance I notice a few things that jump out at me....you ended your therapist practice on my birthday earlier this year...... You\'ve just returned from Ireland (where I grew up and continue to visit annually)....you\'ve been influenced by Alice Miller (me too).....but mostly you see trauma in childhood where most people don\'t. I have some experience with madness (I\'ve been hospitalised twice, 7 years apart). I have a 9 year old son. We live in Seattle, mainly so I can be involved in a school community which considers childrens freedom something worth preserving....it\'s a democratically run school where kids get the same vote as an adult, make the rules and choose how to spend their time. I have not yet delved into your written materials on the site but am looking forward to it during my coming hibernation over the winter months. If I\'m inspired, I\'ll write more comments. Siobhan Jorge 10/9/2010 10:13:20 AM Hi Daniel, im a 29 years olf guy from Spain, i found your youtube videos very useful, is like though you i can can see reflected parts of me that have never been seen in other person. I also have been journaling for many years, with a similar acttitude, and muy aims in life are similar as well.I have one question, as i see here in your web your degree is in biology, how could you be a terapist ? is legal there in american? which are your credentials for the patients? Parcel 10/3/2010 11:38:34 PM Hi Dan, I would like to thank you for explaining what I went thro and why, cos it all starts to make sense now. Thank you so much. I became a Christian in 1990 and only then did the healing process begin, and boy was it painfull! Its still going on now, and having to come to terms with the fact that my mother abused me, my father was never around to protect me, I never felt loved, living in many houses in various parts of the country and attending many schools ,growing up with someone who apparently is my brother, has been very traumatic. Only now am I starting to realise I went thro all this stuff for a purpose and thro it all, as healing follows, I can help others who may go thro similiar experiences. This is (I believe) so that God gets all the honor and the glory. Until I came to \"know\" the Lord, my life was a mess. Thanks Parcel Millie 10/1/2010 10:42:28 AM I read your ctitique of Judith Herman\'s book and I don\'t really agree with you. I\'ve experienced the extreme trauma that she\'s discussing and I find it unhelpful that so much work about surviving trauma is about less extreme situations. Maybe we need two different words. I can see that betrayal, disillusionment, lack of nurturing etc causes psychic wounding and affects individuals and society, but it can\'t be put into the same category as being subject to intense, deliberate and extreme trauma. They\'re different things. I also think the \"every rapist was himself raped\" argument is interesting but narrow. I\'m not sure it\'s only trauma that causes trauma. Lack of personal challenge/achievement and engagement leaves people open to indoctrination, depersonalisation, lienation and an exaggerated sense of entitlement. And your argument doesn\'t have a mirror image - not everyone who was raped becomes a rapist - so what does that mean for your statement? Daniel Mackler 9/25/2010 7:11:51 AM Hi all---thanks for the comments---I enjoy reading them. I was basically offline for a month, living in Ireland editing two new films, and have just returned to read the guestbook. About the father who takes a five year son to violent, graphic movies---well...to me that\'s just horrible, plain and simple. Terrible for the child, on who-know-how-many levels. Also, Nick wrote several very personal entries on this guestbook and later emailed me asking that I remove them, which I did---so I just wanted people to know that I\'m not arbitrarily removing people\'s entries!! It is very nice to read what people write---I very much appreciate it. Also, one of these days I\'m going to be adding more material to this website, and updating it more and more and more.... Soon, when I have the time! All the best, Daniel Rachel 9/25/2010 2:54:01 AM Daniel, your site is extremely interesting. What you talk about, i always knew and felt, raising my own children, but i could never explain it. Becoming a mother i realized how much a child depends on their parent, especially the state of mind they are in and the emotions they display. I can\'t believe more people don\'t realize this. I try so hard to remain aware of my childrens\' sensitivity to thier parents\' behavior. Thank u for sharing all your insight! I knew there were people like you out there.

Patricia Humphreys 6/20/2010 7:46:40 PM Hi Daniel. I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart and congratulate you on your documentary Take These Broken Wings. It was incredibly helpful to me and my daughter, who has recently been diagnosed with Schizophrenia. She has been told she has a hopeless brain disease and will need to take mind disabling medication for life, \"like insulin for diabetes.\" The ubiquitous medical model in North America is a hard thing to oppose. I think the public desperately needs to know more about the history of the treatment of mental illness, the amazingly optomistic long-term recovery rates of those who are not medicated, and the dubious benefits of (not to mention skyrocketing profit from) neuroleptic drugs. I hope that your film will receive much wider distribution. Many many thanks!~ P. Carrie 6/18/2010 8:32:03 PM I\'m so interested in your views Daniel. I\'m reading Toward Truth just now and would really like to know what you think about \'psychopathy\'. My very limited understanding of psychopaths is that they make some kind of decision, from their early and severe wounding, to only care about themself. I don\'t believe what they do IS that, I think, it might be part of what they believe. Isn\'t this kind of closing off from people a rejection of humanity? I think lots of supposedly non-psychopaths do this too. I wonder about the extent of the turning away from others that you advocate. It troubles me. Cheryl Jonas 6/10/2010 1:51:02 AM Hi Daniel. We met serendiptiously when you were filming at Windhorse. You and I drove over to a \"voices\" meeting and had a great conversation along the way.You gave me the name of a good alternative psychiatrist in Chicago and I am hoping you can re-send that information, since I can\'t find it. I hope your travels and the sites your are filming are being all that you hoped. Emily 5/29/2010 6:23:03 AM Hi Daniel- Thank you for your contribution of this website to these important issues. I like much of what you write. I am also someone who has remained childless (and celibate in recent years) trying to get clean of my traumatized past through therapy and a lot of reading, including Alice Miller. Two things I wanted to mention: 1. I found studying the broader social system of patriarchy (where men control the resources and compete with each other for them and are basically raised to ignore their emotions in furtherance of this \"heroism\" which often includes risking their lives, and where women become objectified and are valued only for fertility) enormously helpful in resolving some issues of why so many people have difficult childhoods. I would recommend Terry Real\'s book \"I Don\'t Want to Talk About It,\" any of Michael Kimmel\'s books, and Alan Johnson\'s book \"The Gender Knot.\" I am a woman and have been interested in trying to find a hetero man (perhaps a co-author) who might be interested in cooperatively looking at the contemporary issues associated with how patriarchy is sort-of unraveling to more equality of the sexes and how this relates to the possibility of reducing trauma in the culture. 2. You talk a lot about seeking perfection and purity. I am not sure that this is necessary? While having standards is important and you include some important standards in your various articles posted here, many of which I agreed with, I think sometimes a calling these standards \"good enough\" is a little easier to swallow? Isn\'t perfectionism a classic coping mechanism (almost an addiction in itself) for trauma survivors? Diane Craig 5/25/2010 6:36:01 AM Please take into consideration the following: Alcoholics Anonymous has helped hundreds of thousands of alcoholics recover from what seemed to be a hopeless situation and from which they were dying. I am one of those. And though I agree that the alcoholic could further their spiritual enlightenment, there are many, like myself who have discovered not only spiritual awakenings by working the 12 steps but enhancement through other self-help programs. Self-mastery is one by which I have found much discipline. But I would plead with you not to take anything away from AA by discouraging the alcoholic from going to seek the beginnings of what may be the best part of life, sobriety, and allow the alcoholic to take what they need and put the rest aside for future reference. You could be saving a life simply by stating the number of people who have found a hopeful beginning there. The book Alcoholics Anonymous states that they only touched the surface. This leaves the alcoholic plenty of room to seek enlightenment in whatever manner they see fit. Personally, I was raised in a loving home where I recieved lots of hugs and kisses and attention. It was just never enough. The very first time I drank, I lost all control over how much I was to drink that night. No one poured it down my throat, no one forced me to drink and we were not playing a card game. I just drank til all the booze was gone. Being alcoholic simply means that the person has lost the control to stop drinking and then they \"think\" they can control it next time. Please re-think what kind of influence you might be placing on the next would be alcoholic who reads your pages. You could be saving a life or detrimental to another. Rosas - 45 y.o. NYC resident 5/24/2010 5:25:30 AM Hello Daniel, great website. Also if not for your website links, I would still have not known of Alice Miller\'s passing just a month ago. I support your work and efforts and undoubtedly appreciate all that you have done and are doing. I need to spend more time reading and thinking on your site. Thanks again. curious n 5/18/2010 3:23:29 PM Hi I just wanted to share my deep saddness at Alice Miller\'s death. She was a great woman who dared to voice the unspeakable truth of the suffering many children have/had at the hands of their parents. The very hands of the people who were meant to love and protect their children. I hope she is resting in peace. The world is a sadder place without her. daxe 5/15/2010 8:07:47 PM Thanks for the \"Critique of Alice Miller\" youTube videos. I would lie to caution against your conclusion to not have children unless you have resolved all your issues. I haven\'t, and i do have two small children. I waited a long time (resolving many issues), but when would i ever know if i was done? Can you be sure about yours? Anyway, it was good for me to realize fully that my parents are children themselves. I almost want to say: parents are children and children are parents. You seem to seek such purity. That is dangerous. It is exactly what Hitler did, isn\'t it? Could you say when you are pure enough to have a child? Could you have told me not to? curious n 5/12/2010 4:14:17 PM Hi daniel, Thanks for being a sane mirror in an insane world. I agree with most things you write, however hearing how you have been able to work for the last 10 years, do music, make films, have some healthy relationships with supportive friends, highlights something for me... I do not want to make light of all your suffering in your child, however I would like to suggest some of us have been so traumatised that we have not been able to function in the world as you have clearly been able to. it is also extremly difficult if not impossible to cut from all romantic links, if the only relationship you have is your partner. And if leaving your partner, cuts you off from all human contact, then that is an isolation that no human being should have to expereince. I do not say it is a bad idea to cut off romantic relationships, but some people have been so traumatised that it would take years, if not their whole life before significant healing can take place. I need human contact and friendship even if it is distorted through the lense of my trauma! I want to end by saying thankyou for all your affirming work and revelations. I love your songs and in part they make me cry when I need to, get in touch with my anger to action things, but most of all they help in giving me the courage to know the work I am doing on myself is worthwhile, within a world that relates to me as unhealthy for daring to look at my childhood in such detail. It is mostly a lonely endeavour, so it is good and esential to have a mirror that reflects my struggles, and reflects much of my sensed truth. Daniel LeBlanc 5/11/2010 9:27:51 PM Hey, Daniel. I\'ve been enjoying you\'re videos and essays on here, in part because I may have finally met someone as bitter about their childhood as me! \"Mom\" was a manipulative control freak that had me as a servant-pet, and \"Dad\" was a workaholic, TV-aholic who barely spoke to me. I\'ve gone most of my my life untrustful of the world and most people, and I often regret having been born. I\'m currently trying to overcome the bitterness steaming from the realization of what has happened to me; have you worked past this yet? Also, I was wondering if you\'ve ever considered looking into Ayahuasca shamanism as a cataylst for growth and healing?? I\'m very interested in this approach and hope to make a trip out to Peru next year. Thanks, and keep up the evolving positive growth. Karen Caswell 4/25/2010 4:58:44 AM Hi Daniel. I just finished reading A Way Out of Madness and want to say THANK YOU in such a big way!!! Wow! Amazing, much needed book! I feel inspired and validated, not only as a newbie therapist, but as a person who can relate to so many of the experiences & challenges described in this book. I\'ve even shared one chapter with a support group I facilitate. Also, I truly appreciate your story and how accessible and open you allow yourself to be...in the book and here on the website. It brought tears to my eyes many times...and simultaneously I feel overjoyed by the fact that you are in this world, touching other peoples\' lives. When you look inside I hope you love what you find! Many blessings ~K Ian 4/15/2010 6:28:43 AM Daniel, can I ask what methods of self-reflection you yourself used to get to where you are today? Perchance would it have been some form of Vipassana meditation? Also I\'d like to make the suggestion that you implement some sort of search function on your site, so those seeking specific passages can find them more readily. Glorioso 4/12/2010 1:20:10 AM Whew, that below was a tense moment. I came across your site as I was looking for more on Alice Miller. I was so sad about my family history, all the loses and survival guilt as I am the last one. My kids are doing really well and I have the time now to do the work I have always needed to do but did not have the time to do. Alice Miller\'s work makes the most sense in understanding how I experienced a really rough childhood. Being closer to her age than yours, I wonder if in some ways, I may have some of the same limitations. I have changed so much over the years as I met certain milestones in my life. I worked with families and their teenagers and had to walk a fine line on how I dealt with them. I found that work helped me understand some of the parents frustrations as well as the children. However, that could only take me so far in my own journey, of course and I know I have lots yet to uncover so am still interested in locating someone who uses the approach that helped you so much even if I do move beyond it (which I kind of doubt but...........) Glorioso 4/10/2010 9:09:07 PM Mom committed suicide. first brother died weighing a couple hundreds pounds over, second brother committed suicide. I became a social worker and have done a bit of childhood work but nothing this deep. Need to now at age 66, am not happy with state of internal state of affairs. Want to find a therapist that knows Ms. Millers work and can apply it. Help. Anastasia G. 3/23/2010 3:37:35 PM Hello Daniel and thank you so much for your videos (youtube) and your words. My na me is Anastasia i am an actress in Greece and i study psychodrama. i ve been doing all kinds of psychotherapy since the age of 21. It s been some days I started reading a book of Alice Miller having so many questions on my traumas and i steped by chance on your videos i just want to send a big thanks for your ideas,words,feelings. Your work will be a tool for me in my way of self therapy,,,,,i am in a moment where i change my life in lots of ways and its very important to find people and share my desires with....and my desire now is to be able to look inside and put in value all the elements of the inner self,,,,,,painful or not ,,,i decided that that s the only way ! again thank you so much ,, Anastasia Rich Hansen, M.D. 3/22/2010 9:01:07 PM What an impressive and amazing Youtubes of yours and Dr. Ross i\'ve just viewed for the first time today. Your web site is amazing. I\'ve been dealing with and treating schizophrenic people all of my seven decades of good living. ... i do wonder why you switched from practicing as a psychotherapist just this month. len 3/18/2010 11:10:46 PM Overpopulation is a myth, complete leftist propaganda. how many people are you willing to killl to save the Earth? Scarley 3/8/2010 10:51:59 PM I\'m a psychology student, and I just read your \'32 reasons why the Schizophrenogenic Mother is incorrect\' and to be perfectly honest, I\'m not entirely sure If you were aiming for humour, or just general off the wall wackiness. Some of your points are correct in a way, yet some of the other less \'blatant\' ones are incorrect. Daniel Mackler 3/5/2010 1:33:39 PM I want to thank everyone who has written on this guestbook! I love reading the comments---always good fuel for thought---and it\'s nice to get feedback too!! So appreciated! Also, this week I ended my psychotherapy practice---and began a new chapter of my life. Everything is changing for me, in a big way---all in a good direction, I hope! ---Daniel Daniel Mackler 3/5/2010 1:30:30 PM Hi Dan (Dan Philips), Good comments---thanks. I guess I should be more clear about why I linked to NAMI\'s definition of schizophrenia. NAMI is a backward, Big-Pharma-money-taking organization and yes, their definition of schizophrenia is very bad---surface and neurologically-oriented. I linked to it almost tongue-in-cheek to show how mainstream psychiatry views schizophrenia---in order to contrast with my point of view. But my error is that perhaps not everyone will understand that I explicitly attack NAMI\'s point of view and do not agree with it. (In fact, my movie directly criticizes NAMI.) So I should probably change the way I link if I give the wrong impression. Thanks for clueing me in---because others have probably wondered the same thing and just not told me. all the best, Daniel