Love & Rage : The Inner Worlds of Children – Nupur Dhingra Paiva

‘In sharp, insightful and empathetic prose, child psychologist and psychotherapist Nupur D Paiva draws a breathtaking map of the intense, bewildering and beautiful inner lives of children.’—Nilanjana S Roy
‘There’s something for everyone here, it’s a book to dip into in search for—perhaps not answers, but at least an understanding of the child’s inner world through the stories Paiva shares…’—Asian Age
‘Her writing is unpretentious, the book is without jargon, and filled with uncomfortable insights, even into the most unremarkable of childhoods.’—Livemint
‘Paiva has succeeded in creating a fresh introduction to the deeper meanings of the emotional life of a child (and his/her parents as well).’—Thomas M Brod, Associate Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, Geffen UCLA School of Medicine

Love & Rage is a book about children, both the child in those of us who are chronologically adult, as well as the children we may be interacting with. It takes a reader for a journey into their inner world of intense, raging emotions which often goes unheeded by the outside adult world.

With the trained ear of a child psychotherapist, the author listens to children’s stories as they emerge in her consulting room, through word and play, and translates them for adults. Supported by the author’s own personal associations and a bedrock of psychodynamic theory, the book throws light on what comes into a psychotherapist’s consulting room, and demonstrates that it is not unusual, bizarre or crazy. Instead, it is the ordinary stuff of everyday life, taking place in every family. That sometimes we all carry the pain of complex feelings within ourselves for all of our lives—love and rage towards the people we are closest to.

This book is essential reading for anyone close to children—parents and parents-to-be, teachers, school counsellors—but also for anyone looking to attend to the child within them.