Tearing our ego's apart worked very well. If it was an ego we had to begin with. I think we had a lack of ego. If you grew up in a dysfunctional household to begin with, which made you dysfuntional in general (my case), it was like being stripped raw of skin really. I never saw any sympathy or empathy from my parents! They stuck me in that hell hole because no mental hospital would keep me...because there was nothing wrong with me! The problem was my dysfunctional parents! I was pretty much already prepared for the mental abuse...it was the emotional abuse I found difficult. Emotional abuse by other kids that did not know my background for the reality it was.
REMEMBER, WE WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO BLAME OUR PARENTS FOR ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, by the way, that rule still applies for my parents to this very day. They were given the free get out of jail card for all their past transgressions; but, we weren't allowed to get up in group to talk about how our parents beat the shit out of us or mentally tortured us with silent treatments & others forms of torture.
Miller must have made this rule up himself.