Thanks for the link, I'm looking forward to checking into it further tomorrow. I feel like I'm eternally looking for an explanation or a specific reason behind what I view as unreasonable behavior my siblings and I have lived with our entire lives - that if I could ever understand how it all got started, it would bring me a greater degree of peace.

My childhood wasn't so much about physical abuse as verbal/mental/emotional abuse and it still exists today. When a child, for all practical purposes, never hears a positive, happy, encouraging or supportive word, when all he or she is subjected to every single day is criticism, ridiculous opinions, humiliation, etc., I don't know that it's possible to ever feel positive and if one cannot feel positive, how do they instill happiness and self esteem in their children?