Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
February 8th, 2010
abuse, Aftermath, Domestic, Political, recovery, Terror, trauma, Violencefrom Posted in Mental Health | 5 Comments 
- ISBN13: 9780465087303
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
When Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery was first published five years ago, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work. In the intervening years, Herman’s now classic volume has changed the way we think about and treat traumatic events and trauma victims. In a new introduction, Herman chronicles the incredible response the book has elicited and explains how the issues surrounding the topic of trauma and recovery have shifted within the clinical community and the culture at large. Trauma and Recovery brings a new level of understanding to a set of problems usually considered individually. Herman draws on her own cutting-edge research on domestic violence, as well as on a vast literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such as rape and public traumas such as terrorism. The book puts individual experience in a broader political frame, arguing that psychological trauma can be understood only in a social context. Meticulously documented and frequently using the victims own words as well as those from classic literary works and prison diaries, Trauma and Recovery is a powerful work that will continue to profoundly impact our thinking.
Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
February 8th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Counsellors will love this. Psychologists will love this. Psychiatrists will love this. If you are one of them, buy this book, you will love this. I guarantee. But anyone who has actually lived through any real trauma is going to roll their eyes.
Mainstream psychology seems to be completely based on books written by people who had never experianced the things they are writting about! It’s terrible! If any other author were to write a book on say, what it is like to like is Paris, when they have never lived there before, we would all laugh. But yet psychologists seem to get away with this all the time. And the usual therapy sheep have not yet been able to see this. The book is neatly written, and convincing, so that’s all that matters. But this is not a debate people -you are working with people’s lives here! There are consequences to getting it wrong!
There are so many people out there who seem content on taking advice on trauma from those that had never been through it. You would not take lessons on how to drive a car from someone who has never been in one -only watched others -so why is this any different? Take a moment to think about it! The answer may shock you!
I first read this book when I was 18, as a means to understand myself. But as I have grown up, this books seems increasily immature and shallow. Much of it is incorrect -as anyone who has been through trauma of any kind can tell you.
It has all the ingredients to be popular with therapists though. But if they were to actually take a closer look away from the well-written text, they would see that the world around them is not like this. It is not catorgorisable and predicatable. And these are not the answers to why people act this way. Time to tune into your logic and instinct here!
I certainly hope the author of this book is able to one day admit how egotistical it really is to claim such knowledge over topic she has not experainced. It honestly makes me quite angry that such a complex topic as trauma has been water-down to just this thin text that does nothing really to actually help anyone.
Do you disagree with me? Well, someone that hasn’t been through trauma themselves has no right to sing the praises of this book, so sit back down please. Beacuse I can tell you from a very personal point of view, that this book only begins to scratch the surface of the topic it claims to cover.
Very kindergarten level. Really only belongs on the shelf -next to the latest science fiction title.
Rating: 1 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Great book – could not put it down, very interesting.
Rating: 5 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Dr. Herman has a new book out with almost the same title; I have not read it, so don’t know how it compares to this one.
This seems to me to be a view of trauma from a feminist clinician and researcher’s point of view, not from a victim’s or survivor’s. The author is at pains to legitimize the fact of abuse to her psychiatric colleagues and to the public. Male readers will probably have a lot of trouble with it, since male survivors are mentioned almost exclusively when they are combat veterans. When a pronoun is used as a substitute for the word sufferer or the like, it is virtually always “she” or “her” — never “he” or “his” (unless it is to speak of the abuser). The author speaks of several periods of “amnesia” in the history of the psychology of trauma, the last one being reversed through the “political” efforts of the women’s movement. From this book it would appear that recognition of trauma affecting men outside of combat is still in a period of amnesia.
On the cover of the book is a quote: “One of the most important psychiatric works to be published since Freud — New York Times”. Now of course the New York Times said no such thing. It must be *someone* *at* the New York Times. The author cannot be held responsible for the book jacket, but to me it is representative of the blind spots or omissions in the book itself.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I am not sure if I missed the point here. This book was recommended by a Psychiatrist to help me understand P.T.S.D. I really did not learn anything I did not know.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
I bought this book for a class I’m taking in college. It was very helpful and informative. Herman discusses several different types of trauma and coping mechanisms.
Rating: 3 / 5