I am a senior Psychology student and this is seriously the most informative book I have read yet. It is extremely practical and well written, and gives a very comprehensive and well rounded view. I definitely recommend this book!

Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery is as viable a narrative of human relations now as it was when first published @15 years ago. In a post-September 11 world of domestic and global trauma, the text is a must-read for all of us, not just those who have experienced abuse. Understanding the long-term consequences of abuse not only for the victim but also for those around her is crucial to creating an environment of personal safety and growth. Realizing the benefits of witness can diminish the fear that blocks so many of us from getting involved both personally and politically in affairs that rock our faith in humanity. Trauma and Recovery is not just for those in the field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy; it is for all of us who have been shaken by the tremors of trauma - and that is all of us. Judith Herman as witness to both trauma and recovery sets a fine example for the power of testimony to change lives.

The subject matter is hard to read about in large doses but the
information is very very helpful and clear. It helped me see the issue
from the victims point of view.

Much of the info is distressing...our society is shown as self protective
and without compassion.

Not for idle reading but very helpful if one is suddenly put in a place
to help and understand the effects and recovery process.

This book is a must read for anyone, male or female, who has suffered tragedy/abuse due to someone else's actions and who is struggling to make sense of their lives in the aftermath. It's not fair to label this book as a post-traumatic stress book: it is soooo much more than that. The author explains how trauma affects the psyche: particularly the developing psyche, explains the cycle of abuse, explains crime and the criminal mind, and pedophile behavior in a way that no one has before. The author is bar none brilliant. I predict that this book will become a definitive psychology classic: as far as this book defines things that no one has before, makes obvious connections that no one has stated before. It is the ultimate connect the dot book for trauma. This book and should be reading required reading in all psychology courses and especially criminal psychology courses.

Written from the heart as well as the head, Trauma and Recovery is the best introduction to what is more technically known as post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. But don't let that scare you off! It is about what happens to people--may have happened to you or people you know--under conditions of fear, helplessness, torment, abuse, that many people discount as "not having been so bad really."

What Judith Herman shows very elegantly and simply is how the body and mind change, are altered at the physical level, even without our knowing it or sensing it. This book is, in her words, about "human vulnerability in the natural world" and about "the capacity for evil in human nature."

She even explains without rancor why at different times people have a backlash against the whole idea of abuse and trauma. This is an elegant and very compassionate book for understanding a particular kind of fracture of the human heart.

I love books that lift us up even as they delve into the broken places, and Judith Herman's book on Trauma is an enduring classic.

Traumatic experiences can permanently scar or change you. In this groundbreaking work, Judith Herman meticulously explores the impact of trauma on the human psyche, whether the trauma originates from a natural disaster, political terror, captivity or combat. Writing from a feminist political perspective, Herman also investigates traumas that result from domestic abuse, incest and rape, areas largely unexplored before the 1970s. She describes the symptoms of those who have experienced trauma, explains why they occur, puts forth a program for healing and sets it within a social matrix. This often-quoted book on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) changed the way those in the psychiatric fields diagnosed trauma. It also created a new model for treatment. As such, it is required reading for advanced psychology students, therapists, social workers and counselors, particularly those dealing with patients suffering from PTSD. While it is not for the casual reader, getAbstract recommends Herman's complex, carefully constructed analysis to people who have PTSD or know someone who does.

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.

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.

This book has been around for a while (first published in 1992), but it's still an excellent resource for understanding trauma. I believe that reading Trauma and Recovery will be helpful to trauma victims, although it does not cover current treatments such as EMDR, Somatic Experiencing (SE), and Energy Psychology (EP). --Fred P. Gallo, PhD, author of Energy Tapping for Trauma: Rapid Relief from Post-Traumatic Stress Using Energy Psychology

Judith Herman has done an incredible service to all mankind with this book.
This book is a must for women who have been victims of abuse and trauma.
Her amazing ability to understand and articulate trauma is nothing short of empowering!

I've read lots of books about trauma but this, by far, is the best I've found. It is written with great compassion and without bias. This is a well written clinical analysis of trauma in all it's forms and the recovery process which follows. I highly recommend.

This book was a suggested read from a counselor/pastor, and I'm glad I did. The author offers the reader an enlightening description and understanding of Complex PTSD. It is a great educational tool. It was exactly what was needed at the time. It can also be a good "first step" item. It helped pinpoint the issue and explain the authour's theories on addressing the issue. It set a great course to also find appropriate assistance. Armed with a name, understanding, and appropriate language the enlightened reader can pursue even more education and professional assistance if needed. This book turned out to be a light in a very dark place and I have already recommended it to others.

This book was a suggested read from a counselor/pastor, and I'm glad I did. The author offers the reader an enlightening description and understanding of Complex PTSD. It is a great educational tool. It was exactly what was needed at the time. It can also be a good "first step" item. It helped pinpoint the issue and explain the authour's theories on addressing the issue. It set a great course to also find appropriate assistance. Armed with a name, understanding, and appropriate language the enlightened reader can pursue even more education and professional assistance if needed. This book turned out to be a light in a very dark place and I have already recommended it to others.

Dr. herman looks at the molestations of people and describes the affects, both long term and short term, with a look at the recovery process. The atrocities are detailed. This book is very conclusive, scientific in its approach.

As the book points out, PTSD can be a more appropriate diagnosis and basis for treatment (than other personality disorders).

Traditionally PTSD is a diagnosis relating to a specific trauma resulting in a specific phobia; such as a dog-bite and a subsequent fear of dogs.

However, complex PTSD is much more nebulous. There are often multiple and repeated traumas occurring over long periods of time--often across several developmental stages.

Treatment of C-PTSD may involve prolonged therapy and medication. Perhaps most importantly the therapist or social worker must be willing to play a role in practical interventions, i.e, assuring the patient is safe and not experiencing continued trauma or abuse and that s/he develops a social support network.

For most C-PTSD patients recovery is a life long process. Without proper preparation and support regression is a constant threat, especially as patients enter new life stages and situations.

As the book points out, PTSD can be a more appropriate diagnosis and basis for treatment (than other personality disorders).

Traditionally PTSD is a diagnosis relating to a specific trauma resulting in a specific phobia; such as a dog-bite and a fear of dogs.

However, complex PTSD is much more nebulous. There are often multiple and repeated traumas occurring over long periods of time--often across several developmental stages.

Treatment of C-PTSD may involve prolonged therapy and medication. Perhaps most importantly the therapist or social worker must be willing to play a role in practical interventions, i.e, assuring the patient is safe and not experiencing continued trauma or abuse and that s/he develops a social support network.

For most C-PTSD patients recovery is a life long process. Without proper preparation and support regression is a constant threat, especially as patients enter new life stages and situations.

This is like a primer on PTSD. The other reviewers have explained the ways in which it comprehensively describes PTSD in soldiers, rape victims, children, and political prisoners. It is stunning in its indictment of the violence of our human world.

But it is not a self-help book, or only so in a limited sense. If you are a survivor of trauma and are experiencing PTSD, this book is a good place to start, in order to understand that your symptoms make sense and are shared by other survivors of abuse. In other words, you are not alone. It may help you to demand the safety and control of your environment that are necessary for healing. Sometimes other well-meaning people are naive about the safety requirements of traumatized people, and this book can help them understand what you need.

In order to start healing your body-mind, though, the book to go to is Trauma Releasing Exercises by David Berceli. He also has an excellent website. He has devised a series of exercises to help the many millions in our violent world who are suffering from trauma. So many of these people have no access to therapists, because the circumstances that made them vulnerable to abuse also make them poor and without access to health care. These exercises are easy to understand and to perform, and they do help the body release the chronic tension that drives so many of the debilitating psychological symptoms of trauma.

This is like a primer on PTSD. The other reviewers have explained the ways in which it comprehensively describes PTSD in soldiers, rape victims, children, and political prisoners. It is stunning in its indictment of the violence of our human world.

But it is not a self-help book, or only so in a limited sense. If you are a survivor of trauma and are experiencing PTSD, this book is a good place to start, in order to understand that your symptoms make sense and are shared by other survivors of abuse. In other words, you are not alone. It may help you to demand the safety and control of your environment that are necessary for healing. Sometimes other well-meaning people are naive about the safety requirements of traumatized people, and this book can help them understand what you need.

In order to start healing your body-mind, though, the book to go to is Trauma Releasing Exercises by David Berceli. He also has an excellent website. He has devised a series of exercises to help the many millions in our violent world who are suffering from trauma. So many of these people have no access to therapists, because the circumstances that made them vulnerable to abuse also make them poor and without access to health care. These exercises are easy to understand and to perform, and they do help the body release the chronic tension that drives so many of the debilitating psychological symptoms of trauma.

This book is brilliant - but short-sighted. From the introduction Judith Herman provides a clear paradigm for understanding trauma and recovery: "The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma." What she fails to understand is how this applies to her - and those like her...that is, everyone.

The trauma Judith Herman defines is only the extreme echelon of trauma - the tip of the iceberg that rises into her conscious view. Although she rightly and masterfully connects the traumas - and posttraumatic reactions - experienced by Holocaust survivors, rape victims, children in severely abusive homes, combat veterans, and domestically abused women, because of her own denial she fails to link the traumas in these categories to the traumas experienced by the other 99% of humanity: the inflicted traumas that fly under the radar in every family around the world. Thus, if you are one of the 99% whose unresolved traumas don't fit into her extreme categories (i.e. if you are alive, don't fit into her categories, and are not yet fully enlightened), this book's main value for you will be through metaphor - if, that is, you can translate the extreme cases and thereby be able to relate them to your own situation.

Traumas are inflicted on children almost ubiquitously on subtle, chronic levels by those with the greatest emotional power to mold them - their parents. Traumas occur whenever a child's true self is not witnessed in full. If a child were witnessed in full, he would have no need to develop an unconscious mind to protect himself from the knowledge of the horror he has experienced. But Judith Herman - who idealizingly dedicates this work to her mother, and is a mother herself - fails to grip this. She mistakenly views herself as outside the cycle of victim and perpetrator. This lack of insight into herself is at the root of why she has so little understanding of the mindset and motivation of the perpetrator.

Parents who are not fully conscious - that is, parents in denial of any degree of their own buried, unresolved traumas - inevitably traumatize their children without even realizing they are doing it, and thus can take no responsibility for it. Even in the mildest cases this is emotionally devastating for children, but because so few witness what is really going on and thus call it by its rightful name - including the writer of this standard book on trauma - it goes unacknowledged, and thus is considered normal.

We understand why the Vietnam combat vet drinks himself into oblivion, but do we understand why the child in the normal family compulsively overeats or wets the bed or sucks his thumb or hates his younger brother? We understand why the rape victim later becomes phobic of sex with her consensual partners, but can we fathom the normal mother's twisted motives for having children? We understand why the Holocaust survivor has persistent, horrible nightmares about Auschwitz, but do we put the correct face on the bogeyman in the dreams of the normal, middle-class child?

The norm is still very, very sick. Yet Judith Herman, who lives in the thick of it and writes for those who think within the box, has not figured that out. Her book is beautiful, but it misses the deeper point.

Anyone who has experienced a SERIOUS shock or trauma understands that their symptoms are the result of a massive amount of adrenaline released by and into the body, but still STUCK in the body, usually many years after the original terrifying, traumatic incident.

PTSD is the result of the activation of a primitive survival mechanism and subsequent STUCK energy.

Psychotherapy is simply not enough to effectively treat PTSD or "stuck" energy; a somatic approach is essential: Peter Levine is one of the better authors and authorities on trauma.

However, with that said, if this book has helped you, that's wonderful, and I do mean that sincerely; in addition, a somatic approach to recovery is highly recommended.

The below link is essential reading for sufferers of trauma:

[...]

I am trying not to cry while writing this review because of the incredible impact this great work of Judith Herman has had on my life. I first read the book 4 years ago (I was 19 at the time), at the suggestion of my therapist. Today it remains one of only two books on the topic that I have kept. I will never let go of this book.

This is probably the most comprehensive book on PTSD ever written. It is lauded by just about every psychologist I have ever met. I have an extensive field of knowledge in the area of psychology just based on experience and self-education, and this book is a clinician's book to the fullest. It is exceedingly intelligent, informed, and compassionate all at once.

People who read this book that do not have PTSD find it heartbreaking and difficult-- people who DO have PTSD that read this book find it life-shattering. That's where it starts. It starts with an extremely in-depth look at the biological underpinnings of PTSD, the concept of narrative memory vs. traumatic memory, and discussion of studies that have indicated that survivors process traumatic memory in the brain differently than they process normal, or narrative memory. The underlying message at the outset is that people who have survived trauma are dealing with fractured schemas and fragmented concepts of self -- whereas people who have survived prolonged, repeated trauma early in life never were able to form a cohesive self or schema in the first place.

In other words, we're building from scratch.

I don't believe for me more terrifying words have ever been spoken. Herman's language is deeply compassionate but almost surgical in its painful precision. She is so thoroughly educated and validating that it is hard not to be nauseated because it's so true and it's so real and... she makes it real in a concrete, scientific sense, more than just the emotional, "I'm okay, you're okay" sense. You realize for the first time that PTSD isn't just a bunch of jumbled feelings, but a systematic medical disorder with very predictable symptoms and psychological implications.

That's where the hope begins -- once you understand that PTSD symptoms are the same for everyone -- whether a war veteran, a survivor of domestic abuse, terrorism, or a natural disaster -- you realize how not alone you really are. Nearly everyone has experienced something traumatic, but only 15% develop PTSD as a result. Complex-PTSD (prolonged, repeated trauma) is even rarer. It's easy to feel alone because it's not something people often talk about. But this book makes you confident, not only that you aren't alone, but that what you are suffering is a real and professionally recognized medical condition.

Once you learn your disorder back and forward, you can learn how to recognize its stages and how to treat it. You don't see it as who you are anymore, but rather an external force you are learning to cope with. You recognize your strength as a survivor. More importantly, you learn to take those fragmented pieces of "traumatic memory" and form them into cohesive "narrative" memory. You learn to speak the unspeakable. It's not easy to speak the unspeakable, to voice the forbidden and black and horrible thoughts... but once you do, you learn that they aren't so horrible when exposed to the daylight. Everything makes sense again. The black hole of traumatic memory loses its power, while the sense of a whole and complete sense of self, that includes, but does not revolve around the trauma, gains the upper hand.

Imagine a life where you don't think about trauma every day, where sounds and smells and feelings don't haunt you at every turn. Imagine a life where you describe your trauma story as "boring." It sounded impossible to me at the time, but it is a reality that can be obtained, and in her book, J.H. lays out precisely how this is done for millions of survivors worldwide.

Whenever anybody I know makes light of PTSD or tries to play it off like not a real illness or something I can control, I throw this book and all the knowledge I have gained in their face. People can't argue with Judith. She knows what she's talking about.

If you are a survivor of trauma or a sufferer of PTSD, this is the best possible book to read. This is the source from which all knowledge springs. The 100,000 other books on PTSD use this one as their knowledge base. Judith Herman OWNS.

This is not a book that talks gently to you. It doesn't try to protect you. It is a clinician's book. It uses technical terminology. If you are in an unsafe space or feeling mentally unstable, don't read it, or read it very slowly. My husband is headed for a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology and has read countless books on abnormal psychology. He read this book to better understand me. To this day he maintains it is the single most emotionally difficult book he has ever read in his life.

The best part of this book is, it is equisitely re-readable. I came back to it after three years. I found it didn't tear me apart the way it did the first time. Instead I was looking at myself with awe : "Look what I was up against. Look at what was. And look what I did with that information and with my life!"

Seriously, I cannot reccomend this book enough. It is validation and education in one. It is a beautifully written, classic work of psychological research that will forever change the way you look at yourself or your loved one.

First let me say that this is NOT a "self-help" book and should not be purchased as such. As most of the other reviews here will attest, it is a wonderful book for therapists, clergy, or other professionals who work with survivors of trauma. It is also wonderful for anyone who is having difficulty understanding why a battered woman doesn't "just leave" her abuser (read about "Stockholm Syndrome" and traumatic bonding). It is a clear and easy read, but it is an educational book, not a self-help book. It was required reading in my college Crisis Intervention class, but it also helped me understand that I was not "crazy" for feeling the way I felt after living through an abusive relationship myself. I found that learning about the abuser/victim or captor/captive relationship was very empowering and normalizing for me and was an important step in my own recovery from captivity. I was amazed by the commonalities between domestic abuse, hostage situations, and living as a POW. If you are someone who helps people overcome this type of trauma, please read this book and teach them about the research that has been done. Help them realize that what they are going though is normal, that it was not due to their own personality flaws or weaknesses that they did not "just leave", and that, above all, they are not crazy.

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence-from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman, M.D. is a book that puts together not only how victims of trauma have historically received care but also constructs a practical paradigm for providing care for the traumatized in today's world.
The historical development of thought for victims of trauma centers on studies with people dealing with "Hysteria." Dr. Herman's historical evaluation brings invaluable history to the forefront of modern day thinking about Trauma. Herman's concept of reconnection with the past to the experiences of victims of Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome helps the reader understand the very real issues of the traumatized.
As Dr. Herman points out, the present reality of terror experienced by someone who has been traumatized is tied to the feeling of powerlessness. Sometimes trauma can capture the victim in a total state of surrender and complete dominance of the perpetrator. When this occurs, a person can remain marked by hyper arousal, issues of intrusion, and constriction.
While victims of overwhelming trauma live from day to day, the world appears to be absolutely unsafe. Dr. Herman introduces the role of the church as being a caring community of safe reconnection and healing. The author helpfully offers a new way of evaluating trauma entitled, "Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." Instead of looking at a single cause, the author suggests using a "spectrum of conditions approach."
Through the use of this new tool, recovery can begin to unfold. It is the issue of safety that creates the environment in which sufferers can eventually move through remembrance and mourning of the trauma on to reconnection with ordinary life. The writer offers, as part of the empowerment of the victim, the encouragement of finding a life mission and a group in which to experience solidarity.
Trauma and Recovery is a journey worth taking for it can help the reader become a better care provider to those who have experienced trauma to any degree!

I was grateful for the gift of this book. Yet, I wish that I had read it sooner. The community within which I minister is probably not unlike a lot of other communities providing care-frustrated with certain individuals that present complex and confusing symptoms. We have a tendency to diagnose some of these most frustrating cases as borderline personality disorder or even multiple personality disorder. Yet, this book has helped me to realize that many of the persons behind these diagnoses may very well be suffering from complex post traumatic syndrome. Recently, several persons I encounter in pastoral settings have in fact received these diagnoses. However, I now wonder how many of those other persons I know that are "borderline" or "multiple personality" or "bi-polar" or many other similar anxiety disorders may in reality be suffering from post traumatic stress.

This book has not only helped me to reevaluate the underlying diagnoses of many I minister to in my congregation but has also provided well-documented and well-presented pragmatic recommendations for how to assist these persons in their recoveries. As I learn the stories of persons I minister to I am increasingly aware of how common chronic traumas have been the norm for many. I will refer to this book often as I seek to better care for those traumatized by life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that regularly deals with troubled persons. In fact, upon reading this book, I suspect that many will arrive at the same conclusion as have I-many are suffering from post traumatic events. This understanding may very well assist us to better care for those complex and difficult persons we often laugh off as "borderlines."

The text Trauma and Recovery is an insightful book that outlines the many horrors and ramifications of psychological and physical trauma, as well as the arduous path to partial recovery. I use the word partial because it is not only what the text itself states (211), it is what I have observed as a ministry professional. Traumatized persons lose their senses of trust and selfhood, senses that are extremely difficult to regain once they are lost. This is especially true of those who are chronically abused.
Dr. Herman begins her treatise of this topic with an historical backdrop and proceeds with a well articulated presentation of trauma as is it is commonly seen and understood by practitioners as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The various symptoms of this disorder are outlined and explained clinically and pragmatically. As the chapters unfolded, I found myself in a position where I could almost hear the screams and cries for help coming from the oppressed and abused. From my past work with war veterans in a clinical setting, I revisited many of Dr. Herman's case studies in the context of my own mind and experience. I believe that she is extremely accurate in her descriptions of PTSD in the various populations of victims.
The two major emphases of the book, trauma and recovery, are logically connected in its content. For example, on Page 133, the author states that the core experiences of trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Therefore, recovery seeks to empower the survivor and create new connections. It is interesting how much emphasis Dr. Herman places on relationships within the healing process. Isn't it intriguing that the corrective for abusive or traumatic relationships are wholesome relationships, and that healing can only happen within the context of these wholesome relationships?

This book is an excellent guide for the therapist. It lends greater understanding of the assualt to the psyche of the trauma victim as well as the process of healing. I am saddened by how many times I have treated the symptoms and not the psyche. Herman says, "Instead of conceptualizing the psychopathology of the victim as a response to an abusive situation, mental health professionals have frequently attributed the abusive situation to the victim's presumed underlying psychopathology" (116). In other words, we blame the victim.

This work is indeed a compassionate and much needed analysis of psychological trauma and the conflicted state it produces within those who have been victimized. Traumatized people suffer damage to the basic structures of the self. They lose trust in themselves, in other people, and in God. Victims need unconditional understanding, even if we don't understand. This book will not only explain the conflicted state of the victim, it will also provide a therapeutic course of action for their healing.

This book offers cogent insight into predatory parents who stalk their children thru life; compulsively and intrusively contacting their adult offspring's associates, colleagues, employers and professional contacts. Professing deep dismay at lack of contact with their grown children, manipulatively intruding into work situations and expressing "shocked dismay" that their adult offspring are "for inexplicable reasons" not in contact, while eliciting sympathy from relative strangers in order to manipulate such people into "helping straighten our loved one out." Such parents compulsively construct blatant misrepresentations of "what a loving family we used to be." Lest the truth about drunken fondling pedophilia, incest, spousal abuse, and/or the frustrated sadism of a battered wife abandoned during her husbands blatant infidelities with young girls including his own daughter become common knowledge.

Those parents with too much to hide create elaborate screens of religious self righteousness, flagrant donations to religious organizations and highly publicized prayer services to garner attention to the suffering of the mystifyingly abandoned parents. All such compulsive attention getting maneuvers and melodramatic pleas for sympathy are screens to distract and dissuade anyone from questioning what precisely led such offspring to have chosen to live out of contact with such self identified "loving parents."

This books speaks cogently and forcefully for those who just try to make a life for themselves beyond and despite the persistent intrusions of parents with too much to hide.

From the first chapter of Herman's seminal work;

----In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator's first line of defense. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure that no one listens. To this end, he marshals an impressive array of arguments, from the most blatant denial to the most sophisticated and elegant rationalization. After every atrocity one can expect to hear the same predictable apologies: it never happened; the victim lies; the victim exaggerates; the victim brought it on herself; and in any case it is time to forget the past and move on. The more powerful the perpetrator, the greater is his prerogative to name and define reality, and the more completely his arguments prevail.---

Read this book. You may never silence the perpetrators, but you will find their persistent intrusions to be just what they actually are, the impotent gasps of those who no longer have the power to use you as an object to fill their own drunken needs, or frustrated perversions any longer.

Read this book, and Live.

This book is a must read if you are interested in psychology. The way it is written is understandable even by the lay man. The mix between history and modern psychology is exelent. I really enjoyed reading this book and highly recomend it. If you enjoyed this book, you may also be interested in Unchained Memories. Both of these books were required for the psychology class I took at DU. Both books are superb.

Just what the doctor ordered! Should be required reading for every young adult and/or college student and their parent(s) and doctor(s). Clear, concise, long-awaited, for all men and women touched by the post traumatic stress disorder due to war, rape and other mass violence. Particularly good analysis of the effects of rape on women. Judith Herman, MD is my hero!

This book is different in that it covers the politics of trauma as well as the psychology. It takes the perspective that healing needs to be done on a community level, not just by the individual who has lived through the trauma. It's compassionately written...understandable...thorough. Definitely recommended. Another excellent title on surviving trauma is Miss America By Day by Marilyn VanDerber.

This book is brilliant - but short-sighted. From the introduction Judith Herman provides a clear paradigm for understanding trauma and recovery: "The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma." What she fails to understand is how this applies to her - and those like her...that is, everyone.

The trauma Judith Herman defines is only the extreme echelon of trauma - the tip of the iceberg that rises into her conscious view. Although she rightly and masterfully connects the traumas - and posttraumatic reactions - experienced by Holocaust survivors, rape victims, children in severely abusive homes, combat veterans, and domestically abused women, because of her own denial she fails to link the traumas in these categories to the traumas experienced by the other 99% of humanity: the inflicted traumas that fly under the radar in every family around the world. Thus, if you are one of the 99% whose unresolved traumas don't fit into her extreme categories (i.e. if you are alive, don't fit into her categories, and are not yet fully enlightened), this book's main value for you will be through metaphor - if, that is, you can translate the extreme cases and thereby be able to relate them to your own situation.

Traumas are inflicted on children almost ubiquitously on subtle, chronic levels by those with the greatest emotional power to mold them - their parents. Traumas occur whenever a child's true self is not witnessed in full. If a child were witnessed in full, he would have no need to develop an unconscious mind to protect himself from the knowledge of the horror he has experienced. But Judith Herman - who idealizingly dedicates this work to her mother, and is a mother herself - fails to grip this. She mistakenly views herself as outside the cycle of victim and perpetrator. This lack of insight into herself is at the root of why she has so little understanding of the mindset and motivation of the perpetrator.

Parents who are not fully conscious - that is, parents in denial of any degree of their own buried, unresolved traumas - inevitably traumatize their children without even realizing they are doing it, and thus can take no responsibility for it. Even in the mildest cases this is emotionally devastating for children, but because so few witness what is really going on and thus call it by its rightful name - including the writer of this standard book on trauma - it goes unacknowledged, and thus is considered normal.

We understand why the Vietnam combat vet drinks himself into oblivion, but do we understand why the child in the normal family compulsively overeats or wets the bed or sucks his thumb or hates his younger brother? We understand why the rape victim later becomes phobic of sex with her consensual partners, but can we fathom the normal mother's twisted motives for having children? We understand why the Holocaust survivor has persistent, horrible nightmares about Auschwitz, but do we put the correct face on the bogeyman in the dreams of the normal, middle class child?

The norm is still very, very sick. Yet Judith Herman, who lives in the thick of it and writes for those who think within the box, has not figured that out. Her book is beautiful, but it misses the deeper point.

If you have experienced trauma or know people who have (which, unless you live a very limited life, you do), you need to read this book. It provides tremendous insight into the symptoms and internal dynamics of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)--especially severe or "complex" PTSD--and provides comfort to those who live in a society that rejects victims and their illness. When a trauma victim and his/her family feel confused and alone, a dose of Trauma and Recovery is good medicine. I find the second half of the book "Stages of Recovery" less helpful than the first half. It is dated. I wish Dr. Herman would write a new edition in which she would turn her compassion on the large number of people with complex PTSD who do NOT recover as well as highlighting new hope resulting from recent research.

This is not your usual trauma recovery book. Most books on healing explain symptoms, offer exercises, and provide illuminating case histories. Judith Herman does all this, but she goes beyond just focusing on healing oneself in isolation. We are social animals, and must live within our culture. Thus, how our culture regards trauma and traumatized people is very important to those trying to become reintegrated into society after massive psychic shock. Dr. Herman explains our modern Western culture's attitudes toward trauma and the traumatized, gives a fascinating and pertinent history of how those attitudes have changed throughout the past century, and shows how those attitudes affect how survivors recover.

Dr. Herman sets forth most of this broader cultural history in Part 1, Chapter 1, "A Forgotten History." She begins with the female hysteria patients of 19th Century Europe, and ends up with the Vietnam veterans' movement to demand treatment for battle induced post-traumatic stress. The veterans' work bore fruit. In 1980 the American Psychiatric Association included "post-traumatic stress disorder" in its official manual of mental disorders. This paved the way in the 1980s for victims of rape, childhood abuse, and domestic violence to be treated for post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.

Part of the history Herman sets forth explores why people tend to shun and try to silence trauma survivors. She writes, "It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering."

I would guess that most people recovering from trauma have experienced the dynamic of those around them "taking the side of the perpetrator." Without understanding why they are doing so only compounds the suffering the survivor experiences, and intensifies the feeling that one is tainted, bad, or defective for having been traumatized in the first place. In exploring the cultural dynamics of collective repression and denial, Herman does a great service to those who must heal and re-enter a culture which can sometimes be seen to be in league with the perpetrators in our world.

The remainder of Part 1 deals with the types of abuse and the symptoms which follow. This information can be found in other books, but here it is set in a larger cultural context which helps the reader to make more sense out of the symptoms.

Part 2 describes the stages of recovery. This information is very concrete, very helpful, and hopeful as well. Dr. Herman outlines three main stages; they are: establishing safety, remembering and integrating one's story, and re-integrating oneself back into the social world.

This book is probably the most helpful book I have read on trauma recovery in 20 years. Dr. Herman's idea to explore the social matrix in which healing occurs is brilliant. After all, we are all connected. We cannot heal ourselves without making some sort of peace with the culture around us. We cannot always change the attitudes of those around us, but we can learn to understand, and thus approach those who cannot comprehend our reality with at least some measure of forgiveness and compassion.

This is an excellent book. It presents material on trauma and treatment in a very clear, readible manner. I literally read it over a three day period (but found that I had to put it down for a couple days after reading the 1st half). It was difficult to read about the traumas that people have experienced. Reading about the solutions gave me hope for individuals who have personality disorders as a result of trauma. This is a must read.

I bought this book on the basis of the lengthy and highly positive reviews posted on this site. In many respects, what they say is true and the book most certainly has its merits. However, it has several significant drawbacks which seem have gone uncommented upon here and which were sufficient to make the book, for me, largely unreadable. Since there are more than enough comments about what is good, I will confine myself to what is bad about this book. Judith Herman not writing from a neutral perspective: she is both a feminist and an insufficiently critical devotee of psychoanalysis. She is candid about her agenda and about the fact that her perspective on trauma has a decidedly feminist and psychoanalytic bent. If you agree with her views and are interested in exploring her thesis, that is, if you are interested in approaching the issues of abuse and trauma from an academic perspective, then this is an intellectually stimulating work with a clear sense of direction. If you are a survivor of trauma then Dr. Herman's political and academic agenda seriously undermine the helpfulness of this work. It is wordy (even more wordy than this review), full of feminist, modernist, and psychoanalytic jargon, and not a book that I would recommend for anyone who is in the early stages of RECOVERING from trauma.

This multipurpose and truth telling detailed book deals with all forms of abuse and shows us, the reader that in the long run it is all abuse no matter the type and does alter our views on life.
Along with this book I would like to mantion a couple of other good books: Nightmares Echo and all of the David Pelzer Books

I have bought the new German translation of this book and it has been a great read. I can only subscribe to all the praise in the other reviews and think about what I can add to it.
I love that it is a political book as well as a psychological one. It calls Crime and Evil by their names and says that healing is not only personal, but includes the whole community - in the third and last step to healing means to go out and work for a better community.
It is a compassionate book that makes all the symptoms of Trauma suddenly make sense. It has taught me to be more compassionate towards myself and e.g. accept my "issues with trust" - accept that I take longer than other people to decide whether someone is trustworthy or not.
It is written in an understandable and clear way - not dry at all - just the right balance between clarity and objectivity and passion - passion against crime, passion to help the victims.
It has been a great help as well when other people ask me for help as friends. I won't push them any more to confront their traumata, nor will I prevent them from doing, but I just say: Take your time: First find stability and happiness, than look at the past. And I have learnt to be very careful - always leave control and responsibility with the person who asks for advice. (I am no therapist, just as everyone sometimes friends ask me for help and advice.) And I always recommend this book.

Judith Herman has to be a Renaissance Woman, because this is a multi-dimensional, wide-ranging, compassionate, and brilliantly useful book that no therapist nor patient should be without. The examples come from years of clinical work and - very wisely - from works of literature too, which often do a better job of explaining this intense and baffling condition. Deserves it's reputation as a great classic in the field, and it's held up well over the years, too.

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.

Great book - could not put it down, very interesting.

This book begins with an in depth history of the study (and understanding) of trauma and related disorders. Judith Lewis Herman provides aspects of feminist history not seen in other "popular" trauma literature. Judith Herman is a passionate and eloquent writer, and the excerpts written by survivors, that she includes throughout the book, are also poetic and beautifully articulated. She addresses that although trauma literature is now in abundance we must be careful not to abandon the continued study and education of psychological trauma. In addition she explains that there is always a backlash when the "unspeakable" is spoken, and she offers encouragement to remain standing against the repeated abuses of offenders and people who need to maintain their sense of a "just" world.

While reading this book I truly felt understood. So many aspects of the trauma that I experienced (and the after effects) are explained in this book. She weaves together common ground for survivors of incest, rape, torture, war, captivity, and the holocaust. I felt that I was part of a greater community of people, and began to understand that I am not alone. This book is particularly valuable to the understanding of the long term and complex after effects of ongoing, repetitive childhood abuse/captivity (one of the best books on this subject). Other trauma books generally do not devote enough time to the complexity of long term childhood trauma. She explained the distinction between trauma-related symptoms and non-trauma related anxiety disorders, depression, psychosomatic disorders, and personality disorders. Often when this distinction is not recognized by health care providers survivors of trauma are misdiagnosed, given the wrong treatment and prescribed ineffective medications instead of dealing with the underlying trauma. On page 188 she says, "Even PTSD as it is currently defined, does not fit accurately enough [for survivors of prolonged trauma]." She has given a new diagnosis called "complex post-traumatic stress disorder". It was a relief to me because, although I have received great help from books on PTSD, a thorough understanding of long term trauma (beginning in childhood) has often been overlooked. Judith says on page 122, "It is an attempt to learn from survivors, who understand, more profoundly than any investigator, the effects of captivity." She took the words right out of my mouth.

Another aspect of complex PTSD that she addresses is how to cope with the desire to withdraw from the world, and other people. She explains that it is a normal stage of recovery, and gives information on how to reconnect with the world and people. She also says that survivors of captivity often respond in this way: "Before taking any action, she will scan the environment, expecting retaliation."(p.91). In this book she goes into much greater depth on this topic.

The chapter on child abuse also devoted considerable information about how incest survivors are often raped again (multiple times) as teenagers/adult. I finally felt that I was not so alone in the multitude of sexual violation that I have endured over my lifetime. This is very important to address, and is often lacking in books on rape.

In the very first part of the section on recovery she explains that the trauma occurred in a primary relationship and it is through healthy and healing relationships that the survivor can ultimately heal. I think this is very important to discuss since so many survivors of trauma feel that they can not rely upon anyone in any way (even in a mutual, equal, and healthy interaction).

I highly recommend this book to survivors (and pro-survivors) of all kinds of trauma, and to all health care and mental health workers. If everyone read this book we would live in a very different world. One of the best options I have found for recovery is simply reading about trauma and it's effects upon the nervous system. By understanding which behaviors of mine are trauma related and what "normal" experience is for a person that has not been traumatized I know what my goals and hopes for the future can be. Also, through understanding my own reactions to trauma, I also began to understand the reactions of other survivors that I have encountered when events evoked an experiential memory of the trauma they endured.

As a psychotherapist for the past sixteen years I can readily attest to the wealth of information in this book, so much so that I had to purchase it for my permanent book collection.

All too often, victims in my experience have been given the labels of Borderline Personality Disorder, or Masochistic Personality Disorder to the detriment of the invidividual's sole purpose of healing.

Dr. Herman's book states otherwise with sound research, excellent clearly understandable style of writing and certainly
will aid in comfort, knowledge and recovery to those who need it the most.

As an author of "SILENT BIRTHS: FRUIT OF THE WOMB (1STBOOKS.COM)
I can certainly attest to the wisdom in this book enabling those who are voiceless and helpless to come to mastery over not only their perpertrator, but within themselves - thereby becoming fully committed to health and healing and their Soul retrieval.

In terms of the description of PTSD, this is an outstanding book, as everyone says it is. I won't summarize the plot again, as that has been done so well by other reviewers.

My only problem (and why I'm giving it 4-stars) is that Herman does not credit her sources well enough. For example, Herman does not seem to credit Florence Rush with raising awareness that Freud chose to disbelieve his patients. This is a significant omission because the Freud story is so central to the story of trauma and recovery.

But there are 2 things I'd really like to praise Herman for:

1. Having enough courage to stand up to the FMSF and take their opposition as a badge of honor (from the 1997 afterword). Thank you, Dr. Herman! Therapists have collapsed all over the place and given into their fears and refused to even let sexual abuse be discussed any more. I really appreciate that Herman has courage, which seems to be in short supply these days.

2. Asking the question 'where is the awareness of trauma as an important social problem? and who will care about it when we are gone?' also from the 1997 afterword. Herman is correct that today's generation of scientists seem obsessed with scientifically legitimizing their field, with rare exceptions, and as they do the 5000th study of brain chemicals involved in this or that memory process, one wonders: where has all the passion gone? And the social commitment? I am grateful to Herman for asking this question in print.

As a clinician, I found this book to be very comprehensive. It provides a framework for understanding how to treat clients with PTSD. This book is a valuable tool for anyone working with these clients. It also provides a historical over view of PTSD.

Many might be turned off by the author's outright use of feminist pronouns when describing many of her case studies. However, being "turned off" by seeming feminist jargon is not going to be enough to discredit this deeply penetrating and important cultural work. Psychological trauma (despite trumpeted charges commanding that we see everything as "just fine") is, in my view as a student of psychology, at least 80% of the story of human civilization. This book begins with an excursion through the history of how psychiatrists first began to work with "hysterics" and continues on to describe how greater awareness of these concepts proliferated due to war veterans who exhibited a peculiar cluster of psychological symptoms. Herman continues with how awareness was spread as a result from such movements that dealt with civil and human rights. All of this information is useful and begs the question as to why studies of psychological trauma are rarely included in college undergrad curriculums for psychology. But the most meaningful and helpful aspect of this book for survivors and lay people alike is it's use of language. Rarely do we get a descriptive account(especially in the clinical arena) of the true sensorium of the traumatic event and it's aftermath. This takes a great deal of skill and devotion to do. Usually we find this in the work of underground poets or war movies that rely on graphic reality to express it's message (Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" comes to mind). The chapters are brave as they expose reality in the face of institutions and other demographics who would definitely punish such "pesky psycho-social critique." Herman is talented in being able to write about extremities without coming across as sensationalistic or melodramatic. The chapter on Child Abuse is especially helpful since, let's face it, most do not care to pursue or acknowledge the total experience of millions of children in America who are subject to brutality ranging from mere beatings with a belt to getting their skulls smashed in with hammers. Herman addresses these issues and affectively reels in the flaying, forgetful, and inattentive consciousness of those members of the masses who have a shread of compassion and intellectual insight.

Was Judith watching us at home? Did she hide in the closet and take notes? You'll wonder if Judith Herman has the ability to see inside your thoughts after reading Chapter 5. As a survivor of child abuse and trauma, I was amazed by her ability to clearly define my thoughts, reactions and general "take" on life. If you are a survivor of ANY kind of trauma, READ THIS BOOK. My therapist, Dr. Zitlin in San Antonio, asked me to please read this book after one visit with him. Trauma and Recovery proves to me that recovery is actually possible. And in a way that just might work. This is like no other book I've ever read on trauma, child abuse or PTSD. I've read enough self help books to fill three hefty bags and finally I'm reading something that mirrors my own experience. It's compassion filled without losing credibility. Simply amazing. Please take the time to read this.

Just read ch. 5 and you will be sold. As a person who has worked as a therapist with a variety of people and a variety of problems, I was stunned by the way that this book explains the impact of trauma. You need to read the concept of "complex ptsd," presented in ch. 6. Chs 5 and 6 elegantly present a framework for understanding people who have grown up in the fear of a terroristic household, whether with sexual abuse or not, whether with notable physical abuse or not. This framework acounts for the various problems suffered that are often described by clinicians as "borderline personality disorder," "somatization disorder," and other difficult/lets-ignore-them diagnoses. My feeling is that if you grew up in a scary, terroristic home, if you read chapter five you will believe this author was observing the whole time, and you may gain some insight into your own adult life and personality.

I was amazed at how much substantial information this book contained. Initially it covers victims of trauma that are adults (rape survivors and soldiers). Then it moves into the realm of child abuse and this is where the book shines. Acknowledging that an abused child doesn't have a "me before the trauma" it goes into great detail about the life and experience of an abused child. I have never read a book that gave me so much information and hit the nail on the head so astutely. A must have for those dealing with the aftermath of trauma.

This very readable book moves through the chapters smoothly and swiftly, telling an accurate story about the after effects of trauma in a way that anyone can understand and relate to. While there continue to be nay sayers to this day who deny that PTSD even exists, Herman makes the case that PTSD has been around for a long, long time and can be found not only in situations dismissed as "feminist," but in war heroes as well. While there is much more to be told about the psychology of trauma and its after effects, what we know about how it works can be very important information when considering how it can be *used* by those whose goals *are* those very after effects. I would not be surprised if the very people who deny that such a thing as PTSD exists are the ones who are using it to meet their own ends. As I said, there is much to the story of trauma and its uses. This book lays a strong foundation for the investigation of what comes next. It is one of my primary resources.

I think Judith Herman's book is terrific for several reasons. First - she playfully, eloquently, and clearly encapsulates some of the relevant history of psychoanalysis and looks at Freud and his contemporaries from a humanist and clinical perspective. Second - she writes with feeling. Third - she provides a useful bibliography and introduction to various studies of trauma in formulating her new diagnosis, to add to the DSM-IV, of complex PTSD, which is very richly descriptive and is clearly aimed at helping therapists and others work with survivors.

I think the psych literature is best understood as a way to achieve some kind of cognitive understanding of trauma and its effects. But it's not predictive, not complete, and not ever going to be equivalent to individual person's unique stories, often told or remembered in fragments. If you are looking for a very succinct self help book, this isn't it. I would suggest something like Trauma a Workbook for Healing, or better yet a support group and/or individualized counseling. If you are having trouble affording counseling, think about taking an adult education/continuing ed course at a university. Campuses have a lot of counseling resources that are free or low cost.

If you can't afford that either, have hope. You will one day. In the meantime, read whatever appeals to you and realize that the ultimate self help book will be one that you write in the way and speed that feels right to you, that feels possible.