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Trauma and Recovery Paperback – July 7, 2015

by Judith Lewis Herman (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,774 ratings
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In this groundbreaking book, a leading clinical psychiatrist redefines how we think about and treat victims of trauma. A "stunning achievement" that remains a "classic for our generation." (Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., author of The Body Keeps the Score).

Trauma and Recovery is revered as the seminal text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war.

Hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most important psychiatry works to be published since Freud," Trauma and Recovery is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand how we heal and are healed.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    July 7, 2015
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.84 x 8.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0465061710
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0465061716
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most important psychiatric works to be published since Freud."―New York Times

"A landmark."―Gloria Steinem

"A stunning achievement ... a classic for our generation."―Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., author of The Body Keeps the Score

"A book of luminous intelligence. You must read it as soon as possible."―Sophie Freud

"Astute, accessible, and beautifully documented. Bridging the worlds of war veterans, prisoners of war, battered women, and incest victims, Herman presents a compelling analysis of trauma and the process of healing. A triumph."―Laura Davis, coauthor of The Courage to Heal

"Brilliant."―Boston Globe

"This book will surely become a landmark work on the social impact of psychological trauma and on its treatments.... A magnificent gift to survivors."―Women's Review of Books

"Herman's brilliant insights into the nature of trauma and the process of healing shine through in every page of this rich and compassionate book."―Lenore Walker, ED.D., Director, Domestic Violence Institute, and author of Terrifying Love

"Herman links the public traumas of society to those of domestic life in this provocative work of psychiatric theory."―Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Judith Herman, M.D., is professor of psychiatry, emerita, at Harvard Medical School. Herman is also a founding member of the Women's Mental Health Collective. She was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women's Association, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1R edition (July 7, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465061710
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465061716
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.84 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,774 ratings

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  1. Judith Hehrman

    Judith Hehrman

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
2,774 global ratings
Had me hooked from page 1!
5 Stars
Had me hooked from page 1!
I've been looking at this book for a while and finally purchased it. I'm happy I did too, it had me hooked from page 1. I had a very traumatic childhood and even into my younger adult years. It took me years to accept I was traumatized in ways I blocked out years ago. This healomg journey is hard, it's upsetting, it's good, it's scary, it's all these emotions in one. Management of these emotions is key to healing them and the scars they imposed on me. It's a slow process, you can't rush it or you'll bomb hard. You'll have setbacks, but don't quit, just take a break, read something else, do a puzzle, watch TV. Do anything to keep going, dont give up healing the past, and expelling mostly buried trauma is the best thing you'll ever do for yourself. I'm not there yet, but the progress I've made is worth the work yet to come. This book is very helpful, it's easy to read, and it's one more tool in my healing toolbox. You might not agree with everything in this book, you might know some of the information in here as well, but don't let that prevent you from reading it, you won't regret it. I'm going to go read some more of it now.
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Top reviews from the United States

SeM
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2024
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Well written and very readable. Would recommend for professionals or anyone interested in understanding how trauma effects people.
One person found this helpful
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Frederic Scheer
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2024
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Brilliant analysis, opened my eyes on the depth of the problems. Triggered my decision to create shelters to assist women in bad situation and decided me to become a vocal advocate for the cause of equality and women respect in our society!
2 people found this helpful
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ilovemigisomuch
5.0 out of 5 stars THE book to understanding trauma and depression
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2013
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I have suffered from severe, debilitating depression for several years as a result of a trauma that is actually completely unrelated to what this book focuses on. Despite not having suffered trauma due to a rape, war or kidnapping, I found this book to be life-changing. I looked and searched endlessly for in-depth information to explain why I feel the way I do, and until this book, there was absolutely nothing out there. I came across countless webpages, medical literature, books, shows, blogs, essays, research papers, medical sites, and none explained WHY. A great deal of them focused on symptoms, but only general symptoms that could apply to a great deal of things. Besides, I already knew what my symptoms were. Another significant portion were dedicated to veterans and PTSD. I would read them, but again, they would still only discuss things on a very superficial basis. Blogs would talk about what medications people took, and arguments would ensue about who had the worse story. Medical literature would delve into explanations of which receptor and which brain lobe shrunk or expanded, and shock rates of rats. Why was there no simple explanation for why people feel these symptoms when suffering from trauma? I even asked my psychiatrist that I see twice a week -I would beg him to explain to me in detail what I had, why I had this, when I would get better, and why I experienced these awful symptoms. He would always respond the same way.... that I had "complicated depression," "complicated grief," and that I had "experienced a severe trauma." Any symptom I specifically asked about, was just a "symptom common in trauma." Was there just NO explanation?

Based on my past experience with being let down, I had little faith this book would be able to explain what I have been going through for several years now, ESPECIALLY because it focuses on trauma related to rape, war, kidnapping. "Trauma and Recovery," however, explains trauma in a way that relates to EVERYONE and explains it in GREAT DETAIL. The detail and depth was beyond any hope I had or anything I could have imagined. It brought up points that I did not even consider, and thoughts that made me learn a great deal about my affliction. In fact, this book brought to light answers and closure for issues that I had tried to address with my $300/hr psychiatrist for the past 3 years. I thought to myself, "wtf?! what took my doctor so long and why has he been torturing me about this???!" Yes - this book WILL drum up emotions, and it did cost me plenty of tears and opening of wounds that were supposedly healed over, however, I definitely needed to understand the answers to these questions in order to move on.

This is an ideal book to have your family, spouse, significant other, or other supportive individual read. A great struggle for me, and one that has brought me much pain, is feeling as though I constantly have to explain myself and my actions/affliction to my family. They are actually the most supportive people anyone could ever hope for, yet they STILL can't understand what it is that I am going through or why I do the things I do. It is an awful feeling. I begged them to read this book, they didn't unfortunately, but I truly believe that if you love someone who is going through PTSD, depression/trauma/grief, you would show amazing support in reading this to help them.

In terms of what I have, and how this helped me.... I have experienced ups/downs, cycles of feeling great, then feeling terrible, not being able to get out of bed or my home for days even weeks, withdrawing socially, unable to work for several years, feeling unbelievably overwhelmed by the littlest of things, losing track of time, barely able to keep up with anything, uninterested in anything, no form of romantic relationships whatsoever, flashbacks to the event(s), extreme fatigue, uncontrollable sobbing, anxiety, hopelessness, chest pain, accelerated aging, feeling like something in me has permanently changed and I'm not "me", indifference, guilt. This is the foremost work in bringing to light the underlying cause(s) for these symptoms and why/how trauma affects us differently that just plain depression.

If you need this book, I send you my prayers and wish you the best in your or your loved one's recovery.
283 people found this helpful
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DO'N
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2024
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I just finished Trauma & Recovery and feel in awe of Dr. Herman. This is a powerful and transforming book. It educates, informs and inspires, and as a therapist, provides a compass for a difficult journey through the wild lands of pain and suffering.
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Ruth Henriquez Lyon
5.0 out of 5 stars A political and very necessary book.
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2004
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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: 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 of exploring 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.
209 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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ManueLo
5.0 out of 5 stars Sin duda, una obra imperdible.
Reviewed in Mexico on January 6, 2022
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No tendo las palabras suficientes para describir lo mucho que este libro cambio mis paradigmas y mi práctica profesional, sin duda una imperdible obra que día a día toma mayor vigencia.
2 people found this helpful
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JulsO
5.0 out of 5 stars Vital para trabajar el trauma.
Reviewed in Spain on July 24, 2022
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El enfoque de la integración del trauma desde dos tipos de traumas tan fuertes y tan distintos a la vez es maravilloso. Un "must" para el psicólogo clínico.
One person found this helpful
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Amazona
5.0 out of 5 stars Klassiker zu Trauma
Reviewed in Germany on October 1, 2021
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Wertvoller Klassiker zu Trauma und den Auswirkungen von Trauma (PTBS und komplexe PTBS).
Die Autorin hat jahrzehntelange Erfahrung und ist Wissenschaftlerin. Das macht die Qualität dieses Buches aus. Absolute Weiterempfehlung.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Un libro eccezionale
Reviewed in Italy on January 22, 2021
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Quello di Judith Herman è un contributo importantissimo per conoscere e trattare il trauma. Ha una visione molto ampia e ben radicata nelle problematiche sociali e culturali. Il trauma non è visto solo da una prospettiva medico-scientifica ma piuttosto inserendo la persona all'interno del contesto umano, familiare, relazionale e sociale a tutti i livelli. Denuncia l'ineguaglianza e la violenza, richiama l'urgenza di scardinarle per una maggiore giustizia sociale.
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MommaDragon
5.0 out of 5 stars I can't say enough about how beneficial and integral this book is to understanding and healing - regardless the trauma source!
Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2018
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This book was one of so very few that actually helped me to heal, to find support enough and compassion enough to let go of the pain of putting up wit uninformed and blaming / shaming / punishing bystanders who believe their opinion "should matter more than" my experiences and proceed to tell those who are violated just how that is. This book gave me tools and knowledge to help myself deal with this sort of post-trauma assault and trauma - a survival tool needed in a society of low eq social peers. Every page was a "Yes! / Oh My God, that's So True / Accurate!" This was a healing balm for a tormented psyche, and a supportive friend in the walk to, through and beyond healing. I still read this every now and again to give myself a boost - Thank you so much world / deities / Universe, for Judith Herman's efforts with this work! <3

For those who know of someone traumatized by IPV / DV / or any other type of Trauma, who's struggling to cope; this is a fantastic book to read to understand why they're there, and to give as a support in helping to reconnect and feed hope and healing.
16 people found this helpful
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