Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence-—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

A revised and updated edition of the groundbreaking work that changed the way we think about and treat traumatic events and trauma victims.

When Trauma and Recovery was first published in 1992, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work. In the intervening years, it has become the basic text for understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma can be understood only in a social context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as on 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. A new epilogue reviews what has changed--and what has not changed--over two decades. Trauma and Recovery is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand how we heal and are healed.