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

Written by:
Judith Lewis Herman
Narrated by:
Alison Mathews , Xe Sands

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
17
Narrator
3
Release Date
December 2019
Duration
11 hours 34 minutes
Summary
The groundbreaking work on trauma that remains a “classic for our generation” (Bessel van der Kolk, MD, author of The Body Keeps the Score)

Trauma and Recovery is the foundational text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a political frame, psychiatrist Judith L. 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.

This edition includes a new epilogue by the author assessing what has—and hasn’t—changed in understanding and treating trauma over the last three decades.

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 seeking to understand how we heal.
Reviews
Profile Avatar
Carmen B.

This author has a lot of knowledge of trauma, but they lack the poise to share the story of trauma survivors. For example, many times the author will share serious and vulnerable details of trauma survivors. I listened to The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, and that book also shares some really serious imagery. However, Van Der Kolk maintains the ethos required to share these details of survivors without the stories sounding so alarming and triggering. I am a little curious as to why Judith Lewis Herman‘s colleague, Van Der Kolk, did not tell Herman to lay off on the coarse details. Parts of this book feel like trauma porn. From reading this book, I do not feel I learned anything about recovery from trauma. It provided a lot of examples of trauma, which isn’t helpful. Lastly, this book begins with Herman telling her role in learning about and sharing information about the way women experience trauma. In the vein of psychology and psychiatry this author works in, I thought incorrectly they would understand how all people are unanimously impacted by trauma. As a woman, I did not see any information that applied to women trauma survivors that has not been previously or further explored. I will not re-read or recommend this book. It is very triggering and not in a way that can build validation.

1 book added to cart
Subtotal
$27.99
View Cart