Trauma and Recovery

The Aftermath of Violence - from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

By: Judith Lewis Herman MD

Narrated by: Alison Mathews, Xe Sands

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's 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.

©2015 Judith L. Herman (P)2019 Basic Books

Critic reviews

"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

Recommended for Social Workers and Psychologist

I loved this book. I high recommend anyone who wants to work as a therapist. Also, this book is great for someone who wants to work with people who have experienced childhood trauma, veterans with PTSD, individuals who have lived through sexual assault or domestic violence. I high recommend this book for social work and psychology students either at the bachelor or masters level. It might benefit the students at a higher level of education more than at a lower level of education. A people could reread this book as it is educational, interesting, and inspiring.

Answers to many "why" questions.

Knowledge is power. When you know why you do what you do, or why you can't organize your house, your schedule, and why you respond or react the way you do; you can seek the help you need. Trauma blurs memories, and changes the way our brain reacts to anything, in a bad way. This is a must read if you want to understand yourself or others. Thank you Dr. Herman.

A must for everyone!!

This brilliant book kindly held my hand while blowing my mind.

I was pleasantly surprised to find it an academic yet highly accessible read, & for the first time I witnessed the fully fleshed out struggles, confusion, pain, gas lighting of myself & others who continue to suffer horrific experiences in seeking help from therapists & institutions that claim to offer it. Equal vigor is given to the success stories of those greatly benefited by quality support. Such instances well observed the many lessons learned from the ongoing pitfalls in the so called grey areas of the gulf between ‘great’ & ‘awful’ care, in my opinion.

This book gives a clear, concise, honest, well researched explanation on the subject of Trauma & Recovery from many angles. It explains what Trauma is, how & why it occurs, how it is & was treated
in the past through to the present day, with great insight on our future endeavors to heal from such complex events, linking our private & personal terrors to the wider landscape of society, including of course - the political.

This is an excellent read & is well narrated. I’m eternally grateful for having found such a gem, & loved it so much I’m about to read it again.

a must read for counselors

This book along with The Body Keeps The Score are necessary resources for those who work in helping and healing professions. Trauma is pervasive and this book thoroughly covers it all.

Not what I expected

I listened to 30 mins and couldn’t anymore . Don’t waste time and energy not worth it

Thorough and well written

Heavily focuses on violence against women and children, which is important and very prevalent. Although it does address combat veterans with PTSD, readers looking for that focus may not feel military PTSD is as represented as they’re hoping for.

The “performance” was okay. There were quite a few mispronounced words.

Wow

This book is incredibly written and difficult to read. Recommended for all clinicians regardless of your population.

A must listen!

I liked the breakdown by chapters of such imperative and easy to follow information. The flow is smooth and it’s builds upon itself. Getting a better understanding of what causes trauma and how to go about getting the support you need.

Dispassionate is not a good thing

Sadly, as a person diagnosed with PTSD who has dived deep into the literature, I didn’t get much out of this book. In fact, it was offensive. The way she refers to the traumatized rape victim makes it sound like she’s writing a nature documentary - “She does this and “she” does that”. It’s not that a lot of it wasn’t true, but it was just so cold and detached. It generalizes too much, which is the offensive part. And, nothing is supported with actual evidence. She certainly speaks from a place of authority, but that doesn’t mean she gets to determine the facts.

It was very disappointing, because after the first part on Anna O, I was very excited to get a feminist perspective. While it might have been popular in it’s time, the idea of PTSD in the general (female) population because of high rates of sexual assault, is still not acknowledged by mainstream society. Not that that is the author’s fault, but I just strongly disliked her approach to the subject. Rather than singling victims out (at one point she calls rape victims “naive” about the relations between the sexes), the social problems that cause this should be the focus. If they ARE naive (which I wholeheartedly disagree with as a general statement), isn’t education the key?

Lastly, the narrator is so painfully slow. I never EVER change the speed of books, but toward the end, I found myself listening to this in 1.5x, and I highly recommend doing that for the whole book. My comprehension went up when I listened to it faster.

A classic on TRAUMA

Ms. Herman developed a resource for therapists that is timeless, adding the prologue. She gave us all validation in the work we do.

robotic voice.

why the very robotic narration? sounds like a computerised voice? very off putting. monotone

Robotic Narrator

I thought I could deal with the robotic monotone narrator after listening to the sample. But sadly couldn’t get through more than 20 mins of the book before I had to stop.

Great book. Monotone reader.

Outside of extraordinary circumstances, in order to experience dissociation, men need only go to war; for a woman, it is part and parcel of life with men. Herman's thorough description of the effects of male aggression, graciously corrects this customary oversight. The reader is a tad robotic - mildly better than the Macat books. A minor annoyance was her pronunciation of 'dissociation' - a common error - when Herman clearly uses the correct term.

A must read

A powerful book to support trauma recovery. As a PTSD sufferer this really helped me understand some of my symptoms, debunked the myth of what « recovery » and empowered me to be in charge of it.

Life changing and life affirming.

Through listening to this book I have learned so much about who I am and the troubles I have had. It has had a profound and positive effect on me.
There are difficult passages to listen to, whether they trigger grief for all that has been lost to the individual, or horror in the stories of other trauma survivors.
But it is worth pushing through to face the revelations that can heal. I would recommend this for anyone who is lost and adrift and looking for answers, or for anyone dealing with the clinical psychological treatment of people. I would recommend that everyone should read it really, but I know that it is hard for people who have not been subject to traumatic experiences to face that which can be hidden in the world around them.
Thank you to Judith Herman for speaking clearly for those who have often been marginalised, ostracised and disbelieved.
Also, for showing commonality across different traumas such as domestic abuse survivors, sexual abuse survivors, traumatised war veterans and survivors of the holocaust. It is only by seeing things as a whole that we can begin to address all forms of deep generational trauma suffered globally.

Great book about ptsd

The book inspired me to learn more about ptsd and it's treatment. It helped my patients with PTSD symptoms aswel.

Excellent book

An excellent book but you have to be ready for it . Needs to be listened to several times

Very impressed!

This book is very enlightening for abused people or therapists interested on this subject.. it answered a lot of questions I didn’t even know I had.

phenomenal

wow. a powerful, devastating book, but also hopeful. I'm buying a print copy too, and for each of my friends

Wonderful and Important for therapists and petient

i learned so much, thank you for this research and publishing it. if you suffer from CPTST - read it, it will help you coop