When Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery was first published five years ago, it was hailed as a groundbreaking
work. In the intervening years, Herman's now classic volume has changed the way we think about and treat traumatic
events and trauma victims. In a new introduction, Herman chronicles the incredible response the book has elicited
and explains how the issues surrounding the topic of trauma and recovery have shifted within the clinical community
and the culture at large. Trauma and Recovery brings a new level of understanding to a set of problems usually
considered individually. Herman draws on her own cutting-edge research on domestic violence, as well as on a vast
literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such
as rape and public traumas such as terrorism. The book puts individual experience in a broader political frame,
arguing that psychological trauma can be understood only in a social context. Meticulously documented and frequently
using the victims own words as well as those from classic literary works and prison diaries, Trauma and Recovery
is a powerful work that will continue to profoundly impact our thinking.