Understanding Trauma - A psychoanalytical approach 2nd edition

Major disasters draw attention forcibly to their effects on the survivors. Less often recognised are the long-term after-effects of the huge number and variety of more private events, either accidental or deliberately inflicted, on an individual's subsequent emotional and working life.

This book is about what follows the breakdown in functioning, either short or long-term, provoked by a traumatic event. What is distinctive about this book is that its authors offer a psychoanalytical understanding of the meaning of the trauma for an individual, illuminating theory with detailed clinical illustration and case histories. They show the process of treatment as their patients restore meaning to their lives, moving towards a new integration in which the event becomes a part of the whole, no longer dominating either their waking or sleeping life. A range of therapeutic procedures is described, including a short series of individual and group consultations, and full analysis.