Product Description
A reference guide to PTSD, stress, and trauma as they affect children and adolescents.Unlike many of the other works in this area that attempt to deal with childhood PTSD by extrapolating from the adult work, this book deals primarily with the findings of childhood trauma. Mixing clinical experience and research, this is a thorough introduction to PTSD, stress, trauma, and concurrent conditions. ... Read more

Product Description

Praise for Clinician's Guide to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

"Rosen and Frueh's important book takes a huge leap toward clarity. The chapters are authored by leading experts in the field, and each addresses one of the pressing issues of the day. The tone is sensible and authoritative throughout, but always with a thoughtful ear toward clinical concerns and implications." —George A. Bonanno, PhD Professor of Clinical Psychology Teachers College, Columbia University

"All clinicians and researchers dealing with anxiety disorders should have a copy of Rosen and Frueh's Clinician's Guide to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder on their shelves. Moreover, they should read it from cover to cover. This compilation . . . is authoritative, very readable, and extremely well crafted. The issues are looked at from many vantage points, including assessment and treatment, cross-cultural, cognitive, and categorical/political." —Michel Hersen, PhD, ABPP Editor, Journal of Anxiety Disorders Dean, School of Professional Psychology, Pacific University

Clinician's Guide to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder brings together an international group of expert clinicians and researchers who address core issues facing mental health professionals, including:

• Assessing and treating trauma exposure and posttraumatic morbidity

• Controversies and clinical implications of differences of opinion among researchers on the definition and diagnosis of the condition

• Treating the full range of posttraumatic reactions

• Cross-cultural perspectives on posttraumatic stress

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent new book on trauma.
A compendium of experts in the field discuss all aspects of trauma and PTSD. Well-written, absorbing, and an excellent resource for the grad school course I'm teaching in crisis intervention, trauma, and disaster mental health. ... Read more

Product Description

The Definitive Resource for Trauma Survivors, Their Loved Ones, and Helpers

Trauma can take many forms, from witnessing a violent crime or surviving a natural disaster to living with the effects of abuse, rape, combat, or alcoholism. Deep emotional wounds may seem like they will never heal. However, with The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook, Dr. Glenn Schiraldi offers a remarkable range of treatment alternatives and self-management techniques, showing survivors that the other side of pain is recovery and growth.

Live your life more fully-without fear, pain, depression, or self-doubt

• Identify emotional triggers-and protect yourself from further harm
• Understand the link between PTSD and addiction-and how to break it
• Find the best treatments and techniques that are right for you

This updated edition covers new information for war veterans and survivors with substance addictions. It also explores mindfulness-based treatments, couples strategies, medical aids, and other important treatment innovations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Great resource
Schiraldi took a complex issue and makes it easy to grasp in a well-organized format.It is useful for both the general reader who wants basic information and those who wish to do more in-depth reading.I was impressed with how the physiological concepts are explained, and wish I had read this book before taking introductory psychology courses.I have recommended it to people who have the diagnosis but also to anyone who has or knows someone with a mental illness of any type because much of the information is widely applicable, although what he writes about PTSD is invaluable.Overall I would highly recommend the book without reservation for anyone seeking information on mental illness and especially as a resource for PTSD, it should be a staple in the library of anyone studying the disorder.

Excellent Book
After reading the first 90 pages or so, I finally feel validated that I am not totally losing my mind.I was concerned about that for awhile as stressor upon stressor was piled on my plate.The author did his homework and has fully documented his findings.Now I know that my reaction to the very abnormal is normal, I feel better already.I have a lot of work to do, but relief comes slowly and in small steps.I give this a definite, huge thumbs up and five-star rating.

Very helpful book
As a psychotherapist, I am always struck by the overwhelming complexity of PTSD and the layers of self-denial and avoidance reactions that often isolate a sufferer from the core emotional and sensory trauma. This book helps untangle the chaos of traumatic anxiety and gives us a better way to manage PTSD. I use mindfulness meditation therapy to work with trauma and find it to be most helpful. You might like to learn more about this approach, I also recommend 'The Path of Mindfulness Meditation' available through Amazon.

Second Edition: For the Clinician
Issued ten years ago, the first edition of Schiraldi's PTSD Sourcebook became (at least over time) the "industry standard" orientation text for new counselors and therapists in the VA Healthcare System. Then, as now, it was both comprehensive and easy to understand.

I wondered (in about 2000 or 2001) why it wasn't used as a complete "patient education" piece, but over time, I came to understand that the VA is =very= conservative about such matters. With good reason, at least in some respects: There was material in the first edition that was surely capable of triggering PTSD symptoms in readers who had not yet progressed far enough in therapy to defend against such triggering.

While not a substantial revision of the original, the second edition does add a number of simplified descriptions of therapeutic techniques as well as mentions here and there of newer efficacy research to support these and previously included methods. That said, the second edition continues to be the single best, mass-market text available for understanding PTSD's causes and conditions, as well as doing something meaningful about it.

With regard to the controversy over triggering, my suggestion is simply that while PTSD sufferers with denser, more primitive ego defenses (e.g.: dissociation, rage, nihilistic depressive orientation) require some work before tackling a book like this, most sufferers - and family members alike - will be hugely rewarded for diving in here. Schiraldi's book is "practical" and "hands-on," as opposed to "heavily neurobiological" or "interactionally theoretical."

This is not Bessel van der Kolk's (wonderful) =Traumatic Stress= or even Matthew Friedman's terrific little =Post-Traumatic and Acute Stress Disorders=. But, as a clinician, I found it (once again) to be a very effective re-orientation toward discussing PTSD and its component issues =with= those who are neither neuropsychologists or theory-soaked experts on interactional traumatization, let alone psychopharmacologists.

Schiraldi neatly distills the whole gamut of topics on nature and nurture, as well as stress and de-stress, into one- and two-syllable verbiage we can use to make sense of it all the same way the =patient= will have to make sense of it.

Do I have issues with the book? Of course. Shiraldi does tend towards the VAHS culture's view that one size fits all here and there. And some clinicians who have not themselves worked through their all-or-nothing orientations may get the idea that the author has covered all of the possible bases. He has not. But if he tried to do so, the book would be impossibly large, as well as needlessly difficult for lay readers.

That's a critique, however, that can be made of nearly any mass market book on such a complex subject. On the whole, this is a valuable and worthwhile read for clinicians and patients alike.

WOW!What a great resource for PTSD sufferers.
I have been suffering with anxiety, depression and phobias for most of my life.After discovering through therapy that I suffer from PTSD due to growing up with an alcoholic father, I decided to purchase this book.I've been reading through it and it has been helping me learn a lot about PTSD and how to heal from it.
Chapters include:
the basics of PTSD, symptoms that include anxiety and dissociation
Healing, recovery and growth.
Preparing for the recovery process
Managing symptoms
Treatments (including memory work, therapy, hypnosis, healing rituals, resolving guilt, dream mgmt, etc)
The last few chapters are devoted to "moving on", becoming happy and spiritual as well as having a sense of purpose.
If you are a sufferer of PTSD and grew up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional home, I highly recommend this book.This book is great in conjunction with cognitive "talk" therapy with a professional, credible counselor.
... Read more

Product Description
The terrorist attacks in September 2001 turned PTSD into a household word. Documented throughout history, posttraumatic stress disorder—officially recognized as a diagnosis by DSM-III in 1980—is only the most recent term used to describe the suffering of trauma victims.

Few could have foreseen PTSD’s profound impact on litigation. Often dubbed the "black hole" of litigation—where allegations are easy to assert but difficult to defend because the symptoms are subjective—PTSD has deeply influenced civil and criminal law in cases ranging from malpractice and personal injury to sexual harassment and child abuse, and has even been used as an insanity defense in criminal cases. It is thus vital that forensic examiners perform credible psychiatric and psychological examinations of PTSD claimants.

Intended to add direction and discipline to the forensic assessment of PTSD litigants, this expanded second edition includes new chapters about disability determinations in PTSD litigation, PTSD in employment litigation, and forensic laboratory testing for PTSD. Updated chapters cover current and future trends, recent research findings, forensic psychiatric assessment in claimants, guidelines for diagnosing PTSD in children and adolescents, forensic psychological assessment, and guidelines for evaluating malingering in PTSD.

This essential collection by 13 leading U.S. experts sheds important new light on forensic guidelines for effective assessment and diagnosis and determination of disability, serving both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation involving PTSD claims. Mental health and legal professionals, third-party payers, and interested laypersons will welcome this balanced approach to a complex and difficult field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good
I'm not sure that you get much more out of this book than a reding a combination ofWriting and Defending Your IME Report: The Comprehensive Guide and A Physician's Guide To Return To Work, and knowing about PTSD.

This is a book by multiple authors.In some ways each chapter was just an introductory chapter and should have been followed with more detail.

The 8th chapter was "Guidelines for Evaluation of Malingering in PTSD" by Phillip J Resnick.Resnick and James Knoll wrote an article in Psychiatric Clinics of North America (2006.29: 629-647) entitled "The Detection of Malingered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."The journal article is a similar length, covers similar material and is newer.

CHAPTER 1: Persistent Reexperinces in Psychiatry and Law.
This chapter gives a handy reminder of what hindsight bias is.It discusses PTSD in an insanity defense, but this is better dealt with in later chapters.

CHAPTER 2: Recent Research Findings on the Diagnosis of PTSD.
The severity of PTSD usually declines over time.(In contradistinction to what Sandy (Alexander) MacFarlane has emphasised recently).However, in technological events, there is some evidence of anger/irritability increasing over time.

None of the studies found a threshold effect for the severity of the stressor.Field trials of DSM-IV investigated five different options for the definition of the stressor criterion in the PTSD diagnosis, including eliminatino the definition all together... little effect... rates of PTSD (page 29).

Those who reported peritraumatic dissociation were 4.12 times more likely to meet criteria for PTSD at one month and 4.86 times... three months.Implication: so much for horror and etc.

Exposure to multiple stressors increases the risk of PTSD following the target event.So, you need to know about psych hx, childhood abuse and family psychiatric history.

The author gives a dumb account of compensation neurosis.

The author states that PTSD is the most common after-trauma event; I thought it was depression.

For some reason, the author lumps a paragraph about biological correlates after the conclusion section and uses the excuse, in the heading, of calling it "future research directions."Go figure.

CHAPTER 2.Forensic Psychiatric Assessment of PTSD Claimants.
PTSD in DSMI was gross stress reaction (1952) and in DSM II was adjustment reaction of adult life (1968).

You need to rule out later trauma as the actual cause of delayed PTSD, etc etc.ASD 2 days to 4 weeks.PTSD 4 weeks or longer.3 months for chronic.Six months for delayed.

In litigation, PTSD causes a presumption of causation.PTSD is a phasic nature, so cross sectional assessments will have problems.The presence of avoidant symptoms will may mask the diagnosis of PTSD.(page 47).False negatives might occur when the person denies the condition because of shame or wish to avoid reexperiencing the event.

PTSD reexperiencing symptoms occur in a hierarchy.The more dissociative the symptoms, the more likely to meet the criteria for criterion B.

Differential diagnosis: MTBI and postconcussive syndrome.These should start with the event and decline over weeks or months, in contrast to PTSD.In memory loss with PTSD, it is for the most psychologically painful part.In memory loss with HI, it is for the entire event and RA and AA(anterograde amnesia)).

A somatoform version of the disorder might exist and often be missed.

The author gives the wrong page number for the warning in DSMIVTR that DSM-IV not be applied mechanically by untrained individuals.The real page number is xxxii (not xxiii).

Do not overreach the clinical data.You can still get PTSD if you are KOed because you can get PTSD from resus.

Subthreshold PTSD can still cause "substantial impairment."Diagnose as anxiety disorder NOS if nothing else will fit.

Lifetime prevenence PTSD is 9% and if subthreshold cases were added, it would be 14-15%.

Persons with genuine PTSD symptoms are often excluded from the diagnosis because of the absence of the three avoidant symptoms (pg 56).

The perception of less psychological support shortly after a trauma was predictive of PTSD... more severe injury did not predict PTSD (pg 60).

The eggshell plaintiff.Some people get PTSD symptoms when the stressor clearly does not meet criterion A.For example, marital separation, arrest of teenage children.

Hindsight traumatisation of prior perceived nontraumatic events does not accord conceptually with PTSD stressor criteria (pg 62).Eg drinking tainted water.

Two hats ethical dilemma."Convenient focus."Disabilty might be caused by not working, rather than by the PTSD.Best not to have third parties present during the interviewing process.

Adaptation is the ability to manage stress without deterioration or decompensation.

The norm is for acute PTSD to improve and chronic PTSD to worsen over time (the author said this, but the studies he quoted do not seem to support this conclusion).The three month DSM cut-off time does not seem to be merely arbitary!

Recounting the traumatic event as part of litigation can exacerbate the event (pg 78).

Claimants are required to mitigate their damage.

Factors influincing prognosis of PTSD
- dose
- nature of trauma
- susceptibility
- comorbidity (current and lifetime)
- acuteness of symptoms at the time of evaluation
- concurrent life stressors
- family history (antisocial, anxiety)
- support
- litigation
- functional impairment

Note strenghts.

CHAPTER 4.PTSD In Children and Adolescents.
Note Terr's type I (one-off) and type II trauma.Shame, guilt, loss of trust.Parental response and home life.Startle response a good marker.

A bereaved person is usually preoccupied with the lost person ad a traumatised person is usually preoccupied with the scene of the trauma and the violent encounter with death.

For a preschooler, separation, loss of home, safety and being fed.For adolescents, morality, ethics, mortality.Erickson.

Foreshortened future:plan ahead, risk taking and need for instant gratification.

Infants and toddlers lack the neurological matuiry to have explicid (narrative) memory for particular events in their lives.

Misattribution: children confuse experience, what they have been told and what they fantacise.Suggestability.Countertransferrence.

Ge colatteral.Find out parents knowlege, concerns and need to decrease (guilt) or increase (money) symptoms.Interview 2-4 hours over several sessions.Child will usually need to be seen alone.Chaotic narrative construction.

DDx: ADHD, anxiety, grief, malingering.Note resiliency, protective factors, supports, coping skills and what is going well.

CHAPTER 5.Forensic Psychological Assessment in PTSD.
40%-90% of the population experience a criterion A event.Find out social role function before and after the event.

CHAPTER 6.Disabilty Determination in PTSD Litigation
Clear association between work impairment/disability and PTSD/impairment has not been demonstrated.

If disability has occurred, need to know how and why.

AMA guides: ADLs, social functioning, CPP, adaptation.Class I to V.

Poor factors: neurotic, passive agressive, avoidance, past trauma.The personality stuff might be more symptom maintenance than preexisting weakness, but.Learned helplessness.Do not want to pathologise soon after accident or will worsen outcome.

Typical day.Convenient, face-saving excuse for social problems.

CHAPTER 7.PTSD in Employment Litigation
As above for criterion A.Vulnerable/repeated, not need to meet criterion A.

If a workplace aggravates or accelerates existing disease, the worker is entitled to compensation, even if it is the straw that broke the camel's back.

Inattentiveness, lack of concentration and generalised anxiety may impair work performance and result in disability... safety of self and others (page 177).

Explosive outbursts might mean having to work from home.PTSD symptoms related to isolation or avoidance may not create a work-related impairment in an individual whor works out of the home and does not need to interact with others on a regular basis.However, symptosm of irritability and outbursts may create a work-related impairment in an indivudial who has to deal with the public.(Page 181 and 182).

Flashbacks, intrusive images and panic attacks in a heavy equipment operator might result in a work-related impairment that endangers the safety of the employee or others (pg 182).

CHAPTER 8.Guidelines for Evaluation of Malingering in PTSD.
The diagnosis of PTSD is based almost entirely on the claimant's report of subjective symptoms (page 187).

Pure malingering, partial malingering (exagerating) and false imputation (attribution).

Get colatteral, even by phone.Persons who feel helpless anticipating an event are more likely to develop PTSD.Poor concentraion and insomnia might have been present before the event.

Post concussive syndrom: headache, anxiety, emotional lability, poor concentration and memory problems.

Antisocial people are more likely to malinger.Sexual dysfunction.Civillian nightmares are on a theme.Service nightmares are exact.Blame...

Antisocial PD and PTSD: work, parenting, legal, partner, drug problems, irritability, impulsiveity.Those with malingered PTSD might fear they will harm ohters.

CHAPTER 9.Forensic Laboratory Testing for PTSD.Non-combat twins of those with PTSD also had small hippocampusses.So small hippocampus is a vulnerability for PTSD rather than caused by it.How bout that.

Still Current and Relevant for Forensic Psychology
This edited volume continues to be a classic in the field of assessing and testifying in court on the subject of post-traumatic stress disorder.As an expert witness in these types of litigation for both the prosecution and defense, I find the rigor of the assessment chapter by Dr. Terence Keane aswell as the overarching strategic review chapter by Dr. Robert Simonhimself, to be consistently relevant to my practice.Don't be deterred bythe book's diagnostic datedness (DSM-IIIR versus DSM-IV)--it's a"must-have" for everyone interested in fair and ethicallitigation related to psychological trauma. ... Read more

Product Description

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric illness that can occur in anyone who has experienced a life-threatening or violent event. The trauma can be due to war, terrorism, torture, natural disasters, violence, or rape. In PTSD the brain areas that are likely to be affected are the hippocampus (memory), amygdala (fear association), the prefrontal cortex (cognitive processing), and the ascending reticular activating system (arousal). The chemical of interest is norepinephrine, which is released during a stressful event and is part of the fight-or-flight response meant to mobilize the body to action.The objective of this title is to outline the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder and provide treatment strategies for clinicians. The chapter material from this book has evolved from a seminar on PTSD held recently under the auspices of the VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston University Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.  We propose a book that will focus on the epidemiology, neurobiology, MRI studies, animal models, arousal and sleep issues, clinical trials, and treatment strategies for clinicians. Treatment will cover such topics as guidelines for treating posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD and the use of mental health services, cognitive intervention therapy, and large scale clinical trials in PTSD. This collection will be a vital source of information to clinicians and neuroscientists.

Customer Reviews (2)

Highly Recommended
This title does an excellent job of advancing a better understanding of the clinical and biological issues surrounding PTSD.In addition, it is especially important for professionals in Sleep Medicine.Providing a lengthy and very positive review, the Journal of Sleep and Sleep Disorders Research says the following as a summary point in Volume 32, Number 12 (December 1, 2009):"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder should be seen as a landmark in the joining of the PTSD and sleep fields."

An excellent overview of current research and clinical practice
This is a scholarly assessment of the current research on PTSD and 3 clinical treatments for this anxiety disorder.

The book begins with articles on the current scientific understanding of the physiology of PTSD: The role of the amygdala and fear, animal models of PTSD, and how PTSD affects the body.Included is information on the coerulus-noradrenegric system and stress, the effect of stress on sleep and its relationship to PTSD, role of stress hormones, and low basal cortisol and the startle reflex. Two articles on brain imaging and PTSD are included.

Three treatment strategies are discussed: Pharmacologic treatment, guided imagery, and virtual reality exposure therapy.Missing is cognitive processing therapy.

This book is a valuable resource providing a wide variety of articles on our current understanding of PTSD. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Long awaited book
This useful book fills a an important gap by describing a treatment program that focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in individuals (such as persons with another mental illness or an addiction) who are frequently too unstable or vulnerable to stress to benefit from currently available programs. The program focuses on the use of cognitive restructuring (or cognitive therapy) as main treatment tool for teaching people how to identify and challenge upsetting thoughts that contribute to stress, including ones that are related to trauma, and avoids more stressful treatments based on exposure therapy to traumatic memories and situations. Cognitive restructuring is taught using a simplified 5-step process that is easier to teach and learn than many other approaches to cognitive-behavioral therapy. The book is helpfully divided into 3 sections, with the first two sections by authors covering background information and the basics of the cognitive restructuring model, and the third section focusing on applications the cognitive restructuring program to special populations, with chapters by invited authors describing how to work with adolescents, ethnic/racial minorities and refugees,survivors of disasters or mass violence, individuals in addiction treatment settings, and persons with borderline personality disorder or psychosis. The book contains some of the best handout and worksheet materials currently available in the field for treating PTSD.

Clinician ... Read more

Product Description
New Directions in the Treatment of PTSD

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) offers a promising, empirically validated approach to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma related problems. In this volume, you'll find a complete theoretical and practical guide to making this revolutionary new model work in your practice.

After a quick overview of PTSD, the first part of the book explains the problem of experiential avoidance as it relates to trauma and explores the verbal nature of post-traumatic stress. You'll learn the importance of mindfulness and acceptance in the ACT model, find out how to structure sessions with your clients, and examine the problem of control. The section concludes by introducing you to the idea of creative hopelessness as the starting point for creating a new, workable life after trauma.

The book's second section offers a practical, step-by-step clinical guide to the six core ACT components in chronological order:
• Creative hopelessness
• The problem of control
• Willingness and defusion
• Self-as-context
• Valued living
• Committed action

Each chapter explains how to introduce these topics to clients suffering from PTSD, illustrates each with case examples, and offers homework for your clients to use between sessions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Helpful even for the non-therapist
I am not a therapist myself, but after an abusive marriage and and even more abusive divorce process, I have read whatever seems like it might be helpful. I found some portions of this book in a Google book excerpt - they led me to purchase it immediately despite the high price.

The book is well worth the money. No book on trauma has been so helpful to me as this one. The ideas are truly revolutionary. I would especially recommend this book for "word" people - readers and thinkers. We tend to want to use thinking and language to find that "key" which will unlock whatever is trapping us - and that approach, its flaws and possibilities, are the essence of this therapy. The revelations here are not the sort you rejoice in, then forget two days later. Once you "see" the truths herein, you cannot "un-see" them. The exercises and examples are very powerful.

great resource
Great book! I learned ACT several years ago and am now in a clinical position working exclusively with PTSD. This book is a great fusion.

Excellet book on ACT and PTSD!
This is a wonderful book, both as a guide to clinicians who want to implement ACT for PTSD and as a general guide to understanding ACT and the underlying principles. The chapter on mindfulness is particularly helpful. The authors bring to this book a deep compassion, empathy and understanding of the difficulties of struggling with trauma, and where we as clinicians can get stuck in the process of using ACT to treat it.
The illustrations were also fantastic!!

An outstanding resource for clinicians who work with trauma
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Treatment of PTSD & Trauma Related Problems by Walser and Westrup provides an excellent overview of PTSD and the various challenges faced by those who are personally grappling with the impact of trauma in their lives.The essence of the book however lies in the application of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a timely and empirically based treatment approach for trauma related difficulties.The authors outline and incorporate ACT in a manner that is clear and approachable for those already familiar with ACT, and those who are interested in learning more about this evidence-based treatment approach.The book provides a clear and concise road map for treatment using ACT in a manner that is consistent with other state of the art empirically based therapies (i.e., exposure) and the growing literature on mindfulness and acceptance based approaches. In addition, it is rich with practical case examples, mindfulness and acceptance exercises, and steeped in metaphors that facilitate the work of therapy.The worksheets, CD-ROM and reference resources complement the material.

The authors also address the essential role of the therapist as an integral part of the therapeutic process, and convey the value in recognizing our respective role and the related challenges faced as clinicians who are often caught up in similar trappings as the person across from us.The book invites the reader to discern in a non-judgmental manner if ACT is well suited for them given what ACT asks of the therapist in terms of their own process, perspective and willingness.Consistent with ACT, Walser and Westrup provide a framework for living a meaningful and valued life that goes beyond the diagnosis and resolution of PTSD.The authors articulate a context of possibilities for living a more complete, rich and vital life that extends beyond amelioration of anxiety.I highly recommend this book.

Pete Morones, Ph.D.
Portland, OR

A great practical guide and resource
This is the much needed practical guide for implementing ACT. The overview of ACT is the most practical and understandable I've read and the guide for implementing the treatment is the step-by-step "how to" I've been needing. I really appreciated the specific examples provided for implementing the treatment and the word for word descriptions of how experienced ACT clinicians approach difficult situations. It is rare to discover a book like this that not only furthers my understanding of a treatment but also motivates me to practice it! ... Read more

Product Description
As far back as we know, there have been individuals incapacitated by memories that have filled them with sadness and remorse, fright and horror, or a sense of irreparable loss. Only recently, however, have people tormented with such recollections been diagnosed as suffering from "post-traumatic stress disorder." Here Allan Young traces this malady, particularly as it is suffered by Vietnam veterans, to its beginnings in the emergence of ideas about the unconscious mind and to earlier manifestations of traumatic memory like shell shock or traumatic hysteria. In Young's view, PTSD is not a timeless or universal phenomenon newly discovered. Rather, it is a "harmony of illusions," a cultural product gradually put together by the practices, technologies, and narratives with which it is diagnosed, studied, and treated and by the various interests, institutions, and moral arguments mobilizing these efforts.

This book is part history and part ethnography, and it includes a detailed account of everyday life in the treatment of Vietnam veterans with PTSD. To illustrate his points, Young presents a number of fascinating transcripts of the group therapy and diagnostic sessions that he observed firsthand over a period of two years. Through his comments and the transcripts themselves, the reader becomes familiar with the individual hospital personnel and clients and their struggle to make sense of life after a tragic war. One observes that everyone on the unit is heavily invested in the PTSD diagnosis: boundaries between therapist and patient are as unclear as were the distinctions between victim and victimizer in the jungles of Southeast Asia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

perposterous!
I am a clinical social worker who suffered in the past from debilitating PTSD.Due to great strides by my colleagues in psycho-therapeutic work and EMDR, I can testify that PTSD is very real and not an illusion.If you have any cluster of symptoms close to PTSD, don't waste your money on this book.Go find a certified EMDR therapist who can really help you heal.

response
This book is an extraordinarily honest attempt to think outside the institutional box and look for a more complex set of truths.Allan Young was grappling with the experience of seeing the creation of a diagnosis through a political and economic process.He was looking at how that process actually marginalized the people so diagnosed, and limited the resources and attention they received, after being pigeon-holed as having "PTSD".Dr. Young was in no way trivializing the terrible experiences or the suffering experienced by the veterans; on the contrary, he was saying that this diagnosis and the way the diagnosis shaped their treatment was not necessarily either helpful or in their best interests.The negative reviewers of this book either didn't read it or got it exactly backwards.This book is/was a groundbreaking attempt to show that psychiatric diagnoses do not necessarily match the actual experiences of the sufferers, or respond to their real suffering in a helpful way.

Effects of severe trauma are real, not imagined
Anyone who refuses to understand the horrible effects of being severely traumatized cannot possibly know how to treat the problem he does not believe exists.Thankfully, it appears Mr. Young has not been a soldier who has witnessed the death and mayhem of others around him, a soldier who has been a prisoner of war, a witness to the Twin Towers falling on 9/11/01 or a child growing up in a home where domestic violence, rape and incest are an everyday problem.Thankfully, Mr. Young was probably not one of the children or school staff who witnessedthe Columbine shootings.Thankfully, he was probably not a Floridian who suffered through four hurricanes in the summer of 2004.Mr. Young believes PTSD sufferers blame their psychological problems on their abuser or abusers.Yes, if the trauma causing the effects of PTSD were the result of an abuser, we do blame the abuser.If an animal is beaten since birth, whose fault is it the animal cowers?Unless the animal is taken from that environment and placed in a loving home, the animal cannot heal.PTSD sufferers do not want to suffer.We want healing.We need understanding eyes, not judgmental pointing fingers.I do not believe every person who suffers trauma experiences PTSD.Yet, there are those of us who do suffer from trauma.PTSD is a name for very real psychological problems.PTSD is not a label mental health professionals casually diagnose.Anyone who espouses to Mr. Young's kind of thinking is simply ignorant of others suffering.In his bio at Amazon, he credits living with African Americans as an eye-opening experience.Why did he have to live with African Americans before he could understand their culture?Did he not have a single African American contact before his Portland experience?If he could not understand African Americans before living with them, he certainly cannot understand the plight of a PTSD sufferer with an open-mind to their severe pain.Readers of this review, please do not read Mr. Young's unprofessional ideas in this book without talking to PTSD sufferers yourself.The real data is from the PTSD sufferer.

In reponse to my intemperate fellow Bostonian
This is a groundbreaking study of a "condition" whose popularity has grownway out of proportion to the limited evidence for its validity as aclinical entity.PTSD fits a profession's need for a "serious" mentaldisorder that requires psychotherapy as its primary mode of treatment, at atime when medications have come to be seen as the primary treatment frommost Axis I psychiatric disorders.Just as importantly it meets the needsof patients who need a "reason" (or perhaps a "culprit") to account fortheir misery other than the mere fact of being ill.However, close studyof the condition itself reveals that there is nothing intrinsic whichdistinguishes it from garden variety depression with prominent anxiety andintrusive rumination.It has been known since time immemorial that suchconditions will arise independently of the issues which may occupy theminds of their sufferers.But now, as a consequence of thesocio-historical milieu into which PTSD was born, it has become the favoreddiagnosis for those who see their emotional troubles as the responsibilityof someone else.In this book the nature of that historical milieu is welldescribed. Professor Young has broken a powerful taboo in opening thistopic up for discussion, and his remarkable work of scholarship deservesthe highest praise.

E puor si muove
Young ideas' are not new. Many psychologists and psychiatrists workingwith persons in extreme situations have arrived to the same point: PTSD isan ethnocultural invention of Euro American Psychiatry. The so-called"PTSD-symptoms" are frequent. The syndrome is a construct. AllanYoung collects evidence in passionate but scientific way. This book is amust for all students of mental health science that want to give to theirprofession a wider scope than just what one can get from a cookbook ofeuroamerican diagnosis that blinds more than helps as DSM-IV. Life is muchmore than DSM-IV and this book contributes to seeing that in an excellentmanner. ... Read more

Product Description

"Ilona Meagher is a powerful advocate for American combat veterans of all generations. With mental health issues facing hundreds of thousands of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Moving A Nation to Care brings desperately needed attention to the devasting hidden costs of war. Anyone who wants to 'support the troops' should read this important book."--Paul Rieckhoff

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in our returning combat troops is one of the most catastrophic issues confronting our nation. Yet, despite the fact that more than 25 percent of the troops that have left the military since 2003 have been diagnosed with PTSD, and that many who suffer symptoms are unlikely to seek help because of the stigma of this terrible disease, our government has remained willfully neglectful the plight of our veterans.

Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops is a grassroots call to action designed to put the issue of PTSD in our returning troops front and center before the American public. In addition to presenting interviews with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering with PTSD, this book is the most comprehensive resource to date for concerned citizens who want to understand the complex political, social and health-related issues of PTSD, with an eye toward "moving our nation to care" to do what is necessary to help our fighting men and women. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Meagher's Review
Ilona Meagher has captured the essence of the growing epidemic related to PTSD symptoms and its victims and provides insights concerning future policy changes directed towards prevention and early treatment.This is a powerful read.I am an OIF veteran and have found hope in numbers and validation throughout this book.Also reference Meagher, I. (2007). The war list: OEF/OIF statistics at [...].

PTSD STORIES
THE PTSD PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY RETURNING VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS IS REAL AND IN MANY INSTANCES UNRECOGNIZED. THE BOOK GOES INTO THE HISTORY OF PTSD, WHEN IT WAS NOT GIVEN A NAME PRIOR TO THE VIET NAM WAR EXPERIENCES, AND GIVES AN ACCURATE HISTORY OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THE PROBLEM. THE BOOK IS A GOOD STARTING POINT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE PROBLEM OR THINK THAT THEY DO, BUT DO NOT KNOW WHERE TO GO FOR HELP.

An excellent book that helped bring a national tragedy to light.
This small book is no longer cutting edge but is an excellent read regardless.Ilona's research and concise writing was instumental in bringing the true scope of Post Tramatic Stress Disorder to light.The fact that we are doing positive things to help our returning soldiers today is at least in some measure due to this book. Plus, it is an easy read! Borrow it or buy it... but, read it. Warning, it will be hard not to care after reading this!

Moving a Nation to Care - this is an amazing book!
This is truly an amazing book. It is very helpful and it really gives you hope that people are starting to take note and take action to help these families.

disappointed
I felt as if I was reading a "report" from the internet and not an informative book on PTSD.Too much political bias for me, could have done w/out that, very slick job.There were a few interesting and valid view points and facts, but the meat and potatoes of this book could have been written in 20 pages in bullet format. I don't care much for reading books that are a compilation of information from other books. I have read many of her sources books and found them far more helpful and valuable.

I am a strong supporter of our military and understand PTSD and it's affects all too well. I have lost two Soldiers to suicide upon return from Iraq. If I weren't already in the mix I am not so sure this book would "move" me to care, I was hopeful by the title and reviews that it would inspire others to do just that "care" more and get involved.At some points I felt like I was reading anti-war, anti-American rhetoric and not about PTSD.The bias in the media and our own politicians wanting this war to be failure has hurt our Troops more than anything.I do agree Rumsfeld was an idiot and screw up in her political expressions.

I found no inspiration in this book, other than to agree the DOD needs to start tracking suicides of our Veterans post deployment, some are hard to call like high speed car accidents late at night, intentional or accident? I do agree more of us need to put pressure on the VA and politicians to force the VA to function properly now and not later, but again nothing in this writing stirred any fire from within.Maybe if PTSD and war is new to you it might, I can only hope.

Enough already w/understanding and research of PTSD, we have enough information and it's time to start progressive, productive treatment and support. As the author points out PTSD has been around since the dawn of war.The VA has always been poorly managed and needs to be cleaned up, this is nothing new, wecan't blame all of it on Iraq and the Stan influx or present administration, though they do need to step up.During peace time no one cared what the VA was doing and now our country is paying the price in more ways than one. I did agree that the miitary and gov have created some nice catch 22's for our guys returning so they don't have to spend the money to take care of our Soldiers and Marines.

So I painfully give this book one star, just was hoping for more. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses such situations as physical abuse, natural disasters, wars, and violence, that can cause stressful responses and describes ways of dealing with these delayed reactions to trauma. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Coping With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
I found this book very easy to read & understand. It didn't feel like a chore to continue reading it. As I read the book I found myself relating to many of the topics & symptoms in one way or another...which helped me to feel like maybe I'm not the only one who has felt this way. The author also goes over ways to learn to overcome the unfortunate symptoms that come with PTSD. This book has been very helpful to me & it's even handy to have around when those nasty symptoms pop up again! I definitely recommend this book for those who have been strong enough to make it through any traumatic ordeals (or their loved ones); but I also recommend it for those who are simply interested in psychology. This book has really helped me & I'm sure it will help many others!!
Best Wishes,
Robyn :o) ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

An excellent pick for those who don't want to be defined by an event
Letting one's life be controlled by one traumatic event is no way to live. "Conquering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Newest Techniques for Overcoming Symptoms, Regaining Hope, and Getting Your Life Back" is a guide for the afflicted in dealing with the anxieties related to such things so that they can get their life back on track. With much advice on improving one's mood, building supportive relationships, and getting over the event, "Conquering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" is an excellent pick for those who don't want to be defined by an event.

Conquering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
This is an excellent book. Post Traumatic Stress can have many crippling effects on the way one socialized and lived. If you have been through one
or a series of violent events, or seen them. There are exercises to help you cope and either rid yourself of them or know how to deal with them if they have really gotten into your inner being, and can be tapped into a lifetime.
Even many troubling events we hear about (9/11) can get inside us. I feel
sorry for what our Iraq soldiers go through when they come home,and hope they get the awareness or techniques to help. This is best to work with
in conjunction with a therapist. Many are very aware of this problem and how to help you work through it...plus other techniques. Friends as support systems to are greatly helpful. Very very good activities that help!

Recommended for everyone
Perceptive, insightful and well-written.I would recommend this book to
anyone who has any contact with PTSD issues.It should be obligatory to anyone who has experienced trauma on any level.Dr. Lemle Beckner is a gifted writer and original thinker.

Excellent resource
A comprehensive, easy to read self-help resource for people experiencing difficulties, including anxiety, depression and anger, as a result of traumatic experiences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Helpful book
This books lays it out simply, even for a lay person.I have PTSD and needed to learn more about it, and found this book of help to my family and me.I do recommend it.

Educational for both Clinician and Layperson
I am the webowner of "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sanctuary." This book is more clinical, yet is very understandable for the lay person so I also recommend it to everyone. There is a great deal of material in here. Many forms of therapy discussed. Uncovering the trauma, feelings work, ptsd related problems, symptom management, and final healing stages discussed.

Discussion of the clinicial diagnosis and assessment of ptsd - formulating a treatment plan, and assistance with all phases all therapy with trauma patients.

Very helpful and educational book. I highly recommend it.

Patty Pheil MSW ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

the beast within/john o'shea
have just finished reading this excellent book. Should have been written years ago...ANyone living with a PTSD person should read this..An easy read and offers insight and clousure...

Forgotten Warrior
'The Beast Within' is unique in that it speaks to the difficulties encountered by military personnel *after* their tour of duty. The horrors of war have been well documented, and rightly so. However, the horrors of life *after* war, unfortunately, have not been voiced. The Beast Within breaks the silence - and shares that which is known to Veterans and no one else: the difficulties in resuming a non-military life in an environment where understanding and gratitude are too often overshadowed with prejudices, indifference and apathy - an environment that assumes 'he'll be OK now that he's home'. The Beast Within challenges the belief that the government provides for those who served and enables its soldiers to rejoin society after forcing them from it. The Beast Within sheds light on the fact that the military mindset is unlike anything else - and that real assistance and resources are necessary to adapt to a life where death and destruction are no longer the focus of one's everyday being, i.e., a life after war.

Forgotten Warrior
'The Beast Within' is unique in that it speaks to the difficulties encountered by military personnel *after* their tour of duty. The horrors of war have been well documented, and rightly so. However, the horrors of life *after* war, unfortunately, have not been voiced. The Beast Within breaks the silence - and shares that which is known to Veterans and no one else: the difficulties in resuming a non-military life in an environment where understanding and gratitude are too often overshadowed with prejudices, indifference and apathy - an environment that assumes 'he'll be OK now that he's home'. The Beast Within challenges the belief that the government provides for those who served and enables its soldiers to rejoin society after forcing them from it. The Beast Within sheds light on the fact that the military mindset is unlike anything else - and that real assistance and resources are necessary to adapt to a life where death and destruction are no longer the focus of one's everyday being, i.e., a life after war.

Forgotten Warrior
'The Beast Within' is unique in that it speaks to the difficulties encountered by military personnel *after* their tour of duty. The horrors of war have been well documented, and rightly so. However, the horrors of life *after* war, unfortunately, have not been voiced. The Beast Within breaks the silence - and shares that which is known to Veterans and no one else: the difficulties in resuming a non-military life in an environment where understanding and gratitude are too often overshadowed with prejudices, indifference and apathy - an environment that assumes 'he'll be OK now that he's home'. The Beast Within challenges the belief that the government provides for those who served and enables its soldiers to rejoin society after forcing them from it. The Beast Within sheds light on the fact that the military mindset is unlike anything else - and that real assistance and resources are necessary to adapt to a life where death and destruction are no longer the focus of one's everyday being, i.e., a life after war. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Lens we See Through
I read this book to gather information about 2 items:
- Coping mechanisms families use with members struggling with PTSD
- How families interpret why the member committed suicide.

This book does provide information and examples for these, it also possesses a significant amount of political commentary. If you wish to learn more about PTSD, better resources exist. This book definitely should be read, but keep in mind the author filter information through her lens.

No help to be found in this book
As the wife of a returning combat veteran, I was looking for some help understanding what he was going through.Instead, what I found was a lot of caustic comments and when I read that her ultimate solution was to just not have war, I closed the book.

Too much politics, not enough fact
The tales of mental suffering Penny Coleman relates are sad, and I have no doubt they are true.They are certainly heartfelt, understandable given that she endured life with a PTSD-suffering husband.Clearly this book consumed her, which a book on this topic should.However, her left-leaning politics get in the way of her points.Statements such as sexual abuse and physical violence are the norm for American women come right out of the N.O.W. playbook and cry out for verification, yet she offers just one person's opinion.Her brief foray into the Civil War reveals her absence of knowledge in that area.The symptoms Jacob Da Costa described for "irritable heart" could have been caused by anything from anxiety to cardio-vascular conditions, but they do not describe PTSD.She mis-cites Eric T. Dean's Shook Over Hell and turns execution into the standard outcome for Civil War deserters.The truth is that, of the 201,000 Union deserters reported, only a small fraction of 1% faced execution.(Thanks to Dr. Thomas Lowry's work on courts-martial, definitive evidence exists to make that statement.)Dean was actually talking about the reactions of men on burial details.Rather oddly, she cites an Australian doctor that the Civil War reported 145,000 cases of constipation.I have personally read more than 5,000 federal pension records and at least as many military records and have encountered exactly two reported cases of constipation, both memorable by their unusual nature.Neither Ms. Coleman's nor the Australian doctor's source was the Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War.I do not believe this claim, which adds to my distrust of Ms. Coleman's conclusions.

That she feels strongly about her case is not in doubt, and she presents it well.But she has to temper emotion with facts.We all concur with her and foreword author Jonathan Shay's hopes that war will end and mankind be spared from further suffering.As Alan Jay Lerner wrote, "Wouldn't it be loverly?"If only everyone in the world was a pacifist.

Good accounting of a difficult subject
Coleman brings to light the history, causes, and long term impact of war induced PTSD.Her use of first-hand accounts from those who have lost veterans to suicide are an important part of the book, bringing an intimate human reality to the psychological struggles she describes.Coleman cites research from many angles to try to create a clear understanding of PTSD, and focuses especially well on why the Vietnam war was "different" from other wars in it's impact on soldiers.

I also strongly recommend Col. Dave Grossman's "On Killing" as an excellent book with a similar goal--understanding the psychological impact of war on the men who fight it.

Case histories of other experiences blend with damning evidence
FLASHBACK: POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, SUICIDE, AND THE LESSONS OF WAR comes from the author's own experience of marrying a young Vietnam vet who eventually killed himself. He suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder that at the time was little known: while today it's better known, Coleman here has made it her personal mission to portray techniques for battling the disorder, turning a research project into a series of applied strategies essential for any military family. Case histories of other experiences blend with damning evidence of the government's failure to properly respond to and treat the disorder.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (41)

arrived very fast
The book came very quickly, sooner then they said it would arrive and in excellent condition.

FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Wonderful well written book by someone who has taken care of survivors of war related PTSD succesfully for over 25 yrs.Obvious through his writing this is a man of great compassion and understanding.For anyone who is personally or professionally dealing with PTSD it is a must read in my opinion.

I have bought several copies to give to friends whose family members have been on the front lines and as one woman said "he has never been the same".

Becoming a Community That Can Receive and Support Veterans
In the last handful of wars, more veterans return home with what's known as PTSD, "Soldier's Heart," and shellshock than there were casualties. The numbers are staggeringly high (far more than the general public realizes), and this society needs to become wiser in how we help these soldiers heal from their experiences and reintegrate into this society. We need to understand how to be a community for them, so they can unburden themselves and no longer feel like they still need to protect us from the war that is still playing out inside their souls.

Ed Tick is a therapist who talks about War in the language of the soul, and the soul is how veterans understand their own experiences. Having worked with vets since Vietnam and being frustrated with conventional therapies that haven't worked, Ed Tick turned to indigenous and classical cultures to find effective ways to work with returning warriors. What he has come up with is extraordinary--full of heart and soul.

While requisite reading for therapists and anyone with a vet in their lives, it's an important book for everyone else. If we become individuals and communities that can truly support and heal our returning soldiers, we will also become a society that knows how to properly initiate our adolescents into adults, how to treat ourselves and others, and how to shoulder or transform the burdens that we carry in our everyday lives.

Great deal!
No complaints about my last purchase.
Great seller! Product arrived before agreed time and brand new.

War and the Soul
If you are searching for answers as to why your "hero" survived the war only to come home and self destruct, search no further than"War and the Soul". ... Read more

Product Description
A 14-session treatment. Techniques include imagined exposure, in vivo exposure, response prevention, and avoidance reduction.This is the therapist's manual for theOvercoming PTSD treatment protocol. ... Read more

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Discover the latest treatment strategies from the leading experts in the field of trauma!

This unique book, by the authors of the classic Handbook of Post-Traumatic Therapy, provides the “how to” of clinical practice techniques in a variety of settings with a variety of clients. Simple and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Strategies for Comprehensive Treatment in Clinical Practice delivers state-of-the-art techniques and information to help traumatized individuals, groups, families, and communities. From critical incident debriefing to treating combat veterans with longstanding trauma, it covers the full spectrum of PTSD clients and effective treatments.

This valuable book assembles some of the most highly respected experts in trauma studies to discuss the practical applications of their research and their experience treating clients with PTSD. Simple and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder addresses concerns about the efficacy of critical incident stress debriefing, examines the value of a variety of innovative treatment methods, and explores the differences between treating complex PTSD and the aftermath of a one-time traumatic event.

Simple and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder discusses the issues, stages, and modalities of PTSD treatment, including:

• assessment and diagnosis
• psychopharmacological treatment
• cognitive behavioral treatment
• short-term treatment
• group treatments
• treatment strategies for traumatized children, families, hostages, police, and veterans
• media issues