What do you think?
Rate this book
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies
Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) an illness that arises after horrific and life-threatening events? Or is it a label that medicalizes human suffering, and brings with it more problems than it solves? Still a relatively new diagnosis, PTSD has changed our vocabulary and shaped our views on human coping and resilience. Yet almost every assumption upon which the diagnosis rests has come under question. In this volume, Gerald Rosen brings together leading international scholars in posttraumatic studies to consider the most contentious debates. Each chapter offers an analysis of the issues, reviews current research, and clarifies implications for the practicing clinician.
"Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies" is essential reading for all practitioners, researchers, and students who work in the field of trauma. Professionals in related health fields and the law will also find this book useful.
"Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies" is essential reading for all practitioners, researchers, and students who work in the field of trauma. Professionals in related health fields and the law will also find this book useful.
- GenresPsychology
Paperback
First published June 10, 2004
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 15, 2014
As a person who suffers from combat related ptsd and who has been around the veteran's mental health system for 20 years trying to deal with it this book has been a window onto the complex and convoluted world of medical and psychiatric opinion and practice when it comes to this very difficult problem. It explains a hell of a lot, most importantly for me why the treatment/help I have been offered has been relatively useless. It has pointed up to me the incredible ignorance that most of the so called professionals I have encountered. I have no ideas what people are taught in their training but it is certainly clear that this has become a political issue co opted by all sorts of people to their own ends, yes including the women's movement!.
The sense of fraudulent claim that has been rising among veterans with a combat background when confronted in treatment with people whose trauma was sustained when they saw a news broadcast or heard about some event from someone else, or who happened to be i the vicinity.... or classically, as in one case cited, where the victim was subjected to having to overhear sexist comments by colleagues in the workplace. This is a perpetuation of the "counterfeit universe" that became so damaging to combat veterans returning from Vietnam, it does not serve them and it certainly will not serve the masses of service personnel who have, are now and will be returning from Irag and Afghanistan. They too will become familiar with the corrosive substance of the "counterfeit universe".
The "bracket creep" that has become such a part of the ptsd diagnostic and treatment debate will, if anything deter these people from seeking treatment or once they get a taste will have them run as fast and as far as they can, as so many of my generation did. More fuel for the fire. It just absolutely floors me that after so long, the syndrome was first diagnosed in large numbers of men after the American Civil war, that common sense is so very often out the window, in the rush by the opportunists to get on the band wagon, inexperienced, poorly trained but armed with a semi religious zeal, the newest buzz words (mindfulness comes to mind) and a lot of personal ambition, the newest crop of therapists and psychologists hit the wards. Useless! From my own experience and from discussions with others who have salvaged at least some semblance of a functional life out of the fiasco, a supportive context, time and each other is what seems to work best. In the end every person is on their own in this blistering arena where the true depths of his courage and fortitude will be tested in ways which can be found in few other places. Some of us truly know the meaning of the word "resurrection".
The sense of fraudulent claim that has been rising among veterans with a combat background when confronted in treatment with people whose trauma was sustained when they saw a news broadcast or heard about some event from someone else, or who happened to be i the vicinity.... or classically, as in one case cited, where the victim was subjected to having to overhear sexist comments by colleagues in the workplace. This is a perpetuation of the "counterfeit universe" that became so damaging to combat veterans returning from Vietnam, it does not serve them and it certainly will not serve the masses of service personnel who have, are now and will be returning from Irag and Afghanistan. They too will become familiar with the corrosive substance of the "counterfeit universe".
The "bracket creep" that has become such a part of the ptsd diagnostic and treatment debate will, if anything deter these people from seeking treatment or once they get a taste will have them run as fast and as far as they can, as so many of my generation did. More fuel for the fire. It just absolutely floors me that after so long, the syndrome was first diagnosed in large numbers of men after the American Civil war, that common sense is so very often out the window, in the rush by the opportunists to get on the band wagon, inexperienced, poorly trained but armed with a semi religious zeal, the newest buzz words (mindfulness comes to mind) and a lot of personal ambition, the newest crop of therapists and psychologists hit the wards. Useless! From my own experience and from discussions with others who have salvaged at least some semblance of a functional life out of the fiasco, a supportive context, time and each other is what seems to work best. In the end every person is on their own in this blistering arena where the true depths of his courage and fortitude will be tested in ways which can be found in few other places. Some of us truly know the meaning of the word "resurrection".
Displaying 1 of 1 review