Proceedings of a NATO ASI held in Port de Bourgenay, France, June 1996

This book has a two-fold purpose: (1) to provide the practicing clinician with information about the controversy surrounding delayed/repressed memory of sexual abuse and (2) to provide treatment principles and guidelines for working with these issues.Since the eruption of the recovered memory controversy in 1992, the treatment of adults who report abuse as children (whether their memory has been relatively continuous or has been recovered) has become a high-risk area, as numerous lawsuits have been filed alleging false memory of abuse due to suggestive therapeutic practices. In this climate, clinicians have become fearful, cautious, and confused about how to practice responsibly with this population.Since a large percentage of those seeking psychotherapy have a history of sexual abuse, all clinicians need a clear articulation of the current evolving standard of care for clients reporting memories of abuse. Drawing together material from many sources, this book provides state-of-the-art principles and guidelines for treatment when memories of past abuse are at issue. It covers available empirical and clinical data on human memory processes for normal and traumatic events and on the treatment of posttraumatic conditions in general and child sexual abuse in particular; the critiques and concerns voiced by cognitive psychologists who investigate memory and suggestibility issues; the recommendations made by a number of professional task forces and advisory committees charged with studying the issues involved in the controversy and making recommendations for practice; and the recommendations of expert clinicians and clinical researchers. Especially useful is Courtois's application of the treatment decision model to a range of clinical scenarios, from continuous, corroborated memory of abuse to suspicions of abuse based on symptomatology. Speaking with authority and empathy, Courtois shows clinicians how to practice responsibly and safely while doing memory work. Her guidance is invaluable.

For the past decade, author Tian Dayton has been researching trauma and addiction, and how psychodrama (or sociometry group psychotherapy) can be used in their treatment. Since trauma responses are stored in the body, a method of therapy that engages the body through role play can be more effective in accessing the full complement of trauma-related memories. This latest book identifies the interconnection of trauma and addictive behavior, and shows why they can become an unending cycle. Emotional and psychological pain so often lead to self-medicating, which leads to more pain, and inevitably more self-medicating, and so on--ad infinitum. This groundbreaking book offers readers effective ways to work through their traumas in order to heal their addictions and their predilection toward what clinicians call self-medicating (the abuse of substances [alcohol, drugs, food], activities [work, sex, gambling, etc.] and/or possessions [money, material things].) Readers caught up in the endless cycle of trauma and addiction will permanently transform their lives by reading this book. Therapists treating patients for whom no other avenue of therapy has proved effective will find that this book offers practical, lasting solutions. Case studies and examples of this behavioral phenomenon will illustrate the connection, helping readers understand its dynamics, recognize their own situations and realize that they are not alone in experiencing this syndrome. The author deftly combines the longstanding trauma theories of Van der Kolk, Herman, Bowlby, Krystal and others with her own experiential methods using psychodrama, sociometry and group therapy in the treatment of addiction and posttraumatic stress disorder. While designed to be useful to therapists, this book will also be accessible to trade readers. It includes comprehensive references, as well as a complete index.

As a concept, 'trauma' has attracted a great deal of interest in literary studies. A key term in psychoanalytic approaches to literary study, trauma theory represents a critical approach that enables new modes of reading and of listening. It is a leading concept of our time, applicable to individuals, cultures, and nations. This book traces how trauma theory has come to constitute a discrete but influential approach within literary criticism in recent decades. It offers an overview of the genesis and growth of literary trauma theory, recording the evolution of the concept of trauma in relation to literary studies. In twenty-one essays, covering the origins, development, and applications of trauma in literary studies, Trauma and Literature addresses the relevance and impact this concept has in the field.

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.

Clinical practice and legal issues in trauma and memory. -- Mental health and memories of traumatic events. -- Cognitive and physiological perspectives on trauma and memory. -- Evidence and controversies in understanding memories for traumatic events.

This engaging and compassionate book provides a hopeful and helpful perspective for trauma survivors. Cameron′′s documentation of her extensive and innovative research with childhood abuse survivors is also a gift to the field of traumatic stress. She captures the experiences of her research participants-– including the challenging and significant domain of losing and regaining memory– in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Trauma survivors, counselors, and researchers will find in Resolving Childhood Trauma new information, humanity, wisdom, and hope. –Jennifer J. Freyd, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon "Cameron′s book provides the reader with an unusual depth of information about the long-term course of recovery from childhood sexual abuse. Her findings are rich and detailed, and offer a wealth of information about the process of healing, and about the power of ending silence. Well worth reading, particularly for the therapist new to the treatment of sexual abuse survivors." –Laura S. Brown, Ph.D., Independent Practice, Seattle, Washington "It took me longer to read this book than any of the hundreds I have reviewed! Not because it is dense or difficult to read, but because of the emotional intensity and power of the topic and its level-headed, balanced presentation. Kudos to the author! She has done a thorough piece of significant research and this book can make an enormous contribution to both professional and lay readers." –Barbara F. Okun, Ph.D., Professor of Counseling Psychology, Northeastern University "Resolving Childhood Trauma is an insightful integration of theory and practice for clinicians who treat abuse survivors. Catherine Cameron, through her clinical experience and research, offers the reader a greater understanding of the impact of child sexual abuse and the trauma accommodation syndrome. I highly recommend this volume to clinicians and researchers interested in a better understanding of efforts toward resolving childhood trauma." –Thomas W. Miller Ph.D. ABPP, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Kentucky and Professor of Education and Psychology at Murray State University "Catherine Cameron′s longitudinal, interview study of 51 childhood incest survivors presents extraordinary resources for us survivors from the dark realms. . . . This intimate, scientific portrait can assist CSA survivors in making sense of their own situation and planning a productive course of actions. Cameron has a special gift for naming the unspoken and capturing it with familiar methodology. Survivors of CSA can find in Cameron′s book the means to recover their social dignity and to meet their abusers at eye level, with equanimity." –Jean Maria Arrigo, Ph.D., Social Psychologist Can survivors of severe childhood trauma reclaim their lives as adults? Social psychologist Catherine Cameron addresses this question in a unique 12-year study of adult survivors of sexual abuse. Five successive surveys combine the richness of intensive personal interviews with objective measures of progress. Fifty-one women were consistently faithful to the project, as Cameron sought to understand their early trauma, its lasting impact, and to monitor their progress toward recovery. A final survey (1998) provided the epilogue for their story. As the new millennium dawns, these survivors have become strong, vital, and caring women. They have also provided valuable information, with implications far beyond themselves. Cameron grounds their personal stories by citing stunning parallels to the larger field of national and international trauma. The result is a compelling and deeply human story of trauma and triumph that transcends narrow application. It promotes understanding, dignity, and hope for all survivors traumatized by human design.

This book reviews the extensive literature on early recollections and organizes various interpretive systems of evaluating early memories. The practitioner will find specific and detailed guidelines for administering and interpreting early recollections to help integrate these memories into counseling and psychotherapy. Following a carefully articulated contextual approach to early recollections, which synthesizes three perspectives - subjective, interpersonal and objective - come suggestions for using early recollections in the counseling process and a full-length case study to explicate the model and demonstrate the utility of using this approach.

Beginning in the 1990s, the contentious “memory wars” divided psychologists into two schools of thought: that adults’ recovered memories of childhood abuse were generally true, or that they were generally not, calling theories, therapies, professional ethics, and survivor credibility into question. More recently, findings from cognitive psychology and neuroimaging as well as new theoretical constructs are bringing balance, if not reconciliation, to this polarizing debate. Based on presentations at the 2010 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, True and False Recovered Memories: Toward a Reconciliation of the Debate assembles an expert panel of scholars, professors, and clinicians to update and expand research and knowledge about the complex interaction of cognitive, emotional, and motivational factors involved in remembering—and forgetting—severe childhood trauma. Contrasting viewpoints, elaborations on existing ideas, challenges to accepted models, and intriguing experimental data shed light on such issues as the intricacies of identity construction in memory, post-trauma brain development, and the role of suggestive therapeutic techniques in creating false memories. Taken together, these papers add significant new dimensions to a rapidly evolving field. Featured in the coverage: The cognitive neuroscience of true and false memories. Toward a cognitive-neurobiological model of motivated forgetting. The search for repressed memory. A theoretical framework for understanding recovered memory experiences. Cognitive underpinnings of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Motivated forgetting and misremembering: perspectives from betrayal trauma theory. Clinical and cognitive psychologists on all sides of the debate will welcome True and False Recovered Memories as a trustworthy reference, an impartial guide to ongoing controversies, and a springboard for future inquiry.