Books - Part 1

Started by Kizzie, August 23, 2014, 06:18:22 PM

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Whobuddy

Thank you, Rain, for being so well-read and willing to share and summarize your reading!  :yes:

I get all of my therapy from books and this forum. My family and I are all "un." As if no one has ever heard of needing a T. Despite the depression, suicides, attempted suicides, avoidance behaviors, ungrieved losses, to name a few, no one wants to voice the words or get help. Where I live is remote enough that the Ts are not knowledgeable about cptsd and they were only concerned with raising my self-esteem and not dealing with the root issues. Some time ago a doctor had me on anti-depressants that kind of made me function better but I felt they only masked the problem. At that time I didn't know about cptsd.

I am listening to The Body Keeps the Score and I ordered it also. I ordered Running on Empty. So read on, Rain, and keep up the helpful posts. I am very grateful for you. :hug:

Rain

#31
You are so welcome, Whobuddy.  I'm shaking my head on what you write with your situation there.

I look forward to your book reviews, Whobuddy.   

Say, you said you are an Audible fan.   How much is that per month?   I keep thinking I should just buy the audio books as I need them from Amazon, and I usually do it with buying both the Kindle ebook, and then lesser priced audio book.   Also, if I ever stop using Audible, then those audio files do not "disappear"

This is my thinking, but I am new to audio books.   What is your strategy?   :yes:

Whobuddy

Quote from: Rain on December 29, 2014, 02:18:20 PM

Say, you said you are an Audible fan.   How much is that per month?   I keep thinking I should just buy the audio books as I need them from Amazon, and I usually do it with buying both the Kindle ebook, and then lesser priced audio book.   Also, if I ever stop using Audible, then those audio files do not "disappear"

This is my thinking, but I am new to audio books.   What is your strategy?   :yes:
My strategy? I am currently living in the "now" so to speak and I have no idea if my audio books will disappear. I think if I save them to my computer then I will be able to keep them. It is about 15 dollars a month for one credit. One credit is one book if it costs one dollar or fifty. So I try to only get ones that are 10 hours or more. I also have access to library books for free but the selection is not that great. I use the library audios for the fluff novels that help me when I am doing housework or mindless things at work.

I don't have a Kindle but I have been thinking about it. Can you take notes or highlight in a Kindle book?

Rain

#33
Thanks, Whobuddy!   You are really the one that got me thinking about doing more audio books.     :hug:

wingnut

Hi, Rain.
I read the reviews on Amazon about this book and one of the complaints is the fact that it is explanatory but does not offer any solutions or steps toward healing or resolution, etc. What are your thoughts on this? How did you find it in "helping" vs "informing"?

wingnut

OK, slacker here.
I've meant to buy a new book to aid in recovery but have been happy to bury myself in fiction this winter.
So, of course I have read Pete's book.
I have read Taming the Tiger.
Anyone have suggestions on the quintessential book?
Reviews here lean heavily toward The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, 5 stars on Amazon.
Should I put that in my queue? I started to read the sample which was heavy in combat trauma.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Kizzie

Hi WN - I just stumbled on this book (and I've been away so someone else may have already added it). Anyway, she's quite well known and respected in the field of trauma, but up until now has written more academic articles and books geared towards professionals.  This one sounds like it's written more for the layperson. I included the description below.

It's Not You, It's What Happened to You: Complex Trauma and Treatment

Dr. Christine Courtois has simplified her extensive and, until now, quite scholarly work geared toward understanding and developing the concept of "complex trauma," and the assessment and treatment thereof. A universally acknowledged leader in this emerging psychotherapeutic field, Dr. Courtois provides here an abbreviated and easy-to-read explanation of what complex trauma is, how it develops, the ways in which it manifests, and how it can effectively be dealt with.

The book opens with an explanation of trauma in general—providing historical perspective, examining the various types of traumatic experience, and looking in-depth at the chronic, repetitive, and layered forms of trauma that often build upon and reinforce one another to create complex trauma. Next Dr. Courtois discusses trauma-driven emotional turmoil, and trauma's effects on memory, self-image, relationships, and even physical wellbeing. She then provides readers with a basic understanding of the ways in which complex trauma is diagnosed and assessed, with an explanation of all common trauma-related diagnoses—including stress disorders (such as PTSD), dissociative reactions and disorders, and frequently co-occurring issues (addictions, self-injury, sleep disorders, etc.)

In the book's final section, Dr. Courtois presents rudimentary information about the ways in which complex trauma and related issues can effectively be treated, including brief explanations of all psychotherapeutic methods that might be used. Importantly, she discusses in detail the sequenced, three-stage treatment model she has developed for work with addicted survivors of complex trauma, recognizing that complex trauma and addictions are often interrelated in powerful ways, and unless both issues are addressed simultaneously, the client may not heal from either.

Though It's Not You, It's What Happened to You is written for people new to the concept of complex trauma and how it may be affecting them or a loved one, clinicians will also find the work useful, relying on it as a way to bolster their own knowledge and, perhaps more importantly, as a tool for informing their traumatized clients about the degree and nature of the psychotherapeutic work to come.


wingnut

#37
I downloaded the It's Not You, It's What Happened to You: Complex Trauma and Treatment by Dr. Courtois.
It was free with a Kindle Prime membership, or $2.99 if you aren't. It's about 12o pages long. I read about 1/3 of it last night.
It's a good intro to folks interested in learning the basics of trauma. She covers the different types of trauma and the types of attachment in the material that I read. I would recommend it.

I also downloaded a sample of "Rebuilding Shattered Lives: Treating Complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders" by James Chu and coincidentally Dr Courtoid wrote the forward in the bk. It is aimed more toward therapists and a bit pricey, I found value in the first few chapters that went into the history of trauma through recent history, more deeply into how the view of trauma has changed over the last 3-4 decades. I'm tempted to buy this one.

Kizzie

#38
Thanks for the review of "It's Not You, It's What Happened to You" (love the title!) Wingnut, for $2.99 I think I will order it. 

Kizzie

Here are two resources about attachment courtesy of Lovely (tks Lovely :thumbup:)

Wallin, D.J. , (2007). Attachment in psychotherapy. New York: Guilford.

Obegi, J.H. and Berant, E., (2009). Attachment theory and research in clinical work with adults. New York: Guilford.

lonewolf

Thanks everyone. Great list. Now I'm broke.  ;D (just kidding)

anosognosia

I've heard good things about Your Life after Trauma - Michele Rosenthal.

Haven't read it though!

mourningdove

Quote from: Sasha2727 on October 20, 2014, 01:20:25 PM
anyone watched or read Judith Herman?

I read Trauma and Recovery (1992) recently, paying special attention to Chapter 6: "A New Diagnosis," in which Herman proposes CPTSD as a new psychiatric diagnosis:


QuoteWhile it is clear that ordinary, healthy people may become entrapped in prolonged abusive situations, it is equally clear that after their escape they are no longer ordinary or healthy. Chronic abuse causes serious psychological harm. The tendency to blame the victim, however, has interfered with the psychological understanding and diagnosis of a post-traumatic syndrome. Instead of conceptualizing the psychopathology of the victim as a response to an abusive situation, mental health professionals have frequently attributed the abusive situation to the victim's presumed underlying psychopathology. (116)


QuoteConcepts of personality organization developed under ordinary circumstances are applied to victims, without any understanding of the corrosion of personality that occurs under conditions of prolonged terror. Thus, patients who suffer from the complex aftereffects of chronic trauma still commonly risk being misdiagnosed as having personality disorders. (117)


QuoteEven the diagnostic of "post-traumatic stress disorder," as it is presently defined, does not fit accurately enough. The existing diagnostic criteria for this disorder are derived mainly from survivors of circumscribed traumatic events. They are based on the prototypes of combat, disaster, and rape. In survivors of prolonged, repeated trauma, the symptom picture is often far more complex. Survivors of prolonged abuse develop characteristic personality changes, including deformations of relatedness and identity. Survivors of abuse in childhood develop similar problems with relationships and identity; in addition, they are particularly vulnerable to repeated harm, both self-inflicted and at the hands of others. The current formulation of post-traumatic stress disorder fails to capture either the protean symptomatic manifestations of prolonged, repeated trauma or the profound deformations of personality that occur in captivity.

The syndrome that follows upon prolonged, repeated trauma needs its own name. I propose to call it "complex post-traumatic stress disorder." The responses to trauma are best understood as a spectrum of conditions rather than as a single disorder. They range from a brief stress reaction that gets better by itself and never qualifies for a diagnosis, to classic or simple post-traumatic stress disorder, to the complex syndrome of prolonged, repeated trauma. (119)


QuoteWhile only a small minority of of survivors, usually those with the most severe abuse histories, eventually become psychiatric patients, many or even most psychiatric patients are survivors of childhood abuse. The data on this point are beyond contention. (122)


QuoteSurvivors of childhood abuse often accumulate many different diagnoses before the underlying problem of a complex post-traumatic syndrome is recognized. They are likely to receive a diagnosis that carries strong negative connotations. Three particularly troublesome diagnoses have often been applied to survivors of childhood abuse: somatization disorder, borderline personality disorder, and multiple personality disorder. All three of these diagnoses were once subsumed under the now obsolete name hysteria. Patients, usually women, who receive these diagnoses evoke unusually intense reactions in caregivers. Their credibility is often suspect. They are frequently accused of manipulation or malingering. They are often subject to furious and partisan controversy. Sometimes they are frankly hated.

These three diagnoses are charged with pejorative meaning. The most notorious is the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. This term is frequently used within the mental health professions as little more than a sophisticated insult. (123)


QuoteThese three disorders [somatization disorder, borderline personality disorder, and multiple personality disorder] might perhaps best be understood as variants of complex post-traumatic stress disorder, each deriving its characteristic features from one form of adaptation to the traumatic environment. The physioneurosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is the most prominent feature of somatization disorder, the deformation of consciousness is most prominent in multiple personality disorder, and the disturbance in identity and relationship is most prominent in borderline personality disorder. The overarching concept of a complex post-traumatic syndrome accounts for both the particularity of the three disorders and their interconnection. The formulation also reunites the descriptive fragments of the condition that was once called hysteria and reaffirms their common source in a history of psychological trauma. (126)




Kizzie

Yes, tks MD, it's powerful reading isn't it?!   

mourningdove

#44
Thanks for replying, BeHea1thy and Kizzie  :hug:  :hug:

I was worried that I may have posted too many quotes, but they all seemed pretty important and potentially helpful to anyone who may not have access to the book, so I just pasted all the notes I took from that chapter.

Quote from: BeHea1thy on March 23, 2015, 01:06:34 PM
mourningdove,

It's so difficult to know that besides going through the initial trauma, we have to tell our stories over and over and over again. We are often misunderstood, unappreciated and swept to the sidelines once more as we valiantly try to put ourselves together again.

:yeahthat: For me, it's been exhausting and re-traumatizing. I don't know how many times I've sat and rattled off lists of horrible things that had happened to me only to have some twit tell me that none of it mattered and I just needed to take psych drugs forever and learn self-discipline (i.e. overcome my moral failings). What a brilliant way to treat people who have been hurt.  :doh:

It's definitely powerful reading, Kizzie, and I find it amazing that it was published in 1992 and yet there is still such rampant ignorance about trauma in the "mental health" professions. It's very discouraging, though I think it is changing despite the power of the moneyed interests that would keep understanding of trauma off the map.