Books - Part 1

[Kizzie]

Tks for this Rain.  I see I am not the only one who has a full bookcase of self-help books lol. I used to hide them all when my FOO came to visit -- very nice now that I am LC and NC to feel OK leaving them in the bookcase.

[Rain]

Oh, you did not put fake book covers on your self-help books?   You know, with fake titles like "Needlepoint Patterns" and "Backgammon Strategies" and "Wood Heating Factors" on the spines.   

LC and NC works even better....

[Kizzie]

What a great idea lol       wish I'd thought of it. 

I agree though LC and NC - much better!

[Rain]

giggles here!   Who knows if I would actually do that!

Say, Kizzie ...what are some of your current favorite recovery books?   I'm always searching for new ones.

[globetrotter]

I thought I posted this but apparently I did not - maybe I mis-posted elsewhere. Hrm.

Does anyone have a book to recommend on attachment disorders>

[bheart]

Does anyone have a book to recommend on attachment disorders>

'Attachment in Psychotherapy' is an excellent book.  It is written for professionals but it did help me understand it.   

Author:  David J. Wallin

http://www.davidjwallin.com/explorethebook.cfm

There is an excerpt on this link and to the amazon link (which lists the TOC).

[bee]

Peter Levine - In an Unspoken Voice
Very good descriptions about what happens physically & chemically in the brain. Explains the results of trauma on the body and how we end up disconnected from our body, and how to reconnect.

Babette Rothschild - The Body Remembers
A guide to integrate body and mind after trauma. Written mostly for clinicians, I found it helpful to understand the signs of my body.

[AndyT]

Legal Abuse Syndrome by Karin Huffner.

This book is an absolute must read for anyone who is going through the legal system. The layout and typeface is well thought out especially for those who have PTSD symptoms either as a part of the legal system or are already suffering from such symptoms. The author definitely understands the damage and for one I am immensely grateful it has been written. This is very useful!

[Kizzie]

Tks for the book recommendation, I am so interested in this syndrome.  I've never heard of it but I can well imagine how traumatic legal wranglings can become having heard a few horror stories.

I just posted something under "Acronyms" asking you more about LAS.  Perhaps when you're comfortable you could post an Intro and let us know how you came in contact with LAS?

[Sasha2727]

anyone watched or read Judith Herman?

[Sandals]

Posted this in my intro - this is the best book I've read to date.

THE HAUNTED SELF uk
Onno van der Hart, Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis, Kathy Steele

Description:

They typically have a wide array of symptoms, often classified under different combinations of comorbidity, which can make assessment and treatment complicated and confusing for the therapist. Many patients have substantial problems with daily living and relationships, including serious intrapsychic conflicts and maladaptive coping strategies. Their suffering essentially relates to a terrifying and painful past that haunts them. Even when survivors attempt to hide their distress beneath a facade of normality a common strategy therapists often feel besieged by their many symptoms and serious pain. Small wonder that many survivors of chronic traumatization have seen several therapists with little if any gains, and that quite a few have been labeled as untreatable or resistant. In this book, three leading researchers and clinicians share what they have learned from treating and studying chronically traumatized individuals across more than 65 years of collective experience. Based on the theory of structural dissociation of the personality in combination with a Janetian psychology of action, the authors have developed a model of phase-oriented treatment that focuses on the identification and treatment of structural dissociation and related maladaptive mental and behavioral actions. The foundation of this approach is to support patients in learning more effective mental and behavioral actions that will enable them to become more adaptive in life and to resolve their structural dissociation. This principle implies an overall therapeutic goal of raising the integrative capacity, in order to cope with the demands of daily life and deal with the haunting remnants of the past, with the unfinished business of traumatic memories. Of interest to clinicians, students of clinical psychology and psychiatry, as well as to researchers, all those interested in adult survivors of chronic child abuse and neglect will find helpful insights and tools that may make the treatment more effective and efficient, and more tolerable for the suffering patient."

Reviews:

"This book is required reading for everybody working in the trauma field. It contains a wealth of' new information, ideas, and propositions. It is a pioneering work, a milestone in the trauma field."
--Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie (Dutch Flemish Journal of Psychiatry), July 2008     

"I wish the information in this book had been available 30 years ago when I became aware of the variety of survival responses a chronically abused or neglected child could develop to confound their adult therapy. The book's in-depth discussion of abuse issues addresses both clinical and theoretical questions around trauma-related disorders. A clear, non-traumatizing psychotherapy for the patient (and the therapist) is this book's purpose, which it achieves brilliantly. The authors propose theory, research and treatment that are not only understandable, but applicable to effective and efficient assessment and treatment."

"An unusual epilogue gives a moving tribute to patients and to the person of the therapist who undertakes this difficult work. I was deeply impressed by this glimpse into the experience and dedication of the three authors. They have given the field of trauma treatment a monumental work. I recommend this book to anyone likely to treat adults abused as children, children just out of an abusive situation, and to any adult experiencing post-traumatic stress."
--Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy,
Winter 2007

"The title of this book, which lays out a groundbreaking approach to the theory and therapy of psychological trauma, is, like much that lies inside, both evocative and precise. (...) The field of psychological trauma and dissociative disorders, closely lined with childhood abuse, is often criticised (at times caustically) by the mainstream psychiatric press for fuzzy thinking and soft-hearted values. However, this carefully reasoned, cogently argued and well-written book—the fruit of decades of clinical experience and research (...)—should go a long way toward dispelling that view."

"The Haunted Self is, without a doubt, one of the most important books to come out of the trauma field in many decades and should serve to revitalise and transform the field. It should be read not only by clinicians working in the trauma field and interested researchers, but also by trauma sceptics as the theory (the authors are at pains to point out) is eminently testable and can be empirically judged by those who doubt its implications. Last, but certainly not least, The Haunted Self provides a welcome opportunity to reconsider the relevance of Pierre Janet's theories, which continue to provide rich clinical and theoretical insights."
--British Journal of Psychiatry, December 2007

"No other modern texts gives such a complete synthesis of Janet's psychology of action and none go as far in defining psychological trauma syndromes in forms of the sorts of dissociative splitting of personality that can be persuasively conceptualized as being influenced by developmental age, duration, type and extent of trauma, relationship to perpetrators etc. Given the manner in which a theoretical construct is developed to illuminate close similarities between conditions not always conceptualized that way, I am reminded of Janet's book, "Major Symptoms of Hysteria," (1907) based on fifteen lectures given in the Harvard Medical School in 1906, exactly 100 years before the publication of Van der Hart, Nijenhuis and Steele's equally illuminating and thought-provoking synthesis."

"This is a well-written, well-structured and thought-provoking book that challenges us to think very seriously about the multiple trauma derived states that we encounter so frequently in our patients."
--Traumatic StressPoints, December 2007

"Onno van der Hart, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis and Kathy Steele have come as close as I can imagine to writing the definitive book on trauma, dissociation, and the complicated treatment of [trauma-related] disorders. Their book, The Haunted Self, is an elegant integration of theory, research, and clinical practice about the struggles endured by survivors of complex and repeated trauma. (...) The ideas of structural dissociation—complicated for beginning clinicians—made immediate sense to women with lived experience of trauma, confirming my belief that the authors could not be more right in what they have to teach us."
--Psychiatric Services, September 2007

"This wide-ranging, scholarly book represents the coming of age of a contemporary European perspective on Janet's theory of dissociation and its wedding to the rich tradition of previous works emanating from North America. (...) t contains a wealth of insights for those who seek to develop their skills in working with this particular client group. This book is rich in detail, a book to be read and a book to be kept at hand for reference. The scope of this review does not allow me do justice to the depth of understanding of the inner life of trauma patients that these authors demonstrate; the book would be worth reading for that alone. For its analysis of structural dissociation and its recommendations for phased but flexible treatment it must truly be described as a landmark book."
--Journal of Analytical Psychology, September 2007

[keepfighting]

I just ordered this book that Schrödinger's cat recommended on another thread:

http://www.amazon.com/Stalking-Soul-Marie-France-Hirigoyen/dp/188558699X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413363758&sr=8-1&keywords=hirigoyen

It'll be here this weekend. Very excited! (I'll let you know what my impressions are in a week or so  ).

[pam]

My favorite books, some expensive, hard to find, written for professionals, but so what.



DIBS In Search Of Self by Virginia Axline----details a boys therapy in finding himself. Tear-jerker for me.

Using Self-Psychology in Child Psychotherapy by Jule Miller III----Case examples of therapy sessions with children with different problems. Unique book. Helps if you know what self-psychology therapy is, but even if you don't, the stories are very strong. Guaranteed to trigger Inner Child emotions, imo.

Psychotherapy of the Submerged Personality by Wolf & Kutash----been a long time, but I even bought a second copy for a friend and sent it to him down south.

Object Relations In Severe Trauma by Stephen Prior----underlining and stars throughout my copy! It's about treating CSA victims, but I could still relate to much of the same resulting mentality and other aspects.

Psychotherapy With "Impossible" Cases by Duncan, Hubble, and Miller----This was affirming to me that I was not a lost cause, and WHY I wasn't.

Treating the Self by Ernest Wolf----another self-psychology theory book about how to heal.

And of course Complex PTSD by Pete Walker----best explanation of symptoms and grief work I've come across.

[smg]

A couple days ago, someone was asking about defensiveness in relating to difficult members of her FOO. I can't find that post again, so I'll add the resource that I thought might be helpful to this list of great books

Toxic Parents by Susan Forward -- Chapter 11, The Beginnings of Self-Definition has sections on responding vs. reacting, nondefinsiveness and position statements.

Regarding attachment, I learned a lot about the importance and mechanism of attachment (but not specifically about attachment disorders) from:

Roots of Empathy by Mary Gorden -- it's a rationale for and account of a classroom program to teach empathy and reduce aggression in school children. The big aha for me was that empathy can't be taught conventionally -- you have to experience it in a good-enough relationship.

[Rain]

Running on Empty by Jonice Webb PhD. is about the massive negative impact of emotional neglect on a child because of the lack of parenting (for many different reasons which she details.)

It causes a long list of symptoms such as suicidal ideation, self-injury, numbing, inability to identify ones wants and needs, lack of self-care, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, etc.

EN is often overlooked because the phrase "emotional abuse and neglect" is used.    EN seems like tag along and seems "secondary" or a "what is it" kind of word in the phrase.   Emotional abuse is more of what people think of, not the absence of something which is neglect.   Emotional Abuse (sin of commission) and Emotional Neglect (sin of omission).

Dr. Webb does an outstanding job of showing how the "absence of" was so harmful.