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Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) is a psychiatrist, researcher, and author. Her work has had a profound and widespread influence on the contemporary understanding and treatment of victims of incest, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, war, torture, and other forms of severe and prolonged trauma.

She is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School and Director of Training at the Victims of Violence Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of two books, Father-Daughter Incest, first published in 1981, and Trauma and Recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror, first published in 1992.

Career

Perhaps her most distinctive contribution to the understanding of trauma and its victims is the concept of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), which extends the diagnostic category post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — a diagnosis that, according to the United States Veterans Administration's Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, "accurately describes the symptoms that result when a person experiences a short-lived trauma" — to include "the syndrome that follows upon prolonged, repeated trauma."

It was in Trauma and Recovery, considered a classic and ground-breaking work, that she coined the term complex post-traumatic stress disorder." In that work she defines this concept not only in terms of prolonged trauma, but in terms of what she calls "subjection to totalitarian control." Examples of this concept include:

...hostages, prisoners of war, concentration-camp survivors, and survivors of some religious cults. Examples also include those subjected to totalitarian systems in sexual and domestic life, including survivors of domestic battering, childhood physical or sexual abuse, and organized sexual exploitation.

Herman's second book Trauma and Recovery was praised by Phyllis Chester of the New York Times Book Review as "One of the most important psychiatric works to be published since Freud." Herman was interviewed by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, for his ongoing series Conversations with History at the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley.

Bibliography

• Herman, Judith Lewis (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror ((Previous ed.: 1992) ed.). Basic Books. ISBN 0465087302.
• Herman, Judith Lewis (2000). Father-Daughter Incest ((Previous ed.: 1981) ed.). Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674002709.

Footnotes

1. Whealin,Ph.D., Julia M.; Slone,Ph.D., Laurie (2007-05-22). "National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet: Complex PTSD". National Center for PTSD, Department of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved 2008-03-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. Herman, Judith Lewis (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books. pp. p. 119. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
3. http://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Recovery-Judith-Lewis-Herman/dp/0863584306
4. Herman, Judith Lewis (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books. p. p. 119. {{cite book}}: |page= has extra text (help)
5. Herman, Judith Lewis (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books. pp. p. 121. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
6. Herman, Judith Lewis (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books. pp. back cover. ISBN 0465087302.
7. "Conversation with History; Dr. Judith Lewis Herman". Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies. UC Berkeley. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External Links

• Interview with Dr. Judith Lewis Herman, Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley (transcript and no-cost podcast)

• 1942 births
• Living people