Injured Men: Trauma, Healing, and the Masculine Self

by Ira Brenner

Overview

Injured Men is a unique casebook of clinical material pertaining to men who have sustained trauma. With the exception of those publications dealing with the military, clinical vignettes of traumatized individuals are overwhelmingly female. By comparison, little has been written about the plight of men. Injured Men begins to fill that void. Richly illustrated with both brief and extensively detailed analytic case reports, Injured Men describes the manifestations of such phenomena as physical and sexual abuse, unresolved grief, genocidal persecution, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and of course, combat. With his perspective on dissociation and dissociative disorders, Brenner also presents a traumatic pathway to the development of a masculine self in those with female bodies. In dealing with the long term effects of trauma, he advocates a pluralistic approach, which he demonstrates in the final chapter of this fascinating volume.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765705723
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/26/2009
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ira Brenner, MD, is clinical professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College. He is a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia where he is the director of the Adult Psychotherapy Training Program. With over sixty publications, Dr. Brenner has written extensively on the topic of psychic trauma, most notably his books, The Last Witness: The Child Survivor of the Holocaust (1996) coauthored with Judith Kestenberg, MD, Dissociation of Trauma: Theory, Phenomenology, and Technique (2001), and Psychic Trauma: Dynamics, Symptoms, and Treatment (2004).

Table of Contents

1 Table of Contents
Chapter 2 Introduction
Chapter 3 1. On the Need to Be a Man: Traumatic Influences
Chapter 4 2. Dissociation and Its Vicissitudes
Chapter 5 3. Dissociation and the Enactment-Prone Patient
Chapter 6 4. September 11 and the Analytic Process
Chapter 7 5. A Time-Traveling Man
Chapter 8 6. Echoes of the Battlefield
Chapter 9 7. Forged in the Holocaust
Chapter 10 8. Healing
11 Bibliography
12 Index
13 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

With an eye on the complex interplay between developmental processes and the psychic detours resulting from trauma, Ira Brenner takes on the elusive topic of what it takes to be a man and how manliness is threatened, eclipsed, reclaimed, and expressed under ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. He deftly weaves a tapestry of ideas blending individual dynamics, large group psychology, phenomenology of dissociation, Holocaust studies, Vietnam War experiences, and the psychosocial aftermath of September 11th. The result is a book of rare intelligence, authenticity, and clinical wisdom.

Salman Akhtar

Before Ira Brenner, no other psychoanalytic investigator explored the severe early trauma leading to dissociative psychopathology as fully as it is described in this book. With lucid clinical illustrations, Injured Men: Trauma, Healing and the Masculine Self is destined to be a textbook for understanding and treating individuals who have been exposed to severe childhood traumas, are children of survivors, and have earlier traumas revived by more recent events.

Vamik D. Volkan M.D.

Injured Men is an extremely rich casebook of clinical material pertaining to men who have sustained trauma. By means of his evocative and genuine writing, Brenner guides us through the world of men who have been affected by sexual abuse, unresolved grief, genocidal persecution, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and combat. His pluralistic approach to the long-term effects of trauma is conceptually astute and reverberates with his humane sensibility.

Ilany Kogan

Before Ira Brenner, no other psychoanalytic investigator explored the severe early trauma leading to dissociative psychopathology as fully as it is described in this book. With lucid clinical illustrations, Injured Men: Trauma, Healing and the Masculine Self is destined to be a textbook for understanding and treating individuals who have been exposed to severe childhood traumas, are children of survivors, and have earlier traumas revived by more recent events.

Vamik D. Volkan

Injured Men is an extremely rich casebook of clinical material pertaining to men who have sustained trauma. By means of his evocative and genuine writing, Brenner guides us through the world of men who have been affected by sexual abuse, unresolved grief, genocidal persecution, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and combat. His pluralistic approach to the long-term effects of trauma is conceptually astute and reverberates with his humane sensibility.” —Ilany Kogan, training analyst, Israel Psychoanalytic Society; author of The Struggle Against Mourning

“With an eye on the complex interplay between developmental processes and the psychic detours resulting from trauma, Ira Brenner takes on the elusive topic of what it takes to be a man and how manliness is threatened, eclipsed, reclaimed, and expressed under ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. He deftly weaves a tapestry of ideas blending individual dynamics, large group psychology, phenomenology of dissociation, Holocaust studies, Vietnam War experiences, and the psychosocial aftermath of September 11th. The result is a book of rare intelligence, authenticity, and clinical wisdom.” —Salman Akhtar, MD, professor of psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College; training and supervising analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

“Before Ira Brenner, no other psychoanalytic investigator explored the severe early trauma leading to dissociative psychopathology as fully as it is described in this book. With lucid clinical illustrations, Injured Men: Trauma, Healing and the Masculine Self is destined to be a textbook for understanding and treating individuals who have been exposed to severe childhood traumas, are children of survivors, and have earlier traumas revived by more recent events.” —Vamik D. Volkan, professor emeritus of psychiatry, University of Virginia; Emeritus President of the International Dialogue Initiative; author of Enemies on the Couch; five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee

From the Publisher

With an eye on the complex interplay between developmental processes and the psychic detours resulting from trauma, Ira Brenner takes on the elusive topic of what it takes to be a man and how manliness is threatened, eclipsed, reclaimed, and expressed under ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. He deftly weaves a tapestry of ideas blending individual dynamics, large group psychology, phenomenology of dissociation, Holocaust studies, Vietnam War experiences, and the psychosocial aftermath of September11th. The result is a book of rare intelligence, authenticity, and clinical wisdom...

Salman Akhtar M.D.