Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice

by Judith Lewis Herman MD, Stacey Glemboski (Read by)

Overview

From one of America’s most influential psychiatrists, a powerful manifesto for reimagining justice, based on the testimony of trauma survivors
 
The #MeToo movement brought worldwide attention to sexual violence, but while the media focused on the fates of a few notorious predators who were put on trial, we heard far less about the outcomes of those trials for the survivors of their abuse. 
  
The conventional retributive process fails to serve most survivors; it was never designed for them. Renowned trauma expert Judith L. Herman argues that the first step toward a better form of justice is simply to ask survivors what would make things as right as possible for them. In Truth and Repair, she commits the radical act of listening to survivors. Recounting their stories, she offers an alternative vision of justice as healing for survivors and their communities. 
  
Deeply researched and compassionately told, Truth and Repair envisions a new path to justice for all. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668630686
Publisher:	Hachette Book Group
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University. She is a renowned Traumatic Stress Studies expert and author of the now classic Trauma and Recovery, which helped establish the diagnostic category of post-traumatic stress disorder. She is also Co-Founder and Former Director of Training of the Cambridge Health Alliance Victims of Violence Program, Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Medical Women’s Association Award and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Lifetime Achievement Award. She authored a letter to President Obama requesting a neuropsychiatric evaluation of the then-President-elect Mr. Trump.

Stacey Glemboski is a talented audiobook narrator, tennis player, and copywriter. Previously an English teacher, she currently works out of her home studio.

Editorial Reviews

This book is a revelation. With careful precision and dogged research, Judith Herman offers us not only a diagnosis of our most pressing social ailments but a prescription for healing. Rarely does a book offer this level of insight, hope, and remedy.”

author of No Visible Bruises Rachel Louise Snyder

Three decades after the publication of her foundational Trauma and Recovery, Herman brilliantly confronts us with another vital, but much ignored, aspect of recovery: social justice. Justice is an essential component for healing the godforsaken sense of humiliation and abandonment so central in traumatizing experiences. When justice is denied, trauma’s imprint is likely to fester in the form of helpless rage. A magnificent and inspiring contribution with profound implications for the healing professions and for society at large.

Bessel van der Kolk

New York Times Editor's Choice Pick——

“An extraordinary book….Beautiful, profound, and important.” —New York Times Book Review

“Through masterful storytelling, Judith Herman charts the course from trauma to justice and compels us to follow it. An inspiring and practical call to action, Truth and Repair celebrates survivors’ wisdom and their power to heal themselves and the world we live in.”  —Anita Hill

"Herman’s greatest contribution in Truth and Repair is more than her reflections on criminal procedure or  the merits of restorative justice: it is that she knows how to speak to rape victims in a way that honors #MeToo’s hopefulness rather than instrumentalizing it – not with patronizing pity, but with something that looks more like respect.”—Bookforum

“A compelling outline of the necessary conditions of personal and collective recovery from trauma.”—Kirkus

“An incisive report on the links between patriarchy and gendered violence… The result is a scrupulous and ardent call for change.”—Publishers Weekly

“Truth and Repair is a vital text to understanding the processes that underly trauma, how it unfolds, what it does to victims, and several larger discussions about recovery.”—Booklist

“An intriguing exploration of alternative methods of justice for trauma survivors.”—Library Journal

“Three decades after the publication of her foundational Trauma and Recovery, Herman brilliantly confronts us with another vital, but much ignored, aspect of recovery: social justice. Justice is an essential component for healing the godforsaken sense of humiliation and abandonment so central in traumatizing experiences. When justice is denied, trauma’s imprint is likely to fester in the form of helpless rage. A magnificent and inspiring contribution with profound implications for the healing professions and for society at large.”—Bessel van der Kolk, MD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score

“Herman has written some of the most seminal, life-changing books on violence against women. Here in her new book, Truth and Repair, she does something even more radical. She listens to the survivors themselves and skillfully shapes their voices and wisdom into a practical and truly enlightened road map for our future. Every word rang true and essential.”—V (formerly Eve Ensler), playwright of The Vagina Monologues

“For thirty years, every single book written about the impact of trauma has stood on the shoulders of Herman’s groundbreaking book Trauma and Recovery. Now, thirty years later, we receive a bookend to that masterpiece, examining how survivors of gender-based violence seek justice and healing. Truth and Repair is a deeply researched and thought-provoking book offering hope and healing for victims of violence, many of whom have felt betrayed, ignored, or retraumatized by existing larger societal institutions.”—Michelle Bowdler, author of Is Rape a Crime?

“Herman’s earlier studies of abuse of women and children recast our understanding of trauma. Now, in Truth and Repair, she comes full circle in describing how initially powerless victims can, through innovative social arrangements, achieve hard-won survivor justice. In the process, we learn much about what justice really means for traumatized people. Herman’s perspective is deeply humane and grounded in historical and political reality. Her work stands alone in its arc and originality.”—Robert Jay Lifton, MD, Columbia University

“This book is a revelation. With careful precision and dogged research, Judith Herman offers us not only a diagnosis of our most pressing social ailments, but a prescription for healing. Rarely does a book offer this level of insight, hope and remedy.”—Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises

From the Publisher

2023-01-24
Imagining healing for survivors of violence.

In this follow-up to Trauma and Recovery, Herman, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School with decades of experience treating traumatized patients, presents a set of strategies for recovery, with a particular focus on the experiences of women and children. As she explains, survivors must navigate several stages as they work toward therapeutic outcomes, beginning with securing a sense of present safety and then moving on to making sense of trauma through grieving, strengthening ties to a supportive network of others, and finally seeking justice through some form of public recognition. As Herman makes clear, healing requires seizing the moral attention of community members, who must play the crucial role of confirming that wrongs have been committed. “Acknowledgement of the survivor’s truth, acknowledgement of the harm she has suffered, and full apology, with remorse and without excuses—for many survivors, these are the requisite actions by which perpetrators and bystanders can begin the process of healing, moving from truth to repair,” writes the author, who makes a persuasive argument that acts of violence must be understood in both personal and transpersonal terms. In other words, individual trauma is always bound up with ideological structures that can facilitate forms of abuse and prolong suffering. To that end, Herman combines sensitive commentary on the testimonies of particular survivors with analysis of the social, economic, and legal contexts in which their victimization took place. Also astute are the author’s reflections on the shortcomings of the American justice system when it comes to serving “the well-being of the victim rather than the punishment of the offender.” Herman argues convincingly that, in many instances, survivors’ search for justice must include restorative rather than retributive justice. As it stands, “the justice system offer[s] them very little incentive to endure the rigors of a trial.”

A compelling outline of the necessary conditions of personal and collective recovery from trauma.

Kirkus Reviews