Different forms of trauma affect many millions of people. Trauma also helps to shape individual and collective memories. This innovative book explores how traumatic occurrences and processes are remembered. Using examples from well-known events like the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, the Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, and civil conflict in southern Thailand and Aceh, as well as the experiences of ‘comfort women’ in the Philippines, ethnic minority students and interreligious tensions in Malaysia, the contributors examine how people face, survive and make sense of the frictions and violence in their lives. Embracing history, ethnography, textual analysis, storytelling and art, the multidisciplinary perspective enables a deeper understanding of both traumatic stress and the structures of memory. Trauma, Memory and Transformation also moves the discussion of traumatic memory away from paralysis and towards transformative action, in the ways that memories of catastrophe can be reimagined as forms of resistance or even peace. This original book will be essential reading for all those interested in the study of memory in the Southeast Asian context.

Designed for psychotherapists and their clients, Peter Levine's latest best-seller continues his groundbreaking exploration of the central role of the body in processing—and healing—trauma. With foreword by Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score In Trauma and Memory, bestselling author Dr. Peter Levine (creator of the Somatic Experiencing approach) tackles one of the most difficult and controversial questions of PTSD/trauma therapy: Can we trust our memories? While some argue that traumatic memories are unreliable and not useful, others insist that we absolutely must rely on memory to make sense of past experience. Building on his 45 years of successful treatment of trauma and utilizing case studies from his own practice, Dr. Levine suggests that there are elements of truth in both camps. While acknowledging that memory can be trusted, he argues that the only truly useful memories are those that might initially seem to be the least reliable: memories stored in the body and not necessarily accessible by our conscious mind. While much work has been done in the field of trauma studies to address "explicit" traumatic memories in the brain (such as intrusive thoughts or flashbacks), much less attention has been paid to how the body itself stores "implicit" memory, and how much of what we think of as "memory" actually comes to us through our (often unconsciously accessed) felt sense. By learning how to better understand this complex interplay of past and present, brain and body, we can adjust our relationship to past trauma and move into a more balanced, relaxed state of being. Written for trauma sufferers as well as mental health care practitioners, Trauma and Memory is a groundbreaking look at how memory is constructed and how influential memories are on our present state of being.

Clinical practice and legal issues in trauma and memory. -- Mental health and memories of traumatic events. -- Cognitive and physiological perspectives on trauma and memory. -- Evidence and controversies in understanding memories for traumatic events.

Originally published by Viking Penguin, 2014.

This book expands on the idea of transformation after trauma through the concept of Resonance. Resonance is presented as the key to posttraumatic growth and transformation and provides practical guidance for accessing it. Resonance is defined as a moment of awakening, through personal stories, that creates an opportunity for transformational learning. This book presents an integrative, holistic and narrative development understanding to individual, organizational and social systems change and transformation after trauma. It proposes a Trauma-Informed Narrative Development Pathway for consideration at all levels of systems and institutions who support people post-trauma. Resonance is critical, timely, and relevant now more than ever. As we continue to work for a world of social justice where preventable sufferings are no longer normalized, a posttraumatic transformation lens allows us to take a developmental perspective to supporting ourselves and those among us touched by trauma to achieve transformational outcomes. In a world with ongoing suffering, the ability to return to core identity memories and access greater connection and love for humanity unleashes the desire to take actions to create a better world for all.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - OVER 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD 'Dr. van der Kolk's masterpiece combines the boundless curiosity of the scientist, the erudition of the scholar, and the passion of the truth teller' Judith Herman, author of Trauma and Recovery The effects of trauma can be devastating for sufferers, their families and future generations. Here one of the world's experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for treatment, moving away from standard talking and drug therapies and towards an alternative approach that heals mind, brain and body. 'Fascinating, hard to put down, and filled with powerful case histories. . . . the most important series of breakthroughs in mental health in the last thirty years' Norman Doidge, author of The Brain that Changes Itself 'An astonishing and important book. The trauma Bible. I cannot recommend it enough for anyone struggling with...well...anything' Tara Westover The Body Keeps Score has sold over 3 million copies since publication [Circana BookScan, April 2024] Sunday Times (UK) and New York Times (USA) bestseller, March 2024

This book engages the globally pressing question of how to live and work with the haunting power of the past in the aftermath of mass violence. It brings together a collection of interdisciplinary contributions to reflect on the haunting of post-conflict memory from the perspective of diverse country case studies including South Africa, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Northern Ireland, North and South Korea, Palestine and Israel, America and Australia. Contributions offer theoretical, empirical and practical insights on the nature of historical trauma and practices of collective healing and repair that include embodied, artistic and culturally relevant forms of wisdom for dealing with the past. While this question has traditionally been explored through the lens of trauma studies in relation to the post-Holocaust experience, this book provides new understandings from a variety of different historical contexts and disciplinary perspectives. Its chapters draw on, challenge and expand the trauma concept to propose more contextually relevant frameworks for transforming haunted memory in the aftermath of historical trauma.