Transforming Trauma: Episode 118

For survivors of sexual trauma, repair lies in recognition, not revenge. In our current model of justice, however, victims are often abandoned to heal any way they can within a societal structure that fosters the conditions for their abuse. One researcher believes that the path toward collective recovery begins with a simple act: listening to the wisdom of survivors.

On this episode of Transforming Trauma, Emily is honored to welcome psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author Dr. Judith Lewis Herman for a heartfelt discussion centering on the needs of victims of sexual trauma and society’s role in individual and collective trauma healing. In her latest book, Truth And Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice, Dr. Herman introduces us to a “fourth stage” of the recovery process in which trauma survivors are invited to envision their future.  Dr. Herman’s latest book comes 30 years after her seminal work, Trauma And Recovery, in which she introduced the then radical idea that complex PTSD was a stand-alone diagnosis that differs significantly from PTSD. Her pioneering work led to our current understanding that C-PTSD requires a new framework for diagnosis and effective treatment. 

A lot has happened in the gap between the publication of these two influential, award-winning books––recognition of C-PTSD as a diagnosis by the World Health Organization, the rise of the #MeToo movement, a global pandemic––but Dr. Herman’s advocacy on behalf of survivors and her desire for a more holistic system of restoration has never wavered. “If trauma results from a crime,” she says, “then recovery can’t just be a personal or individual matter because that leaves out the question of justice.” 

In the first three steps of the healing process, Dr. Herman identifies the importance of communal responsibility. A survivor can’t reclaim their safety or agency, for example, without community support. Likewise, society can’t evolve beyond punitive justice into a more expansive and sustainable system without recognizing the survivor’s experience. ”Unless you have a social movement that validates survivors,” Dr. Herman says, “you’re not going to get the powers that be to change how they think.” 

Transforming Trauma is grateful to Dr. Herman for her vital contributions to the field of C-PTSD, her decades-long advocacy on behalf of survivors of sexual trauma, and her faith in the restorative justice process. NARM shares her conviction that healing trauma is only feasible when we restore our connection to self and others.

 

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Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry (part time) at Harvard Medical School. For thirty years, until she retired, she was Director of Training at the Victims of Violence Program at The Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA. Dr. Herman is the author of the award-winning books: Father-Daughter Incest (Harvard University Press, 1981) and Trauma and Recovery (Basic Books, 1992).