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Trauma and Adolescence is the first of a monograph series by the International Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, focusing on specific adolescent-related issues. Edited by Max Sugar, this volume contains works by multinational authors, including S. Rubin, Carbone and Spano, Liakopoulou, Garbarino, Honig et al., and two chapters by Max Sugar himself. Divided into three sections, including Psychoanalytic Aspects of Trauma, Physical and Psychosomatic Illness and Social Disruption on adolescents, the intent of this volume is “to illuminate special areas needing further attention.”
The content and style of the various works range from in-depth case studies, as in Rubin's chapter on “Psychoanalytic Perspectives,” to brief vignette and theoretical discussions (e.g., Pucheu, Antonelli & Consoli and Sugar), to quantitative studies (e.g., Stuber & Kazak and Honig et al.). Some works (e.g., Garbarino) take a more sociophilosophical perspective, theorizing on the cumulative effects of children living with violence, and posit the benefits of appropriate parental interventions. Despite the volume's stated intent to illuminate areas in need of further exploration, there is no introduction or summary that integrates the material or suggests areas for further or deeper exploration. Instead, Sugar includes papers representing the range of multinational work focusing on trauma and lets the works stand for themselves.
Another interesting issue, especially given the varying theoretical and culture backgrounds of the various authors, is that there is no consistent definition of “trauma.” Several authors clearly define their work in terms of one-body or two-body psychologies and give short overviews of the literature on trauma, some beginning with Freud's evolving ideas on the topic. Other authors choose not to define trauma but instead focus on the impact of social disruptions on adolescents' subsequent functioning. These latter chapters tend to describe natural or manmade disasters themse