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This is a lengthy, comprehensive book that aims to examine the nature of the wide variety of treatments available to traumatised people and to illuminate the historical context in trauma therapy. The editor explained that when he started his psychiatric work in the former GDR he focused strictly on the internal psychic structure of his patients. However it became increasingly clear that he had to take external factors, namely the effects of history and political processes, into account. He cited the telling point made by Lifton that “we cannot take the case history out of history”, and “we cannot take history out of the individual case” (p. xi). It is important to bear in mind that Huppertz's patients had lived under two totalitarian regimes, the Nazis and the Communists, which tried to control every aspect of life.
Part I is an introductory section with chapters by the editor on the history of the concept of trauma, the psychiatric approach to trauma, the subgroups of post-traumatic syndromes and the neurobiology of stress and trauma. Huppertz is thorough in the amount of detail he covered and practitioners with experience of working with trauma will be familiar with much of this. But for someone new to the field, I think other books provide an easier read. The second part of the book is devoted to chapters illustrating the developmental impact of trauma and the uncanny transmission of its legacy across the generations. There is a stark and shocking message in what the writers communicate about the events themselves and the “monstrous and painful memories” left in their wake (p. 55). Louise Newman discussed the impact of early trauma on child development in chapter three. One of Newman's interests is in how early relational trauma often lies behind adult borderline states, and she used a transgenerational lens, emphasising how themes related to unresolved maternal trauma can be re-enacted in their children. I was particularly struck by what Newman said about the imp