Object Relations in Severe Trauma: Psychotherapy of the Sexually Abused Child by Stephen Prior. Published by  Jason Aronson, Northvale,  New Jersey and London, 1996;  189 pages.

This is a significant book. In a concise and careful way Stephen Prior critically reviews a broad spectrum of the psychodynamic literature on trauma - in itself of considerable value in its lucid exposition and evaluation. He points out how each writer defines trauma in a particular way and deals with different aspects. From his personal experience of work Prior develops an integrated, coherent and useful depiction of severely abused and neglected boys and their treatment. The general theory he proposes analyses the damage done to conceptions of self and other, and the possibilities of human relationship in a robust framework that recognizes overt trauma and deals not only with intrapsychic elaborations of fantasies. Importantly, Prior has clearly been influenced by attachment theory, development studies, the relatively under-published and so unfortunately easily neglected contributions of Paul Russell (1999) regarding trauma and the treatment process. He does not overlook more recent, not directly psychoanalytic, but extremely significant contributions to the field of dissociative identity disorders and multiple personality following severe early cumulative childhood abuse of various writers such as Kluft, Putnam, and Finkelhor among others, while not neglecting but drawing on the relevant and significant psychoanalytic