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The most striking feature of this book is not its content - excellent though that is - but its unusual format. Ostensibly, it is a series of interviews with psychotherapists and evolutionary anthropologists on the origins and impact of trauma. However, each chapter has been carefully crafted and constructed through many drafts and back-and-forth interchanges with the interview subjects, combined with the author's own research. The result combines the accessible informality of the interview format with the depth and complexity of written work. There is a genuine sense of dialogue here that is refreshing and illuminating.
The scope of the book and its interviewees reflects Daniela Sieff's unusual background and interests. Having trained in evolutionary anthropology and spent several years living amongst traditional peoples in Tanzania, she came to the world of psychotherapy through the need to make sense of her own trauma. The fact that she is not a therapist herself enables her to retain the perspective of those that seek help rather than those who provide it, while her academic background provides an intellectual rigour that is independent of professional agendas. In fact, the book is not primarily aimed at a professional audience of researchers and/or therapists but seeks to make their insights available to a wider public needing to make sense of their own trauma. It is a rare achievement to produce a book that can satisfy both kinds of audience.
The way the various themes are set out helps to achieve this aim. The first four chapters, offering a psychodynamic perspective, are written mainly with Jungian therapists (Donald Kalsched, Tina Stromsted and Marion Woodman) with the addition of Bruce Lloyd, an addiction therapist. These are the most accessible chapters for a non-professional audience seeking to understand the nature of trauma and how it may be affecting them. Most of this material will be familiar to readers of this Journal, although the interview with Kals