Judith Lewis Herman

Last updated
Judith Lewis Herman
Born1942 (age 80–81)
Nationality American
Alma mater Radcliffe College
Harvard Medical School [1]
Known forResearch on complex post-traumatic stress disorder and incest
Scientific career
Fields Psychiatry

Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) is an American psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author who has focused on the understanding and treatment of incest and traumatic stress.

Contents

Herman is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director of Training at the Victims of Violence Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a founding member of the Women's Mental Health Collective.

She was the recipient of the 1996 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the 2000 Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women's Association. In 2003, she was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Career

Judith Herman is best known for her contributions to the understanding of trauma and its victims, as set out in her second book, Trauma and Recovery. [2] There she distinguishes between single-incident traumas – one-off events – which she termed Type I traumas, and complex or repeated traumas (Type II). [3] Type I trauma, according to the United States Veterans Administration's Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, "accurately describes the symptoms that result when a person experiences a short-lived psychological trauma". [4] Type II – the concept of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) – includes "the syndrome that follows upon prolonged, repeated trauma". [5] Although not yet accepted by DSM-IV as a separate diagnostic category, the notion of complex traumas has been found useful in clinical practice, [6] although the eleventh revision of ICD (ICD-11), released in 2018, now includes that diagnosis for the first time. [7]

Herman equally influentially set out a three-stage sequence of trauma treatment and recovery. The first and most important involved the establishment of safety, which might be especially difficult for people in abusive relationships. [8] The second phase involved active work upon the trauma, fostered by that secure base, and employing any of a range of psychological techniques. [9] The final stage was represented by an advance to a new post-traumatic life, [10] possibly broadened by the experience of surviving the trauma and all it involved. [11]

Herman was interviewed by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, for his ongoing series Conversations with History at the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. [12] She is currently working on a study about the effects of the justice system on victims of sexual violence to discover a better way for victims of crimes to interact with what she perceives as an 'adversarial' system of crime and punishment in the U.S. [13]

Early life

Judith Herman was born in New York City to Helen Block Lewis, who was a psychologist and psychoanalyst and taught at Yale, and Naphtali Lewis, who worked as a professor of Classics at City University of New York. [14] Judith Herman received her education at Radcliffe College and Harvard Medical School. [15]

Publications

Books

Book chapters

Articles

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-traumatic stress disorder after World War II</span>

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) results after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event which later leads to mental health problems. This disorder has always existed but has only been recognized as a psychological disorder within the past forty years. Before receiving its official diagnosis in 1980, when it was published in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-lll), Post-traumatic stress disorder was more commonly known as soldier's heart, irritable heart, or shell shock. Shell shock and war neuroses were coined during World War I when symptoms began to be more commonly recognized among many of the soldiers that had experienced similar traumas. By World War II, these symptoms were identified as combat stress reaction or battle fatigue. In the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-I), post-traumatic stress disorder was called gross stress reaction which was explained as prolonged stress due to a traumatic event. Upon further study of this disorder in World War II veterans, psychologists realized that their symptoms were long-lasting and went beyond an anxiety disorder. Thus, through the effects of World War II, post-traumatic stress disorder was eventually recognized as an official disorder in 1980.

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Being exposed to traumatic events such as war, violence, disasters, loss, injury or illness can cause trauma. Additionally, the most common diagnostic instruments such as the ICD-11 and the DSM-5 expand on this definition of trauma to include perceived threat to death, injury, or sexual violence to self or a loved one. Even after the situation has passed, the experience can bring up a sense of vulnerability, hopelessness, anger and fear.

References

  1. ↑ "Judith Herman". harvard.edu. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  2. ↑ John Marzillier, To Hell and Back (2012) p 302
  3. ↑ John Marzillier, To Hell and Back (2012) p 12 and p 02
  4. ↑ Whealin,Ph.D., Julia M.; Slone,Ph.D., Laurie (22 May 2007). "National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet: Complex PTSD". National Center for PTSD, United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Archived from the original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2008.
  5. ↑ Herman, Judith Lewis (1997) [1992], "A new diagnosis", in Herman, Judith Lewis (ed.), Trauma and recovery: the aftermath of violence - from domestic abuse to political terror, New York: BasicBooks, p.  119, ISBN   978-0-465-08730-3.
  6. ↑ John Marzillier, To Hell and Back (2012) p. 304
  7. ↑ Cloitre, Marylène (2020). "ICD-11 complex post-traumatic stress disorder: Simplifying diagnosis in trauma populations". The British Journal of Psychiatry. 216 (3): 129–131. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2020.43 . PMID   32345416. S2CID   213910628.
  8. ↑ J.L. Herman, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1440-1819.1998.0520s5S145.x
  9. ↑ John Marzillier, To Hell and Back (2012) p. 182
  10. ↑ D. Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (1996) p. 213
  11. ↑ John Marzillier, To Hell and Back (2012) p. 256
  12. ↑ "Conversation with History; Dr. Judith Lewis Herman". Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies. UC Berkeley. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
  13. ↑ "Center for the Humanities-War: 2009/2010". deimos3.apple.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  14. ↑ "Judith Herman". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
  15. ↑ "Judith Herman". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
  16. ↑ Kenneally, Christine (2023-03-14). "What Should Justice Look Like for Trauma Survivors? Ask Them". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-23.
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