318- Book -PTSD therapy & victims of violence (Ochberg) (1)

In 2016 and 2017, during extensive research about PTSD and CPTSD, I had found this 35 videos by Frank M. Ochberg on youtube. I'd watched several, and thought him rather well spoken and sensible on the topic. I Invite you, my readers, to check these videos if you wish to better understand trauma and post-traumatic stresses, and I now start a new book-reading blog post series for this aforementioned book about PTT and victims of violence, which I'll append with new entries upon each of its sections.


Today, I discuss the earliest part of the book, from pages V to XIV to 19, as follows :

David A. Hamburg's forward (p. V-VIII) explains quickly about Frank Ochberg's pioneering work in treatment of ptsd (post-traumatic stress disorder) and his creation of the term PTT. This forward alludes do Frank's own 1st chapter, which I'll detail hereafter.

Then, comes the list of 17 contributors, listed in alphabetical order (of last-name), (p. XI-XII), of various medical and social workers in many fields. All are either M.D or PhD's, or other barbaric acronyms such as R.N ; C.S, D.N.Sc. ; C.P.N.P ; M.A.R. ; or J.D. They are nationally (as in, american, like Ochberg himself) and internationally renowned in their fields, and have either published books by the time this one (1988) was, or had preferred to work on treating patients. You'll notice like me, that a tad more than 50% of this list are women, and I here I have to applaud not only the publishers, but also Mr Ochberg himself, as he explains in, again, the 1st chapter, this apparent feminist approach as a deliberate choice, as the understanding that women have been victimized was still a new concept back then. 

Charles Figley, who contributes to chapter 5, also explains the editorial note (p. XIII-XIV) aboute the book series into which this book was born, and again, about Ochberg's work.

I finish this entry with the first chapter, by Frank M. Ochberg, who explains about this volume, and how he came to post-traumatic therapy, and victims of violence. This is a rather long chapter, but I have to say, that though the primary audience are therapists, the language isn't a jargon-based one, but employs rather easy to understand terminology, as Mr Ochberg recounts his backgrounds in studies and therapey cases (he gives 3 examples) into understanding the nature of PTSD, as coined in the DSM-III from 1980, which he explains fully and fluently, for all reading audiences, medical students and the lay people alike. 

He stresses the fact that victims shouldn't be blamed, and the work of a therapist is to help patients cope and improve their life conditions as much as possible, and uses very compassionate terms towards victims, and adds a mantra that he helps his patients to learn to grow from their status of victim, to that of survivor. 

Let me remind you in this paragraph that the term CPTSD hadn't yet been coined by anyone, and still hasn't been made, by 2018, into a any DSM manual, and is yet used by therapists.

My next entries on this book shall correspond to each of its other sections, as follows:

I - Principles of post-traumatic therapy (chapters 2-5. P. 21-110)
II- The victim of violence crime (6-10. P. 111-224)
III- The victim of war and atrocity (11-14. P. 225-314)
IV- The crime victims' movement and support services of victims (15-16. P. 315-352). 

Additions :
Editorial postscript (also by Charles R. Figley) P. 353
Acknowledgements. P 357
Name Index 361
Subject index 366