328- Book -PTSD therapy & victims of violence (Ochberg) (3)

Multiple Trigger warnings apply to this section of the book

Third blog post for this book corresponds to its second section, entitled The Victim of violent crime. 

In view of its content, I divided my reading and alternated with fiction (currently Sherlock Holmes boxed-set), to avoid triggers, about which I warn you, my readers. 



The following content may be difficult to read, so proceed with caution as the r-word and other victimization patterns are discussed in this section of the book. 



It is the longest portion of it, ranging from pages 111 to 224, starting with a presentation of its topic and authors by the editor, Frank Ochberg (P. 111-113) and encompasses the following chapters 

6) Personal power and institutional victimization : treating the dual trauma of woman battering.
7) Rape Trauma and treatment of the victim
8) Father-Daughter incest


I'll explain the last 2 chapters of this segment in my next post about this book. 
9) Post-traumatic therapy for children who are victims of violence
10) Homicide of a child

Chapter 6 is particularly long (P. 115-151 ; the last 2 offering references). 
In the first part of this chapter, the authors, Evan Stark and Anne Flitcraft, a couple who teamed-up in research and treatment, discuss the legal definitions of "domestic violence", "abuse", "battering", and explain the difficulties abused, battered women face in being socio, politically and otherwise acknowledged, as they are doubly victimized, first by the perpetrators, and second by all institutions. 

The latter tended, as of writing of the book (and to extent, even 30 years later, nowdays!) to either disbelieve women's accounts of events and calls for help, or to victim-blame them, and only relegate them to women in need of saving, instead of the newer currents of women empowermeents that had started to blossom in those days the book had been published - through the existence of refuge centers, where women were helped, usually by other women, in empowerment, and mutual help.

In the second portion of this chapter (p. 128-139), the authors give 2 case-studies of women who had been severely abused, mis-diagnosed and ill-treated by the various establishment and the medical corps, to illustrate their previous statements and then, in the last part (139-150) discuss changes that must be made in empowering women, by medical institutions, the police, and ultimately in societal gender norms, in order to offer proper diagnosis, therapy and empowerment, instead of further entrapping and pain. 
These cases may trigger. 


Chapters 7 &8  are even harder to read. I read parts of 7 and skimmed through 8, which further details a portion of the same topic raised in 7.

Chapter 7 was written by Carol R. Hartman and Ann Wolbert Burgess. They discuss Rape trauma and treatment of the victim, with general advice to therapists, and presented via case studies.  It ranges pages 152-175, and divides the treatment into stages regarding post-traumatic stress, in relation to the victim's pre-traumatic state (which is tough to asses), diagnosis, including specific PTSD symptomology, and then introduces already the topic that is further detailed in chapter 8, with a case study as well. 
The authors explain the importance not only of therapy and general response of a victim's social circles, but also that of everyone involved, from police, hospital/medical personnel, and therapists, to each of these types of victimisations.

Chapter 8 (P. 196-212), by Judith Lewis Herman, details PTSD treatment in relation to father-daughter incest.