The unspeakable mind : stories of trauma and healing from the frontlines of PTSD science
Shaili Jain (Author)
The Unspeakable Mind is the definitive guide for a trauma-burdened age. With profound empathy and meticulous research, Shaili Jain, M.D. -- a practicing psychiatrist and PTSD specialist at one of America's top VA hospitals, trauma scientist at the National Center for PTSD, and a Stanford Professor -- shines a long-overdue light on the PTSD epidemic affecting today's fractured world. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder goes far beyond the horrors of war and is an inescapable part of all our lives. At any given moment, more than six million Americans are suffering with PTSD. Dr. Jain's groundbreaking work demonstrates the ways this disorder cuts to the heart of life, interfering with one's capacity to love, create, and work -- incapacity brought on by a complex interplay between biology, genetics, and environment. Beyond the struggles of individuals, PTSD has a tangible imprint on our cultures and societies around the world. Since 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been a huge growth in the science of PTSD, a body of evidence that continues to grow exponentially. With this new knowledge have come dramatic advances in the effective treatment of this condition. Jain draws on a decade of her own clinical innovation and research and argues for a paradigm shift in how PTSD should be approached in the new millennium. She highlights the myriads of ways PTSD care is being transformed to make it more accessible, acceptable, and available to sufferers via integrated care models, use of peer support programs, and technology. By identifying those among us who are most vulnerable to developing PTSD, cutting edge medical interventions that hold the promise of preventing the onset of PTSD are becoming more of a reality than ever before. Combining vividly recounted patient stories, interviews with some of the world's top trauma scientists, and her professional expertise from working on the frontlines of PTSD, The Unspeakable Mind offers a textured portrait of this invisible illness that is unrivaled in scope and lays bare PTSD's roots, inner workings, and paths to healing. This book is essential reading for understanding how humans can recover from unspeakable trauma. The Unspeakable Mind stands as the definitive guide to PTSD and offers lasting hope to sufferers, their loved ones, and health care providers everywhere. -- Provided by publisher
Print Book, English, 2020
First Harper paperbacks edition View all formats and editions
Harper, New York, 2020
Popular works
xxii, 388 pages ; 21 cm
9780062469076, 006246907X
1151988131
Prologue - Introduction
Part 1 Discovering Traumatic Stress
The Road Trip with My Father
A Pressing Public Health Concern
A Brief History of Trauma
Old Wine in a New Bottle? From Shell Shock to Battered Women to PTSD
Rocky Roads: Overdiagnosis and Underrecognition
Part 2 The Brain
A Disorder of Memory - Nightmares - Flashbacks
An Unlived Life: The Hidden Cost of Avoidance
Denial Land: When Trauma Memories Are Deeply Buried
Carrying Sorrows in the Blood: Cortisol, Epigenetics, and Generational Trauma
A Wildness in the Bones: Acute Awareness and Shady Moods
Dissociation: The Two-Thousand-Yard Stare
Part 3 The Body
Bodily Wounds
A Soldier's Heart: PTSD and Cardiac Disease
Russian Roulette: The Perilous Bond Between Traumatic Stress and Addiction
Broken Smiles: The Toxicity of Childhood Adversity
Senescence: Traumatic Stress in Late Life
Part 4 Quality of Life
Complex Trauma
Intimate Violence: A Secret Pandemic
A Danger to Others: Hurt People Hurt Other People
Angry Loving: The Stubborn Imprint of Inner-City Poverty
The Fairer Sex? Rape, Secondary Injuries, and Postpartum PTSD
Shame: The Cinderella Emotion
The Science of Suicide Prevention
Part 5 Treating Traumatic Stress
Talking Cures and Beyond
Psych Meds
Medication Management
The Allure of Magic Bullets
Part 6 Our World on Trauma
Trauma of the Masses: A Wicked Problem
The 1947 Partition
War, Disaster, and Terror: Hard-Earned Knowledge and Lessons for the Future
An Americanization of Human Suffering?
Part 7 A New Era: an Ounce of Prevention
Prevention with Precision
The Golden Hours
Reaching the Hard to Reach: Making PTSD Treatment More Accessible
The Power of Social Networks
The Science of Resilience
Afterword: A Precious Inheritance
How This Book Was Written