Bibliograph

PTSD, a short history, Allan V. Horwitz

Type

Label

PTSD, a short history, Allan V. Horwitz

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-230) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

PTSD

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1014139355

Responsibility statement

Allan V. Horwitz

Series statement

Johns Hopkins biographies of disease

Sub title

a short history

Summary

"Post-traumatic stress disorder--and its predecessor diagnoses, including soldier's heart, railroad spine, and shell shock--was recognized as a psychiatric disorder in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The psychic impacts of train crashes, wars, and sexual shocks among children first drew psychiatric attention. Later, enormous numbers of soldiers suffering from battlefield traumas returned from the world wars. It was not until the 1980s that PTSD became a formal diagnosis, in part to recognize the intense psychic suffering of Vietnam War veterans and women with trauma-related personality disorders. PTSD now occupies a dominant place in not only the mental health professions but also major social institutions and mainstream culture, making it the signature mental disorder of the early twenty-first century. In PTSD, Allan V. Horwitz traces the fluctuations in definitions of and responses to traumatic psychic conditions. Arguing that PTSD, perhaps more than any other diagnostic category, is a lens for showing major historical changes in conceptions of mental illness, he surveys the conditions most likely to produce traumas, the results of those traumas, and how to evaluate the claims of trauma victims. Illuminating a number of central issues about psychic disturbances more generally--including the relative importance of external stressors and internal vulnerabilities in causing mental illness, the benefits and costs of mental illness labels, and the influence of gender on expressions of mental disturbance--PTSD is a compact yet comprehensive survey. The book will appeal to diverse audiences, including the educated public, students across the psychological and social sciences, and trauma victims who are interested in socio-historical approaches to their condition"--Publisher's description

Table Of Contents

Foreword / by Charles E. Rosenberg -- Preface -- A disorder through time -- PTSD emerges -- The psychic wounds of combat -- Diagnosing PTSD -- The return of the repressed -- PTSD becomes ubiquitous -- Implications

resource.variantTitle

Post-traumatic stress disorder, a short history

Classification

Creator