Massive Psychic Trauma.

Abstract

This book is a report, excellently edited, on the proceedings of the Wayne University workshops on the late sequelae of massive psychic trauma essentially focused on psychiatric manifestations in German concentration camp survivors. The proposition for this reviewer is the ability to retain objectivity in the face of having experience of almost ten years and over 300 cases vs having been a very active participant in that conference on record in this volume. Narcissistic investment vs critical judgment is the oldest conflict of interest. Indeed a great deal of attention is given in the volume to the conflicts and defenses of the evaluating psychiatrists on both sides of the ocean. The problem of traumatic neuroses in the wake of major social disasters had been systematically explored after World Wars I and II with progressively greater insights and some value to the evolution of