Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) is an American psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author who has focused on the understanding and treatment of
incest
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...
and
traumatic stress Traumatic stress is a common term for reactive anxiety and depression, although it is not a medical term and is not included in the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM). The experience of traumatic stress include subtypes ...
.
Herman is Professor of
clinical psychiatry at
Harvard University Medical School, Director of Training at the Victims of Violence Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the
Cambridge Health Alliance in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, and a founding member of the Women's Mental Health Collective.
She was the recipient of the 1996 Lifetime Achievement Award from the
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies is a professional network established on March 2, 1985, in Washington, D.C. It is Seeks disseminate the state of the science as it pertains to the effects of trauma.
History
The organization ...
and the 2000 Woman in Science Award from the
American Medical Women's Association
The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) is a professional advocacy and educational organization of women physicians and medical students. Founded in 1915 by Bertha Van Hoosen, the AMWA works to advance women in medicine and to serve as a v ...
. In 2003, she was named a Distinguished Fellow of the
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involv ...
.
Career
Judith Herman is best known for her contributions to the understanding of trauma and its victims, as set out in her second book, ''Trauma and Recovery''. There she distinguishes between single-incident
traumas – one-off events – which she termed Type I traumas, and complex or repeated traumas (Type II). Type I trauma, according to the United States Veterans Administration's Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, "accurately describes the
symptoms that result when a person experiences a short-lived psychological trauma". Type II – the concept of
complex post-traumatic stress disorder
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD; also known as complex trauma disorder) is a psychological disorder that is theorized to develop in response to exposure to a series of traumatic events in a context in which the individual perceive ...
(CPTSD) – includes "the syndrome that follows upon prolonged, repeated trauma". Although not yet accepted by DSM-IV as a separate diagnostic category, the notion of complex traumas has been found useful in clinical practice, although the eleventh revision of ICD (ICD-11), released in 2018, now includes that diagnosis for the first time.
Herman equally influentially set out a three-stage sequence of trauma treatment and recovery. The first and most important involved the establishment of safety, which might be especially difficult for people in abusive relationships. The second phase involved active work upon the trauma, fostered by that secure base, and employing any of a range of psychological techniques. The final stage was represented by an advance to a new post-traumatic life, possibly broadened by the experience of surviving the trauma and all it involved.
Herman was interviewed by
Harry Kreisler
Harry Kreisler () is an American historian who was formerly executive director of the Institute of International Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
He is best known as the creator and host of the television program Conversations with H ...
, Executive Director of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, for his ongoing series ''Conversations with History'' at the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley.
She is currently working on a study about the effects of the justice system on victims of sexual violence to discover a better way for victims of crimes to interact with what she perceives as an 'adversarial' system of crime and punishment in the U.S.
Early life
Judith Herman was born in New York City to
Helen Block Lewis, who was a psychologist and psychoanalyst and taught at Yale, and
Naphtali Lewis, who worked as a professor of Classics at City University of New York. Judith Herman received her education at Radcliffe College and Harvard Medical School.
Publications
Books
*
*
Book chapters
*
Sample pdf.
Articles
* Harvey, Mary, and Herman, Judith Lewis (September 1994). "Amnesia, Partial Amnesia, and Delayed Recall among Adult Survivors of Childhood Trauma". ''Consciousness and Cognition'' 3 (3-4): 295-206
Pdf
*
*
Sample pdf.*
*
References
External links
"Justice from the Victim's Perspective"- Lecture given at Wesleyan University, 10 May 2010
"Conversations with History: The Case of Trauma and Recovery Psychological Insight and Political Understanding with Judith Herman"- Interview with
Harry Kreisler
Harry Kreisler () is an American historian who was formerly executive director of the Institute of International Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
He is best known as the creator and host of the television program Conversations with H ...
from the University of Berkeley, 30 October 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herman, Judith Lewis
1942 births
Living people
Harvard Medical School faculty
Place of birth missing (living people)
American women psychiatrists
American psychiatrists
Radcliffe College alumni
Harvard Medical School alumni
American women academics
21st-century American women