Judith Herman
Also known as Judith Lewis Herman
American psychiatrist who defined complex PTSD and a three-stage model of trauma recovery.
At a glance
Main ideas
Complex trauma, Three stages of recovery, Recovery happens in relationships …
See all 4Books to start with
Trauma and Recovery, Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice, Father-Daughter Incest
See all 3Connections
Psychological trauma, Trauma-informed care and 5 others
See all 7
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Judith Herman is an American psychiatrist who studies incest and traumatic stress.
- Her 1992 book Trauma and Recovery introduced complex PTSD.
- She set out three stages of recovery, starting with safety.
- Her later work asks what justice means to survivors.
Why it matters
- Her stage model and her idea of complex trauma underlie much of modern phase-based and trauma-informed practice.
Key facts
- Born
- 31 Mar 1942, New York City1
- Known for
- Trauma and Recovery (1992); first conceptualizing complex PTSD1
- Roles
- Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director of Training, Victims of Violence Program, Cambridge Health Alliance1
- Education
- Radcliffe College and Harvard Medical School1
- Honours
- ISTSS Lifetime Achievement Award (1996); Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (2003)1
Main ideas
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Complex trauma1
She distinguished one-off traumas from prolonged, repeated ones, whose syndrome she called complex PTSD; ICD-11 adopted it in 2018.
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Three stages of recovery2
Establish safety; remembrance and mourning; reconnection with community and society.
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Recovery happens in relationships2
She held that recovery can occur only within a healing relationship that empowers the survivor.
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Justice for survivors1
She studies how the justice system affects victims of sexual violence.
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
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The classic on trauma from domestic abuse to political terror; introduced complex PTSD.
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Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice1
What survivors themselves say justice would mean.
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Her first book (Harvard University Press).
Connections
Related
- Psychological traumaTopicHer life's work is the understanding and treatment of trauma
- Trauma-informed careTopicHer safety-first recovery model
- Complex post-traumatic stress disorderTopicFirst conceptualised it, in Trauma and Recovery (1992)
- ShameTopicDescribed shame as a split self, seen through the other's eyes
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.