Dialogues With Forgotten Voices: Relational Perspectives On Child Abuse Trauma And The Treatment Of Severe Dissociative Disorders [Hardcover]

Harvey L. Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465095739 | ISBN-13: 978-0465095735 | Publication Date: November 10, 2000

Harvey Schwartz's territory is the severe end of the child sexual abuse continuum, where victims' experiences are so unthinkable and their adaptations so bizarre that the rest of us are tempted to pronounce them fictions-whereupon we become complicit by subverting the survivors' struggles to heal. Schwartz synthesizes trauma theory and relational psychoanalysis to make sense of perpetrator, collaborator, and victim pathologies, and exposes the tortuous double-binds of therapy for and with dissociative patients. His office is the last stop on a kind of underground treatment railroad; his say-it-isn't-so case material reverberates throughout.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This significant work is essential reading for any clinician treating this population." -- Christine A. Courtois, Ph.D.

About the Author

Harvey L. Schwartz treats and consults on the treatment of dissociative survivors of traumatic abuse in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (November 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465095739
• ISBN-13: 978-0465095735
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Dissociative Disorders

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Redeeming Dissociation through Negotiation, June 24, 2002

By 

Mary Ciofalo (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dialogues With Forgotten Voices: Relational Perspectives On Child Abuse Trauma And The Treatment Of Severe Dissociative Disorders (Hardcover)

Writing with a keen mind and a bright and passionate heart, Harvey Schwartz distills his years of professional experience as a clinician, mentor and teacher into this book. It is a gift, a gem of a book, for those who work with people who have endured the worst that mankind can inflict. Schwartz gives us a review of the literature in this field, many examples of his own work, illuminating quotes from clients, and much-needed clarity in this time when the issues of healing terribly-abused people have been siderailed into a senseless debate over whether such abuse actually exists. It does, and Harvey Schwartz provides a helpful, essential road map back to sanity and health over the difficult terrain of dissociation. This is a necessary book for healers who work with abuse. It is by far the best book on the topic that I, who have worked and studied in this field for twenty years, have read.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A definitive study of Dissociative Identity Disorder, October 18, 2004

By 

T. Acord "psychologically minded" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dialogues With Forgotten Voices: Relational Perspectives On Child Abuse Trauma And The Treatment Of Severe Dissociative Disorders (Hardcover)

Having read extensively on childhood trauma and dissociation, I can easily recommend this book as one of the most impressive works on a very misunderstood mental disorder. Dr. Schwartz writes with tremendous compassion and insight about the real needs and struggles of his patients who face ridicule and outright hostility because of the many myths and disinformation surrounding DID. As an author and clinical psychologist, Dr. Schwartz breaks new ground in this bold, unblinking look at the pathology, courage and brokeness of these clients. Most have survived horrific abuse that essentially amounts to the torture of children by parents, other relatives, the government and cults.
Dr. Schwartz, unlike many experts in this field, clearly and truthfully points out how society and institutions collude with perpetrators in the rape, beating and sexual torture of our most vulnerable citizens. Well-written, clinically and scientifically accurate.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book that analyzes US cultural denial about sexual abuse of children and state-sponsored torture, April 23, 2006

By 

Melissa Farley (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dialogues With Forgotten Voices: Relational Perspectives On Child Abuse Trauma And The Treatment Of Severe Dissociative Disorders (Hardcover)

Schwartz's book is a gift for clinicians, most of whom were never adequately trained to work with patients who have complex dissociative disorders. If you're a therapist, and you haven't read this book, then you are missing out on critical theory about how to work fearlessly and respectfully with these patients who have suffered severe harms as children.

I also think the book should be read as cultural commentary. Schwartz discusses the complicity of groups such as the False Memory Syndrome Association in the sexual abuse of children.
Dialogues with Forgotten Voices also has carefully documented evidence regarding ritual abuse - where highly organized groups of pedophiles and their lawyers and doctors make a religion out of torturing children.

This book has been on the shelf closest to my computer ever since it came out, and I refer to it constantly. A must-read.