Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

If you work with people who have experienced trauma then this book is must reading. Dr. Schwartz has done clinicians a tremendous favor by pouring his heart and soul into his work and then making it available for others to read about in this volume.

I found this to be an excellent book on this subject. I am a layman in this area, but it helped me to understand more of the dynamics at play in some people who are very dear to me. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes an indepth consideration of this area. It is not easy reading, but it is very clear and pays back the time put into its study. I found myself something reading and rereading passages and gainingmore from each reading. There are many layers to understanding the types of individuals that Dr. Schwartz describes, and I found that the text delicately and with compassion, revealed this depth and gave keys to treatment that were as sensitive as they were insightful.

As a psychologist working in the field of extreme trauma, I was impressed with Harvey Schwartz' compassion towards clinicians as well as the clients they work with. He clearly is well-versed in the Relational Psychodynamic approach but shows acceptance for other theoretical orientations and in the process invites all clinicians into a consideration of the vital importance of the relational aspects of this challenging clinical work. I found insights in this book that I had been looking for in dealing with the most complex of therapeutic obstacles to treatment. I see this book as a must-read for every clinician working with victims of severe childhood sexual trauma, whether they meet the criteria for the diagnosis of DID or not. An excellent source of validation for clinicians who feel doubted by colleagues who may misunderstand or not accept that the horrors humankind is capable of inflicting on others truly happens.

Great resource for clinicians treating trauma victims. Very clinical writing style. Gives perspective to how individuals respond to and recover from trauma.

A must read for any clinician working with individuals suffering from dissociative disorders. Dr. Schwartz shares his insights with courage, conviction and compassion.

Almost the bible in relation to the chameleon complex resulting from forced submission and assimilation and pathological identification with chronic abusive adults.