Customer Reviews

Journeys Through Hell

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JOURNEYS THROUGH HELL - STORIES OF BURN SURVIVORS' RECONSTRUCTION OF SELF AND IDENTITY, is compelling and griping without being purposefully dramatic. Mr. Stouffer takes an approach of linking the personal accounts of survivor's stories with responsible narrative language that provides guidance and understanding into a world most of us don't understand. He establishes a dialogue that informs individuals about the nature of burn injuries and the involved procedures for burn treatment, and, takes the time to focus on recovery for both the survivor and the survivor's family.

JOURNEYS THROUGH HELL, skillfully managaes to combine the language of social science with the basic elements of trust, care, and the re-establishment of identity. It is without a false note and is deserving of a read by all.

Journeys Through Hell is an important book that takes the reader into the inner, private lives of burn injury survivors. This is a gem of a book, a social psychological study that relies on the narrative stories provided by burn survivors themselves who, in biographical fashion let us look at what it means to be a survivor of a terrible injury. What it means, very much unanticipated by the severely injured person in the initial stages of the injury, is pain, anguish, torture, and very importantly, hope and anticipation of a healed future.

While the book focuses on severe burns, it really has a much broader appeal: it is really about what it means to be a trauma survivor. The trauma could be physical, psychological or both. In any case, the book is about how people experience the most extreme personal loss, and sudden, terrifying change. In instantly experiencing the destruction of their normal, everyday lives, and in having their worlds shattered, we see how the survivors slowly struggle to be reborn, and come whole again.

What Dr. Stouffer does so well, often very eloquently and with great sensitivity to the survivors, is the fact that he draws out from the survivors their hidden stories, fears, and deep feelings of loss as well as hope. He shows how survivors slowly come to understand what they have lost and how, with the help of caring others, they may go on to find deep, abiding strengths they never realized they possessed. Stouffer gives strong voice to the survivors, allowing them to tell their stories, while skillfully weaving their accounts into a sociological, constructionist foundation. This book is not dull sociology, or mind numbing psychological theory. It is vividly presented real human drama that helps illuminate how we all cope with personal loss, and how we build our lives. I strongly recommend Journeys Through Hell.

JOURNEYS THROUGH HELL - STORIES OF BURN SURVIVORS' RECONSTRUCTION OF SELF AND IDENTITY, is compelling and griping without being purposefully dramatic. Mr. Stouffer takes an approach of linking the personal accounts of survivor's stories with responsible narrative language that provides guidance and understanding into a world most of us don't understand. He establishes a dialogue that informs individuals about the nature of burn injuries and the involved procedures for burn treatment, and, takes the time to focus on recovery for both the survivor and the survivor's family.

JOURNEYS THROUGH HELL, skillfully managaes to combine the language of social science with the basic elements of trust, care, and the re-establishment of identity. It is without a false note and is deserving of a read by all.