Acclaim for the work of Pauline Boss and her book Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss (W. W. Norton, 2006).
We all confront loss in our lives, and with loss comes a rupture in meaning. In Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, Pauline Boss insightfully sees traumatic loss as a relational disorder and not individual pathology. Most importantly, she draws on her substantial therapeutic experience, along with sophisticated theoretical resources, to provide practicable routes to restoring relations, meaning, and hope. This work will be especially useful to therapists confronting cases of trauma, great and small, and to scholars concerned with therapy as the site for restoring meaning.
Kenneth Gergen, Mustin Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College, and the author of The Saturated Self and An Invitation to Social Construction (Back Cover, Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, W. W. Norton, 2006)
...Pauline has made a significant contribution to the field of trauma studies by addressing the need to bridge individual models of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder with those based on relational and resilience approaches. At a time when the violence and losses of war, terrorism, and natural disasters increasingly threaten to unravel the social fabric of entire communities, clinicians and humanitarian workers alike will welcome Boss's clear guidelines for strengthening connections in families in order to better cope with the stress of such ambiguous and difficult situations and find new sources of meaning and hope.
Jack Saul, PhD, Director of the International Trauma Studies Program, New York City (Back cover, Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, W. W. Norton, 2006)
Pauline Boss has written a comprehensive guide to understanding and healing one of the most painful of human experiences. In clear, accessible prose, she links together a wide range of theories, practices, and vivid cultural references. Sure to become a classic that will be widely read by those who've suffered ambiguous loss as well as those attempting to provide a therapeutic pathway that transforms suffering into newfound strength.
Peter Fraenkel, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, The City University of New York, and co-author of The Relational Trauma of Incest: A Family-Based Approach to Treatment (More Advance Acclaim for Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, W. W. Norton, 2006)
In a world with wars, migration, disastrous events like the 9/11 attacks, and personal tragedies such as Alzheimer's, ambiguous loss is all around us. Many people experience separation, be it of mind or body, without closure, leaving them with the distinctive problems of managing grief, stress, and trauma. This poses major challenges for society in general, and for therapists in particular. Pauline Boss's book is illuminating, useful, and informative. It develops original theory through numerous examples drawn from the author's research. Loss, Trauma, and Resilience is an important contribution to the psychosocial literature on loss and trauma, essential for therapists, researchers, and anyone seeking to reflect on contemporary life.
Celia J. Falicov, Ph.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, and past president, American Family Therapy Academy (More Advance Acclaim for Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, W. W. Norton, 2006)
