Traumatic relationships and serious mental disorder : helping survivors, partners and families

Mental, physical, or sexual abuse in close personal relationships commonly results in trauma that is very different from the trauma of accidents, illness, or war.

Little is more intellectually challenging, emotionally demanding, and difficult than therapeutic work with survivors of such traumatic personal relationships and those close to them.

Making creative use of attachment theory to explicate the multifaceted outcomes of trauma, this book provides a conceptual framework and a concise review of a huge knowledge base that will support and guide treatment and prevention programmes for these serious problems.