Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Herman focuses on the foundational principles and challenges of trauma recovery, emphasizing empowerment and relational connection as essential to healing. Herman asserts that recovery cannot occur in isolation; instead, it depends on restoring autonomy and rebuilding the core psychological capabilities—such as trust, initiative, and identity—that trauma erodes. Therapy is one context for this restoration, but it must avoid reproducing dynamics of domination. The therapeutic relationship is complex and fraught with transference, as trauma survivors often reenact patterns of helplessness, mistrust, and idealization rooted in past abuse. These dynamics can lead to distorted expectations and emotional volatility, which therapists must navigate with ethical clarity, moral solidarity, and emotional attunement.

Therapists, Herman asserts, experience “traumatic countertransference,” absorbing aspects of the survivor’s terror, grief, rage, and helplessness. These reactions can include PTSD-like symptoms, intrusive imagery, dissociation, existential despair, and emotional identification with both the victim and the perpetrator. Therapists may lose confidence, overextend themselves, or feel consumed by difficult emotions. They can unconsciously reenact aspects of the original trauma; they may also experience somatic responses; Herman notes one case in which the clinician felt herself “floating out of her body” (209).