War Trauma and Its Wake ─ Expanding the Circle of Healing

Decades after Charles Figley’s landmark Trauma and Its Wake was published, our understanding of trauma has grown and deepened, but we still face considerable challenges when treating trauma survivors. This is especially the case for professionals who work with veterans and active-duty military personnel. War Trauma and Its Wake, then, is a vital book. The editors—one a contributor to Trauma and Its Wake, the other an Army Reserve psychologist with four deployments—have produced a book that addresses both the specific needs of particular warrior communities as well as wider issues such as battlemind, guilt, suicide, and much, much more. The editors’ and contributors’ deep understanding of the issues that warriors face makes War Trauma and Its Wake a crucial book for understanding the military experience, and the lessons contained in its pages are essential for anyone committed to healing war trauma.

Raymond Monsour Scurfield, DSW, LCSW is a Vietnam veteran, a professor emeritus of social work, and a former director of the Katrina Research Center at the University of Southern Mississippi–Gulf Coast.

Katherine Theresa Platoni, PsyD, is a colonel in the Medical Service Corps of the United States Army Reserve and Army Reserve Psychology Consultant to the Chief in the Medical Service Corps.