Other Looking for book recommendations on torture recovery

[Mary Luna]

I consider Viktor E Frankl's "Man's search for meaning" very good book. The author was kept a prisoner in the camps during WWII. Don't know if it's what you're looking for. While googling the title, I saw that the book is freely availble on the web as a pdf-file.

 

[Beachlife09]

@Mary Luna Well, I'm looking for workbook/recovery books, but there don't seem to be any, but I'll try and check your suggestion out as well and see if I can get any kind of recovery thing from it. Thank you for your recommendation :)

 

[Springer80]

Viktor E Frankl's

An interesting and awe inspiring guy, that Viktor. I've not read his work but looked at summaries of his research areas and what he contributed to the field,
Good recommendation I reckon.

 

[reallydown]

No offense and certainly not trying to be discouraging but I am not sure there's a book for that...as in, I'm not sure one can recover from it...

 

[Friday]

@reallydown Our experiences shape our lives, for sure. And PTSD is life long, also. But just as with any trauma... Figuring out patterns and choosing which to keep and which to work against? Shaping our lives into the people we wish to become? That's possible. There are enumerable examples. Torture may be statistically rare compared to rape, child abuse, domestic violence, etc... But there are still millions of people who have been tortured and go on to live and love their lives. Who keep what they like, and ditch what they don't. Not just talking about the people who walk away essentially unscathed, but people who walk away a complete mess, and turn their lives around.

To me, anyhow, that's recovery. Not being the person I was before, but becoming the person I wish to be, now. Scars & all.

 

[Ronin]

^^
This.
If not 'recover', live through. Personally I'm quite good with that. I'm blessed with life, and I owe it to myself, and to all those that didn't make it, to make that life as good as I can. (Personal honor code & not talking about anyone else's stances or some generic-advice kind of thing.)

 

[Beachlife09]

@reallydown "With God all things are possible." -(Matthew 19:26, emphasis mine) That includes recovery from torture. I don't believe in accepting defeat. No, I don't think I'll ever be the same again, but I can certainly get better and stop simply surviving and actually live again. And that goes for every survivor, there is always hope.

 

[joeylittle]

not trying to be discouraging...I'm not sure one can recover from it...

How exactly is this "not discouraging"? It's frustrating enough that there is little literature, and those of us who have been through this particular odd kind of experience have to search hard to find each other.

Torture survivors have the same complicated relationship with recovery that any PTSD sufferer has. We are probably a smaller percentage of the PTSD population, so very few therapists specialize in us, and those that do generally focus on military and/or political prisoners in recovery, which is where the bulk of the torture-surviving population is.

But none of this means we have any less a chance or right to recover - according to whatever our own definition of recovery is.

I will never forget. I will always have the scars. The ways in which the course of my life was shaped because of the parts of my body that were permanently destroyed: I can't live in another body, so I can't get away from it.

But if I can get to a time when I understand it as my past, a part of my life I am not still living: I'll have recovered. And i need to believe in that.

 

[reallydown]

It was meant to be realistic, not discouraging. And I never questioned anyone's right to recover so please don't put words in my mouth...And perhaps some kind of recovery is possible but I seriously doubt you'll find it in a book (for this specific issue). There's a reason why torture is the big no-no (but of course every country etc probably uses it...and in every country there are individuals (ie not military or officials yada yada just very sick people) which makes you wonder about humanity)...And while torture survivors and other PTSD-ers do indeed have similar issues, I doubt a person involved in a car crash (and with very legitimate PTSD) has quite the same issues as a torture survivor. This is not meant to minimize anyone's trauma, just to point out that this is probably the worst of the worst that someone can go through and the level both physically and psychologically is a whole other level to what most can even relate to. And @Beachlife09, while I appreciate that people have faith etc and hang on tho things, I do not believe in god or God or in any literal interpretation of the Bible or whatever so in future, I would ask you to please refrain from quoting it in any posts you may be addressing me in. Thanks.

 

[Beachlife09]

@reallydown I'm sorry you feel that way.

 

[Beachlife09]

Okay, so to get back to the subject: Are there any abuse or combat PTSD recovery workbooks that address or even touch on torture? I got a Combat vet book called "An Operator's Manual for Combat PTSD: Essays for Coping" because the person that referred it to me said that it would be helpful for even civilian PTSD, but it didn't talk about torture recovery steps at all. (It is a pretty good book otherwise if that would be helpful to anyone else)

 

[RussH]

I would think anyone suffering from PTSD as the result of torture would present similar to others who suffer due to complex trauma. So books on the effects of complex trauma on the human psyche might be a good resource.