Therapy After Terror: 9/11, Psychotherapists, and Mental Health » (1st Edition)

Karen M. Seeley's interests lie at the intersection of psychology and anthropology. She is a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, where she teaches courses on culture and mental health, trauma, disaster, and psychological anthropology, and she teaches cultural psychology in the Psychology Department at Barnard College. She is also a psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City. She has a Master's in education from Harvard University, a Master's in social work from New York University, and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in cultural psychology. Dr. Seeley's interdisciplinary training informs her approach to mental health. She has brought anthropological perspectives on culture, society, and power to bear on clinical practice, and has critically investigated western theories of mental health, the culture of psychological clinics, and the dynamics of intercultural psychological treatments. She also has developed new modes of ethnographic inquiry that foreground cultural material in intercultural clinical encounters. Dr. Seeley writes, lectures, and consults on culture and mental health. She is the author of Cultural Psychotherapy: Working with Culture in the Clinical Encounter. In addition, she has published articles in a number of journals, including Social Work, the Psychoanalytic Review, and Psychotherapy and Politics International.

An illuminating study of the consequences of 9/11 and the costs of providing psychological care.

Introduction 1

1 Trauma Histories 10

2 Volunteers for America 39

3 "Get Me Counselors!" 61

4 The Psychological Treatment of Trauma 80

5 The Trauma of Psychological Treatment 101

6 Diagnosing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder 125

7 Trauma as Metaphor 147

8 Mental Health in Traumatic Times 168

Notes 197

Works Cited 213

Index 233