Webinar with Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice

March 1, 2024 at 10 AM

Crimes of gender-based violence, like other crimes against subordinated groups, are generally crimes of impunity. Victims are blamed, shamed, and isolated so that the violence becomes hidden and socially invisible. Shame and isolation, in turn, predict the malignant psychological harms of complex trauma, including the formation of a defiled identity. This talk, based on personal interviews and published accounts, explores survivors’ views of what might be a just resolution of the crimes they had suffered. In general, survivors wished, above all, for the truth to be known and the perpetrators exposed. Beyond this, their focus was on restoring their relationships, not primarily with the perpetrators, but rather with the “moral community” from which they had been isolated. Finally, rather than punishment of perpetrators, survivors frequently prioritized the prevention of future harm.

Speaker
Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard
Medical School. For thirty years, until she retired, she was Director of Training at the
Victims of Violence Program at The Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA. She is the
author of the award-winning book Father-Daughter Incest (Harvard University Press,
1981), and Trauma and Recovery (Basic Books, 1992). She is the recipient of numerous
awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship in 1984 and the 1996 Lifetime Achievement
Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. In 2007, she was
named a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Her new
book, Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice, was published in
March, 2023.

** You do not need to RSVP for this event; all members will automatically receive a Zoom invitation.

**All of our webinars are recorded for members to view. The link to the recording will be posted on the events page within a week of the event. CEUs are currently available for live attendees only.

**Members who attend this webinar live, from start to finish, will automatically be registered for CEUs. Within a week of the webinar, those members should receive an email from “CEU Registration.” Follow the link in the email to complete the evaluation and obtain your certificate. 

CE credits for most mental health professions are provided by the organization R. Cassidy. Please click here to confirm if your profession and state are eligible for CEs.

Please note that many state boards accept offerings accredited by national or other state organizations. Please check with your professional licensing board if your state is not listed to determine whether the accreditations listed are accepted.

This event is approved for 1.5 CE contact hours and has a target audience of any mental health professional working clinically. This content level is appropriate for clinicians at the intermediate level.

Learning Objectives 
1) Identify the rules of dominance and subordination.
2) Identify the rules of mutuality.
3) Describe the importance of bystanders to survivors.
4) Name three important principles of justice to survivors in this study.