About this item
From a physician and post-traumatic stress disorder specialist comes a nuanced cartography of PTSD, a widely misunderstood yet crushing condition that afflicts millions of Americans.The Unspeakable Mind is the definitive guide for a trauma-burdened age. With profound empathy and meticulous research, Shaili Jain, M.D. - a practicing psychiatrist and PTSD specialist at one of America's top VA hospitals, trauma scientist at the National Center for PTSD, and a Stanford Professor - shines a long-overdue light on the PTSD epidemic affecting today's fractured world. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder goes far beyond the horrors of war and is an inescapable part of all our lives. At any given moment, more than six million Americans are suffering with PTSD. Dr. Jain's groundbreaking work demonstrates the ways this disorder cuts to the heart of life, interfering with one's capacity to love, create, and work - incapacity brought on by a complex interplay between biology, genetics, and environment. Beyond the struggles of individuals, PTSD has a tangible imprint on our cultures and societies around the world.Since 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been a huge growth in the science of PTSD, a body of evidence that continues to grow exponentially. With this new knowledge have come dramatic advances in the effective treatment of this condition. Jain draws on a decade of her own clinical innovation and research and argues for a paradigm shift in how PTSD should be approached in the new millennium. She highlights the myriads of ways PTSD care is being transformed to make it more accessible, acceptable, and available to sufferers via integrated care models, use of peer support programs, and technology. By identifying those among us who are most vulnerable to developing PTSD, cutting edge medical interventions that hold the promise of preventing the onset of PTSD are becoming more of a reality than ever before.Combining vividly recounted patient stories, interviews with some of the world's top trauma scientists, and her professional expertise from working on the frontlines of PTSD, The Unspeakable Mind offers a textured portrait of this invisible illness that is unrivaled in scope and lays bare PTSD's roots, inner workings, and paths to healing. This book is essential reading for understanding how humans can recover from unspeakable trauma. The Unspeakable Mind stands as the definitive guide to PTSD and offers lasting hope to sufferers, their loved ones, and health care providers everywhere.
About the Author
In 2007, Shaili Jain was a psychiatrist comfortably ensconced in private practice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During a spring road trip with her Father, she stumbled upon the truth of what happened to his family during the 1947 Partition of India. Jain's family legacy was one of tragic loss and terror but it had been buried for decades. Her Father's testimony would eventually spur her on a new career path committed to advancing the science of psychological trauma and unlocking the secrets of what fosters human resilience in the aftermath of unspeakable traumas. Today, Dr. Jain serves as a PTSD specialist at one of America's top VA hospitals, is a trauma scientist at the National Center for PTSD and a Stanford Professor. In The Unspeakable Mind, she paints a textured portrait of PTSD, drawing on the two decades she has spent caring for survivors of child abuse, rape, intimate partner violence, life-threatening accidents, and war. She interweaves these stories with her own family history of trauma suffered during the 1947 Partition of India, cutting edge neuroscience and conversations with top scientists in the field. The Unspeakable Mind offers the reader a riveting glimpse into the life of a doctor through the lens of PTSD and journeys far beyond the horrors of war to illuminate why traumatic stress is an inescapable part of all our lives.
