I found this book well-written and extremely useful, but it is not a very easy book to understand if you have not studied psychology.
Some of the terminology and concepts are quite sophisticated and it is a pity that Shengold was not able to express his brilliance in a more user-friendly manner.
I think is book is excellent for the serious student of psycholoy, abuse and psychotherapy. I fear that for those who are not familiar with terms and concepts, this book could be a difficult read.

Shengold's book is really important -- he explores the inner lives of child abuse victims without sentimentalizing them, proscribing their recovery from trauma, or denying their complex aggressive responses to the abuse.

This serves to make the victim of abuse feel like a real human being, whose less adaptive and even bizarre sides are included rather than avoided or explained away by simple theory. Shengold's writing, while at times needing elaboration and more specific case histories, is beautiful, clear, complex, at times dazzling. The final chapter is a masterpiece of healing and hope. An important work.

Although deeply literate, thought provoking, and full of interesting and penetrating observations, formulations, and interpretations, I recommend this book only to those who already well-read in the area of childhood trauma.

My reason is that the book is imbued with a traditional Freudian understanding of the mind. A central statement of the author's view in this matter can be found on page 33, where Schengold refers to the "pathogenic power of fantasy." What a concept! The idea that one's imagination can make one sick! Such ideas have, in my opinion, no basis in fact and no place in a modern work on trauma.

Schengold certainly does not deny the pathogenic power of concrete childhood realities--in fact, that is his emphasis throughout the book and he has much of importance to say about it--but the Freudian taint could still, I think, mislead those who have not thoroughly thought through the issue. For this reason, I recommend this book only to those who are already well-read and well-thought in the area, and can therefore identify and disregard such notions; for such readers, the work is a stimulating gem. (I do not mean this to disparage Freud's contribution to the field of trauma, which was huge--see, especially, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, disregarding his notion of the Death Wish, for a brilliant anticipation of modern concepts of post-traumatic repetition--but other dimensions of Freud's undestanding are insupportable and should be discarded, including some contained in Schengold's book.)

Also, for persons looking for clear and unencumbered penetration into their problems, or for therapists working to devlop a clear and cohesive understanding of the impact of childhood trauma, I consider this work too literary and too abstruse, even aside from it's unsupportable Freudian overtones.

Books that I consider essential works on trauma include: those of Alice Miller (Banished Knowledge and others); J. Konrad Stettbacher (Making Sense of Suffering; don't be put off by the inelegant style, and pay close attention to his ideas on the the notion of a child learning to "fear his own needs"); Jenifer Freyd's Betrayal Trauma; Morton Schatzman's Soul Murder--out of print, but one of the great works in the history of psychology (libraries can get it--will certainly come back into print when the level of understanding about trauma increases among professionals). For a simple-to-read and popular-in-style paperback that nonetheless goes right to the heart of the matter read Susan Forward's Toxic Parents--"unsophisticated" yet profound.

Having read what I've written, I feel that I should reiterate that Schengold's work really has a great deal of penetration and value for some readers. I certainly was educated and stimulated by it.

I've read this book several times, and find it very useful to understand and to undo the effects of trauma. Shengold speaks to me personally as the one-time member of an abusive family, and professionally as a psychoanalyst who works with people who have been abused. This book is painful to read at times, and is probably better read in small sections at a time, so that it can be felt and digested.

Shengold has the temerity to suggest that symbolic meaning is phylogenetic. And yet if you get past his crazier ideas, and ignore his more obvious ones, there is a radical but deeply felt, empathically reasoned argument about psychic functioning here. I find Shengold's work deeply moving. I do wish his clinical examples had more life, and his biographical examples less density; but his work is important and deserving of careful and rigorous reading.