In this major new work on body-oriented psychotherapy, Marianna Eckberg makes the case for somatic treatment for individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In describing this therapeutic approach, she incorporates events of historical or national significance, including work with Vietnam vets (the first to be diagnosed with the disorder) and the Chowchilla kidnapping victims. Case studies from her professional efforts include work with victims of torture in El Salvador and her own experience as a victim of sexual and medical abuse. Victims of Cruelty offers a stinging rebuke of electroshock therapy, a political story of international medicine in Central America, and the demonstration of an increasingly influential form of treatment for PTSD. Included are an appendix of somatic interventions and a bibliography.

Maryanna Eckberg devoted her career to helping trauma victims and the victims of political torture. She worked for many years in El Salvador with the Commission on Human Rights, and at the Universidad Jose Simeon Canas. Her work during the last years of her life focused on publishing and speaking on somatic and verbal interventions in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. She died in October of 1999.

Tags: victims cruelty