Creating a Healing Society: The Impact of Human Emotional Pain and Trauma on Society and the World
Dr. Susan Lawrence's Creating a Healing Society program pioneers the recognition of the devastating impact of human emotional pain and trauma as the root cause of societal and world problems. Without healthy support, traumatized people (unconsciously influenced by inner pain) engage in self-destructive or antisocial behaviors. We are accustomed to thinking about the impact of trauma on the individual, but rarely notice the dramatic effect that trauma has on our society. The cumulative result of these pain-driven behaviors can be seen in the epidemics of AIDS, Hepatitis C, drug addiction and alcoholism; in our violent and crime-ridden society; in unemployment, homelessness and poverty; in the ongoing cycle of child abuse and neglect; and, on an international level, in terrorism and war. In Creating a Healing Society, Dr. Lawrence describes her work with alcoholics, AIDS patients, prisoners, and others dying of what she calls the delayed effects of child abuse. Through concrete examples, she shows that people can turn their lives around, and by doing so, change the quality of our entire society.
"…far more than an individual self-help book, Creating a Healing Society focuses on the ills of human emotional pain and trauma as the root cause of societal and world problems. Without support, traumatized individuals engage in self-destructive and antisocial behaviors, from spreading disease such as AIDS to engaging in drug addiction to perpetuating cyclical ills such as child abuse and neglect - to international atrocities of terror and war. Creating A Healing Society offers a personal insight to suffering, as the author describes her own alienated childhood and her efforts as an adult to help those most in need, and examines how society can be practically and spiritually improved, and offers a list of resources concerning trauma and recovery. Enthusiastically recommended."
---Midwest Book Review
"A fascinating examination of the way society's most pervasive structural illnesses—war, poverty, addiction—are pernicious expressions of unhealed personal traumas. Creating a Healing Society is a unique, inspiring book whose goal is nothing less than healing a troubled world." ---Bookviews.com