fectively in the world. Certain images kept recurring as we tried to decipher
this language of the body: mirrors, trees, houses, paper. In the last Editors'
Comments section, "The Body Finds Its Voice," we explain our present clin-
ical stance and how we approach messages from the traumatized body now
both in dialogue with patients and with ourselves and our culture as we
confront the body-mind split that is so endemic in the present technological
zeitgeist.

The book is organized into four parts. Part I, "Symptoms: Body Responses
to Trauma," reviews the body's acute responses to overwhelming trauma
and the long-term bodily symptoms reported in traumatized individuals.
Part II, "Experiences: Body Image in Trauma," introduces the powerful con-
cept of body image and discusses its manifestations, the impacts produced
on it by psychological trauma or bodily damage and the consequences of
distorted body image in terms of symptoms and ego functioning. Part III,
"Psychotherapy: The Traumatized Body in Treatment," further explores
concepts of body-ego functioning and effectiveness in the light of attach-
ment theory and gives clinical examples from psychotherapeutic encounters
in which these are addressed. Part IV, "Reflections: Body and Self in Dia-
logue," continues this theme into the rehabilitation phase of psychotherapy,
when symptoms are contained, the traumatic distortions of body image are
understood and the task is to bring body and self into dialogue so that prob-
lems of living can be solved in a more integrated way.

Readers may choose to (1) read sequentially, (2) focus first on the subjec-
tive editorial thread, or (3) focus on a particular section emphasizing body
symptoms, body-image distortions, body-ego functioning or developments
in the late, or outcome, phase of treatment.

The first three parts are organized as follows: The first chapter in each part
describes research and introduces a simple research tool; the second chapter
focuses on the major theoretical concept addressed in that section; the third
chapter describes a clinical application; and the last chapter presents a liter-
ary or historical application of the concepts. This organization offers readers
the additional option of focusing either on research, theory, clinical applica-
tions or models drawn from history or literature.

Working in this way, researchers can turn from Bruce Perry's elegant
physiological use of the pulse as an indicator of the state of the traumatized
body (Chapter 1), to Armsworth, Stronck and Carlson's use of psychological
instruments for measuring body-image damage and body-ego function
(Chapter 5), and then to Cohen and Mills's discussion of drawings as tools

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