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Published by Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, New York, N.Y. $16, paperback. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror is an ambitious effort scrunched into 236 pages by Judith Herman, M.D., an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and director of training at the Victims of Violence Program at Cambridge Hospital.

Dr. Herman seeks a new name to cover the types of traumatic disorders, along with chronic stress or trauma disorders-the ones imposed on human beings by years, maybe decades, of abuse at the hands of a violent spouse or parent, or at the hands of political terrorists like those found in World War II running the unthinkable concentration camps.

Speaking as a "survivor" of parental abuse that lasted up to and beyond the 18 years, much of her theory of cause, symptoms, recovery and post-recovery, rings solidly true. However, the author speeds over the various possibilities-other than her recovery method. For example: Does someone's inability to have intimate relationships stem from the violent, one-time physical or sexual abuse they received as a three-year-old, or is it cumulative, over the course of 18 or more years? Does recovery for that person consist only of continual talks with a counselor or within a group, as Dr. Herman implies? Or should there be a combination of talks and medication, even for mere cases of anxiety or mild depression?

Overall, there is much to be learned from Trauma and Recovery, especially for someone new to the study of the mind's wheels and gears. For those of us experienced in years, or decades, of therapy, her answers seem a bit simplistic or repetitive with those of other researchers. She says that cures are possible, but wiping out symptoms for victims may be sometime in the distant future.

Perhaps the book's greatest value lies in its description of the effects of a traumatic occurrence. The author compares it to a realignment of chemical activity in the person's brain, or an altered state. She says that when most people are faced with a life-threatening situation, whether it be missile-fire in Vietnam, a spouse's verbal or physical beating, or an accident in which someone feels their life could end, they come out of it a different human being.

Traumatic reactions occur when action is of no avail, when neither resistance nor escape is possible. As a result, the normal human system of self-defense becomes overwhelmed and disorganized. Each component of the ordinary response to danger, having lost its utility, tends to persist in an altered and exaggerated state long after the actual danger is over. These profound events may sever those normally integrated functions from one another.

The new, "altered" state of mind, or organic brain activity, includes unremitting anxiety, jumpiness, depression, a razor-sharp startle response, and an inability to function in certain areas, including those sexual. The person may see danger in many things that previously posed no threat. Or, an event in ordinary life may set off a "flashback" or strong feeling of reliving the event. For a child exposed to sexual or physical abuse at an early age, or chronic verbal, sexual, or physical abuse by his or her parents, the effects, perhaps, are the most devastating. That child has no model of an adult person or society who presents security and has no knowledge of how to handle life's crises or intimate relationships. For that child, all people present possible danger at all times, because he or she has never seen a stable example of an adult, and certainly has no person on which to model him- or herself.

She talks of re-victimization by caregivers. The danger can arise if a therapist engages in destructive interactions in which the medical or mental health system replicates the behavior of the abusive family.

To compensate for deficiencies in naming the disease and treating it, she proposes calling it: "complex post-traumatic stress disorder," because responses to trauma are best understood as a spectrum of conditions rather than as a single disorder.

Although the book is a must-read, anyone experienced with the results of chronic or specific abuse or trauma, or a personality that features dysfunction, depression, or anxiety, may not fully believe that Dr. Herman's recommendation of extensive talking-out of the problem with a single therapist, or within an appropriate group, will be enough. She fails to discuss possible use of hypnosis or medication. She does, however, fully describe the ups and downs of single-therapist counseling or group counseling.

Dr. Herman says the first principle of recovery is empowerment of survivors. They must be the authors and arbiters of their own recovery.