Trauma psychology : issues in violence, disaster, health, and illness /

With this two-volume set, Carll (a psychologist in private practice) attempts to consolidate the many topics related to trauma. Unfortunately, many chapters fail to reference empirical evidence, which is certainly available though admittedly sparse. For example, chapter 8 (volume 1) discusses the psychological effects of war on children but reads like a magazine article; the author does not ground the discussion on research from scholars who have published in this area for years (e.g., Atle Dyregrov, Rolf Gjestad, Magne Raundalen). True, the clear introduction to the first volume discusses some research, but the contributors state that so-called psychological first aid is the best intervention to use after traumatic events and that such an approach is supported by research. In fact, research does not support this approach: psychological first aid is presently regarded as psychology's best hope for intervention and is currently used, but no randomized control-design studies have been done to support it. Volume 2 is a mix of strong and weak chapters. One of the best concerns homeless youth: written from a casework perspective, it includes information about approaching this population and about social policy. Though these volumes seem to be introductory, the lack of empirical evidence makes them a questionable resource for inexperienced readers. Summing Up: Optional. Comprehensive collections. S. K. Hall University of Houston--Clear Lake