This book describes the diverse manifestations of trauma and the ways in which trauma has
shaped¿and dismantled¿our culture. Yochai Ataria describes how we are addicted to trauma and
have become both its avid producers and consumers. Consequently the culture in which we live
has become posttraumatic in the deepest sense. This is apparent in the products that have
shaped and continue to shape Western culture ranging from the biblical sacrifice of Isaac to
Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Ataria exposes the primary attributes of this so-called
posttraumatic culture: sacrifice through action an uncontrolled lust for blood an inability
to speak and describe things in words a sense of foulness and alienation emotional death
imperviousness separation and an overwhelming sense of exile.
