Matthies-Boon’s compelling retheorization of trauma offers a deeper understanding of the existential realities of an Egyptian society saturated in repressive violence following the revolution of 2011. By attending to different modes of subordination that have profoundly devastated the vital human capability to imagine alternate ways of becoming in the world, she movingly bears witness to the unjust suffering of Egyptian activists and incisively demonstrates their prospects for recreating politically meaningful lives.

Patrick Hayden, University of St. Andrews

Dr. Matthies-Boon has given us a path-breaking book on Egyptian activists and how they experience physical, emotional, and mental traumatic swings of political revolutionary atmospheres and counter-revolutionary repression. Political activists are usually portrayed as the heroes of political organizing and dissent. Rarely does the literature reflect on what happens to activists and citizens when a new group of elites coalesce and try to create a new political (dis)order through violent repression. The toll such crackdowns have on activists’ lives leave emotional wreckage, and a range of disorders like alienation, depression, and despair. Matthies-Boon shines a bright spotlight on these dark and depressing matters that are usually rendered invisible in academic works on activism. The research forces the reader to come to grips with the trauma vicious governments – trying to survive – inflict on society in an attempt to maintain or extend their rule. All this is done with careful, empathetic writing and rigorous and unrelenting evidence. This book advances what our field knows. It is a must-read for students of Egypt and the politics of dissent.

Joshua Stacher, Kent State University

This book is a rare and precious combination of things: impassionate, powerful and moving, and at the same time theoretically path-breaking. It is critical theory according to its original promise by developing and utilizing philosophical and social scientific tools for understanding contemporary forms and causes of injustice and suffering. A must read for anyone interested in a thorough comprehension of trauma in general and counter-revolutionary trauma in particular.

Heikki Ikäheimo, The University of New South Wales, Sydney

Pain and suffering always involve an assault on meaning, and regaining meaning is always at stake when it comes to recovery. This is a missing dimension in our current, PTSD-centred, discourse on trauma. In this powerful, moving and scholarly exploration of pain, suffering and politics in Egypt, Matthies-Boon puts meaning at centre-stage. She demonstrates how we completely fail to understand trauma if we ignore its impact on our being-in-the-world.

Patrick Bracken, Independent Consultant Psychiatrist