Stopford provides a sometimes stark, oftentimes heart-breaking, and consistently informative 'eyes wide open' look at the consequences of community violence and racial segregation in the US. It is likely tempting for some to consider segregation in this country a thing of the past. But, as this author so clearly shows, segregation still comes in all shapes and sizes and involves much more than physical barriers or written policies. This book is not—nor should it be—an easy read. But Stopford employs a toolkit of psychological and sociological observations with adeptness and clarity to reveal the clinical and sociological impacts of marginalization, trauma, violence, and economic disparity. The narratives shared by Stopford's respondents are rich and moving, revealing lived experiences in Baltimore, Maryland; Oakland, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Elainen, Arkansas. These are presented as real narratives—not "general" but instead, and more importantly, unvarnished and pure. Stopford's use of this technique offers readers a clear foray into past injustice and a realistic assessment of current injustice, allowing her to show not only what needs to be done to end such systemic trauma in the present but also how we might begin to repair the damage already done. A must read for students, instructors, and all others, across the board! Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews

Trauma and Repair: Confronting Segregation and Violence in America is not an easy read—nor should it be. A consummate interviewer, antiracist activist, interdisciplinary scholar, and psychoanalytic clinician, Annie Stopford “gets proximate” with the people whose stories are told in these extraordinary chapters. Boldly confronting the collective disavowals and denials of those of us who live more privileged lives, Stopford’s chapters make painfully clear that the conditions that pass for normal in our segregated and deeply racist society are worse than abnormal: they are immoral and pathological. Still, we are awed by the people we meet here, who have all somehow managed creatively to sustain their humanity and love of community while living and working in traumatizing conditions of historical, structural, and community violence. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares to know what it takes to repair our broken social world.

Lynne Layton, Harvard Medical School; author of Toward a Social Psychoanalysis: Character, Culture and Normative Unconscious Processes

Annie Stopford's work, Trauma and Repair, is profoundly moving, informative, and honest. She refuses to appease America's appetite for euphemistic portrayals of those trapped through the generational legacy of historical trauma by giving voice to those who live on the other side of the “privileged wall” of society. Instead of more intellectual discourse explaining “their” situation, Stopford uses her clinical sensibilities to engage those trapped on the lesser side of that “wall” to express their own life narrative in the hope of building blocks to address the issue of racial injustice.

Kirkland C. Vaughans, Adelphi University; author of Psychology of Black Boys and Adolescents

Annie Stopford is notable for the clear voice she brings to speaking about subjects many others have turned away from knowing. In this latest work, Dr. Stopford once again leans into the meanings within the stories her interlocutors relate—in her hands, these lived histories of marginalization and trauma become painfully vivid. Her telling joins skillful listening with multiple disciplines as historian, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and analyst of class, race and economics. We are offered a rare opportunity to learn the lessons from past injustices that continue to play out in contemporary life. Were we to learn them we might potentiate the opportunity for healing from centuries of racial injury and economic betrayal.

Nina K. Thomas, New York University