The unspeakable mind: stories of trauma and healing from the frontlines of PTSD science

Part 1. Discovering traumatic stress. The road trip with my father ; A pressing public health concern ; A brief history of trauma ; Old wine in a new bottle? From shell shock to battered women to PTSD ; Rocky roads: overdiagnosis and underrecognition

Part 2. The Brain. A disorder of memory ; Nightmares ; Flashbacks ; An unlived life: the hidden cost of avoidance ; Denial land: when trauma memories are deeply buried ; Carrying sorrows in the blood: cortisol, epigenetics, and generational trauma ; A wildness in the bones: acute awareness and shady moods ; Dissociation: the two-thousand-yard stare

Part 3. The Body. Bodily wounds ; A soldier's heart: PTSD and cardiac disease ; Russian roulette: the perilous bond between traumatic stress and addiction ; Broken smiles: the toxicity of childhood adversity ; Senescence: traumatic stress in late life

Part 4. Quality of life. Complex trauma ; Intimate violence: a secret pandemic ; A danger to others: hurt people hurt other people ; Angry loving: the stubborn imprint of inner-city poverty ; The fairer sex? Rape, secondary injuries, and postpartum PTSD ; Shame: the Cinderella emotion ; The science of suicide prevention

Part 5. Treating traumatic stress. Talking cures and beyond ; Psych meds ; Medication management ; The allure of magic bullets

Part 6. Our world on trauma. Trauma of the masses: a wicked problem ; The 1947 partition ; War, disaster, and terror: hard-earned knowledge and lessons for the future ; An Americanization of human suffering?

Part 7. New era: an ounce of prevention. Prevention with precision ; The golden hours ; Reaching the hard to reach: making PTSD treatment more accessible ; The power of social networks ; The science of resilience ; Afterword: a precious inheritance.