Trauma and Human Existence effectively interweaves two themes central to emotional trauma - the first pertains to the contextuality of emotional life in general, and of the experience of emotional trauma in particular, and the second pertains to the recognition that the possibility of emotional trauma is built into the basic constitution of human existence. This volume traces how both themes interconnect, largely as they crystallize in the author’s personal experience of traumatic loss. As discussed in the book's final chapter, whether or not this constitutive possibility will be brought lastingly into the foreground of our experiential world depends on the relational contexts in which we live. Taken as a whole, Trauma and Human Existence exhibits the unity of the deeply personal, the theoretical, and the philosophical in the understanding of emotional trauma and the place it occupies in human existence. "As I left for a deployment to Iraq in the summer of 2008, I was wrestling with how to reach soldiers with traumatized experiences.... [While there] I stumbled upon the writings of Robert Stolorow . I obtained a copy of his recent book, Trauma and Human Existence (2007). It fundamentally changed how I work with traumatized military personnel [and it] profoundly altered my understanding of the impact trauma on an individual’s subjective experience of the world and helped me be empathic with traumatized soldiers in ways that enabled us to connect.... In my remaining months in Iraq, I read ... Trauma and Human Existence repeatedly, carrying it with me as I traveled between forward operating bases and outposts." -- Russell B. Carr, Psychoanalytic Psychology (2011) "In this book Robert Stolorow draws on philosophical reflections, primarily those of Heidegger, to further elucidate the phenomenology of emotional trauma, lending it depth and richness, and contextualizing it in the ontology of the human condition…. This is a book whose author remains steadfastly and unflinchingly present, both to the immediacy of his own pain and to the comfort he finds when such pain is understood…. [The] book is an admirable example of creative psychoanalytic writing, encompassing in a few pages almost everything one needs to understand about the principles of intersubjective psychoanalytic practice." ―Dori Laub, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 58(5), 2010 "This book is a remarkable integration of deep self-reflections on intimate, often painful, and sometimes tragic experience, his philosophical investigation of selfhood in living context, and psychoanalytic theorizing on time, affect, and trauma. This is an important addition to the now long line of works that constitute the corpus of Stolorow and colleagues’ intersubjectivity theory." - Lewis Aron, Director, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, USA "In his new book, Robert Stolorow has accomplished a minor miracle, presenting for the reader a theoretically complex, philosophically strong, and yet almost unbearably sad and humane understanding of traumatic experience. Anyone reading this book must take away from it not only a heightened appreciation for the uses of philosophical-psychoanalytic investigation and integration, but as important, a greater understanding of one’s own private life in which traumatic loss surely plays its central organizing role." - Estelle Shane, President, International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology "Robert Stolorow has done a masterful job of integrating two central themes: one involving the context-dependence of the experience of emotional trauma and the other relating to the idea that emotional trauma is built into the basic foundation of our existence. It represents psychoanalysis at its finest – its themes are beautifully conceptualized, richly exemplified, and profoundly relevant." - Judith Alpert, President, Division of Trauma Psychology, American Psychological Association, USA "This is a fascinating, phenomenologically rich reflection on emotional trauma that shows the surprisingly powerful relevance of Heidegger for contemporary psychoanalysis." - Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research, USA "Robert D. Stolorow's new book...is a poetic and deeply poignant study of psychological trauma. The work elegantly manages to convey a profound mastery of the nuances of trauma in a manner in which no prior work has achieved. It will be read many times over by those who first encounter it, with new wisdom to be discovered with each reading. It is succinct, yet incisive and stirring. It leaves a lasting impression." - Marilyn Jacobs, Trauma Psychology Newsletter " Trauma and Human Existence is literally a slight book but with weighty themes. Stolorow has written a book based on years of theorizing and clinical practice. The simple structure of this book allows for repeated powerful statements that are based on decades of serious and creative thi