Philip Zimbardo - The Time Cure

More Praise for The Time Cure

The Time Cure offers a major innovative contribution to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Professor Zimbardo combines his unparalleled psychological knowledge and insight with the Swords' vast clinical experience to provide an important new way forward to a more positive and fulfilling life for those who have suffered the ravages of war, sexual assault, and other horrific experiences. The authors present compelling empirical evidence as well as evocative and engaging case studies demonstrating the miraculous power of shifting time perspective from a negative past into a positive future to create comfort and relief. Even when everything else has failed, this treatment modeling can supply hope and healing for those who deserve it most. This book should be read by all those who have suffered from these conditions and all those seeking to treat them in an ethical, effective, responsible and compassionate manner.

Rose McDermott, professor of Political Science, Brown University

The Time Cure is a magnificent offering to the PTSD literature. It is destined to become a classic and no serious researcher or clinical professional in the field of psychological post-trauma should be without a copy on their bookshelves. With the burgeoning number of war veterans with PTSD as well as traumatized individuals from other walks of life, this timely book can be generalized to a wide variety of settings and situations. The essential truth behind its effectiveness and impactthat is, how we suffer depends on the extent to which we perceive, handle, and embrace the past, present, and futureguarantees a high receptivity and impact among PTSD sufferers. Dr. Philip Zimbardo is one of psychology's finest and needs no introduction; Dr. Sword and Rosemary Sword are outstanding clinicians and founders of a PTSD temporal therapy movement in Hawaii that has the solid support of the veteran population, international organizations, and the mental health community at large.

Harold Hall, Ph.D., ABPP, APN, editor, Terrorism: Strategies for Intervention; director, Pacific Institute for the Study of Conflict and Aggression

The Time Cure is filled with touching stories, exciting transformations and helpful information. The Swords and Dr. Zimbardo have done a stupendous job helping people in distress. I will definitely recommend The Time Cure to my colleagues and patients.

Mel Borins, M.D. and author, St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto, Canada; Fellow, College of Family Physicians of Canada; associate professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

The Time Cure offers an alternative to the most widely prescribed therapies for PTSD that, due to their revisiting of painful past experiences, often drive clients away before long-lasting healing can begin. Unable to return to therapy and tormented by their symptoms, veterans and other sufferers live in a trauma-centered personal hell that impacts every aspect of their lives and the lives of those around them. Time Perspective Therapy utilizes cognitive tools that empower users to refocus thoughts into more productive pathways that lead out of the negative past into a more hopeful, goal-directed future. Those using TPT are enthusiastic and excited about continuing their treatment due to the positive outcomes they experience. This promising new methodology could revolutionize the manner in which PTSD is treated.

Don Kopf, Ph.D., psychologist, Positive Potential Counseling & Consulting, Honolulu, Hawaii

Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zimbardo, Philip G.

The time cure: overcoming PTSD with the new psychology of time perspective therapy / Philip G. Zimbardo, Richard M. Sword, Rosemary K.M. Sword. 1st ed.

p.; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-20567-9 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-28529-9 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-28229-8 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-28292-2 (ebk.)

I. Sword, Richard M., 1947- II. Sword, Rosemary K. M., 1955- III. Title.

1. Post-traumatic stress disorderTreatment. 2. Time perspectivePsychological aspects.

RC552.P67

616.8521dc23

2012030112

Dedicated to my son, Adam, in part for making me a grandfather through his newly minted childrenPhilip (aka Panda) and Victoria (aka Hopper)who will carry on the Zimbardo legacy into the hopefully bright future

Phil Zimbardo

For our families, our clients, and you, the reader

Rick and Rose Sword

introduction

Some years ago a young man I'll call James came to see me in my Stanford University office for help with his shyness. In the course of our conversation about the origins of his awkwardness around people, he told me that almost everyone he met reminded him of someone who had hurt him or rejected him in the past, so he could not risk being open to them. And then he related a very interesting image: his life, he said, was organized around the eighty slides that he had arrayed in what he called his Kodak Carousel mental slide projector. Once the slide show started, the images were projected into his current consciousness in a predictable and reliable sequence. So his present sense was the slide on his mind's screen, his past sense was the slide he just viewed, and his future sense was determined by the slide or slides coming up next. My first thought was that this seemed like a reasonable metaphor for memory.