Traumatized

Catherine Liu is one the most courageous, brilliant, and radical thinkers in America today. In elegant, scorching, and completely unapologetic prose, Liu demonstrates how therapeutic models of selfhood have been weaponized as tools of class domination, leaving the left in a state of political crisis. -- Jennifer Silva, author of Coming Up Short
Historically rooted, intellectually provocative, highly recommended. -- Janice Peck, author of The Age of Oprah
At a time when pain and anguish are regarded as 'lived truth,' if not the foundational texts of our very selves, Liu has the insight and critical analysis to back up, take a look around, and investigate trauma in a way that really asks the question: Who hurt you? -- Amber A’Lee Frost, author of Dirtbag
Resuscitating the legacy of critical theory, Liu demonstrates how the turn to 'trauma' results in our paralysis in the face of forces that undermine democracy and destroy our humanity. -- Mark Andrejevic, author of Automated Media
Liu makes a compelling case that turning the traumatically personal political is keeping us from addressing the systemic issues that make life in America so hard and-dare I say it-traumatic. -- Helaine Olen, author of Pound Foolish
Liu, profoundly and powerfully, takes on the worldwide epidemic of trauma scripts. Her insights, honesty, passion, and courage shine throughout this important book. -- Elizabeth Loftus, Former President of the Association for Psychological Science
Traumatized should be essential reading for social workers, psychotherapists, and anyone concerned with how suffering, politics, and solidarity are constructed contemporarily. -- Darragh Sheehan, Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist
In her follow-up to 2021's Virtue Hoarders, Catherine Liu charts the rise of trauma as a 'tool of social control,' which she argues is surveillance capitalism's greatest coup. I'm always seated for a sharp breakdown of any of the many ways powerful people turn the masses against each other (and what we masses can do about it). -- Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * Lit Hub *
The book I've been yearning for someone to write for more than a decade ... you need a cultural theorist of Liu's standing to go this deep into victim culture ... will have you gasping with recognition -- Celia Walden * Daily Telegraph *
Traumatized, its title dripping with sarcasm, sets out to portray those whose suffering has been made public ... without a hint of sentimentality. -- Jenny Wu * ArtReview *
In this stimulating critique, media studies scholar Liu (Virtue Hoarders) scrutinizes how "trauma culture" promotes individualism and hamstrings political discourse... a thought-provoking call to reconsider how trauma is publicly discussed. * Publishers Weekly *
A breath of fresh air ... the clearest and most compact look yet into the culture war's obscurantist machinery. -- Sam Jennings * UnHerd *
A refreshing and sensitive critique of individualist narratives of trauma. It provides a useful counterpoint to identity-politics-driven ideas around 'lived experience'. * Counterfire *