What do the Boer Wars (1899-1902), the Battle of Tannenberg (1914) and the naval Battle of Midway (1942) have in common with a young, Boston-based psychothera0pist and her fifteen-and-a-half-year-old patient suffering from acute psychological trauma bordering on blatantly suicidal intentions? Apparently, everything, if you’re Alexa Muybridge, Hanna Johansen’s brilliant psychiatrist with a knack for adapting signals-intelligence to deciphering the outward and visible signs of an inner and debilitating trauma to the psyche of a teenaged girl: Hanna Johansen.
Signals-intelligence is the act of intelligence-gathering by interception, and most importantly, the interpretation of signals in the communications between people. Whereas classified, secretive and sensitive information is usually encrypted, signals intelligence involves cryptanalysis to decipher the meaning in the messages. (It was used in the aforementioned battles and wars to win decisive victories as well as eventually “cracking the Enigma Code” to win WWII.)
In this remarkably psychologically intrusive novel, signals intelligence is a unique strategy employed by Alexa and Hanna’s step-grandfather, Andy Collins, in their collaborative “surveillance mode” of trying to crack “Hanna’s Code”, a metaphor introduced by Andy roughly halfway through the novel in his pursuit to “see beyond” what he describes as Hanna’s “linguistic camouflage” ….
Andy sensed he was getting closer to cracking a bit of “Hanna’s Code.” Yes, it began to make sense: her ability to reveal and conceal, to answer and question, to lead and mislead in the midst of any conversation when she’d just switch sides, as multiple personalities can so readily do.
Applied to psychotherapy in this emotionally incisive novel, signals intelligence is employed to decode the signs, symbols, metaphors, projections, and obscure associations made by Hanna hidden in the lyrics of her songs (e.g. Sara’s Song, Red Rover, XYZ-Essentially Me), in her covert reactions to certain paranormal events (e.g. her conjuring the ghosts of Sara and Lakota in the teepee), in her olfactory “recall” of “rancid bacon” as a primary “trigger” associated with “the betrayal,” or in the yin-yang of her mood-wings when encountering highly stressful emotional interactions.
Taken together as “clues” to uncovering the nexus of her traumatic disorder, Alexa and Andy and even Hanna herself—after she learns to trust them—piece together the remains of “The Old Hanna” so that she can begin rebuilding “The New.” In that critical, breathtaking moment of transition, Hanna has to “let go” of her innocent, traumatized Self during a symbolic “asphyxiation by drowning” and a ritual “burial at sea.”
This novel in a remarkable achievement in helping to understand not only the psychological “mechanics” of adolescent stress disorders and the devastating impact events of this nature have on the development of teens and tweens, but more so the creative, non-invasive approaches (such as signals-intelligence) to help recognize, repair and assist in restoring Hanna’s innate sense of Self and shoring up her future chances of survival as “One Hanna.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CHARLES COLEMAN, PhD, began his long and distinguished career in mental healthcare even before working with Vietnam Vets committed to, and confined in, one of the Army’s only dedicated military psychiatric hospitals in the early ‘70s, as so graphically memorialized in his critically-acclaimed American cult-classic, Sergeant Back Again, (HarperCollins, 1980), “The Vietnam War Novel that Made PTSD Real!” re-released by PTSD Press in Sergeant Back Again: The Anthology of Critical and Clinical Commentary in 2010. He’s a recognized author and lecturer on the causal relationships between physiological diseases and mental disorders with a focus on the origins and treatment strategies for both military and civilian populations afflicted with traumatic stress disorders.
HANNA JOHANSEN, fifteen-and-half at the time this story takes place, is a first-time author who is quick to point out in her “Afterwords” to The Gentling of Hanna Johansen: A Betrayal of Trust, that her “participation” in co-authoring this novel was the last thing she ever wanted, especially when the story suddenly becomes so personal, candid and shocking that not even she can write about all of it. Hanna is “as honest as I know how to be” in the ways in which she reveals her multiple personalities, whether in the lyrics of her songs, her immersion in risky and self-destructive behaviors, her warmth and love and humor, or her devotion to her friends, all of which are acknowledged with thoughtful understanding by each of the memorable characters in her book.
PTSD PRESS
Contact: www.ptsdpress.com
Publisher: PTSD PRESS www.ptsdpress.com
Genre: Historical Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Family Drama, Coming-of-Age
Press Release Date: July 30, 2026
Date of Publication: April 17, 2026
ISBN: 978-9-697592-11-1 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-971659-23-7 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-971659-24-4 (Hardcover)
PAGES: 361
CONTACT: author@ptsdpress.com
Also Available in Spanish: El Amansamiento de Hanna Johansen: Una traición a la confianza. On AMAZON BOOKS.
