Is PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) a useful concept  for thinking about how people deal with a society saturated in violence?   What is gained by using it to treat soldiers suffering from the results of battle mayhem?  Can it be extended  to understand women in abusive relationships, or children growing up in a police state?  Two mental health professionals discuss the history of the concept, its usefulness and its limits -- the Old Mole's  Jan Haaken and  Rebecca Hyman, a student of  trauma  theory.