Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

161 reviews

schopflin's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

This is highly readable despite the complexity of some of the concepts. I have no background in neuroscience but I was able to follow these parts and understand them. From another aspect, this book is potentially life-changing. I wouldn't say my experiences were traumatic on the scale of the patients described here, but I recognised so many of the physical responses to stressful situations. Not least, the pure lack of safety I feel in relation to others. This isn't an easy read, but we'll worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Self harm, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault

annerbtw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

 3.78/5 ⭐️ - because I want to be difficult with my rating.

I liked it, I found it insightful, but I think I went in with the wrong expectations. I assumed that by the end of the book, you'd have resources that could be "easily" applied to your own mental health journey. Kolk definitely teaches you about them, but they're not easily applied to anything specific you might have going on. It's a very educational read... but don't read it side-by-side with A Little Life, my GOD... do not.

Also, (sorry for long review, anyone reading) there are some negative reviews about Kolk sympathizing with horrible people - I don't necessarily think that's true. The same way that people find documentaries about serial killers interesting, I think the same applies here. I would never excuse the actions some mentally disturbed people do at the beginning of this book, but I think it's important for us to find the source (if there is one), and figure out how to keep it from happening again. There can be a lot of fascination in this topic because of just how complex humans are, how complex the brain is.... that's what the whole book is about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Incest, Grief, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Blood, Toxic relationship, Torture, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Addiction, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Child death, Cannibalism, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Death

nonbinarian_librarian's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Incest, and Rape

yaelm's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense

3.0

מבינה מה הכותב אומר ובסה״כ מדובר בספר עשיר במידע וקולח, אבל השפה בה הוא משתמש מאוד בעייתית (אנשים נורמליים לעומת אנשים עם פוסט טראומה, למשל) ולפעמים כואבת.

יש לו גם כל מיני הבחנות מכאיבות מאוד לגבי הורות עם פוסט טראומה. אני לא הורה בעצמי אבל זה כאב לי בכל הגוף. היו עוד כל מיני כאלו לאורך הספר.

מעבר לזה, מבוסס (בחלקו) על מדע שכבר אינו עדכני ולדעתי גם בתקופת הכתיבה של הספר לא היה מדויק (הצד הימני של המוח הוא היצירתי והשמאלי הוא השכלתני וכו׳).

מלאאא בטריגרים כמובן, כל דבר שיכול לגרום לפוסט טראומה. כמה מהמקרים שהוא מציג כטראומטיים מאוד מקוממים (אדם שביצע פשעים נוראיים כלפי נשים וילדים וחזר מהמלחמה עם טראומה, למשל. אין לי ספק שהוא באמת חזר בטראומה, אבל זה עבר בלי ביקורת בכלל. ברור לי שכפסיכיאטר התפקיד שלו הוא לא להפעיל שיפוט מוסרי, ועדיין אפשר היה לכתוב איזו מילה וחצי כמו שהוא עשה במקרים אחרים ופחות שחורים מוסרית)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Antisemitism, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Addiction, Grief, and Drug use

dreamingpages's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Extremely informative and insightful. I like that the book includes information on the shortcomings of psychiatric drugs and government policies. My only small complaint is that I was taken aback by some the really extreme examples of trauma. I think I would have liked a warning for some of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Incest, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

scripturient's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Rape, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Mental illness

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Self harm, Suicide, and Addiction

rasy's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Medical trauma, and Rape

bethboo's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

This book has so much information. It's a lot longer and in depth than a quick personal growth read. This is a book I definitely wouldn't have gotten so much out of had I not been reading it in tandem with the information given to me by my therapist. It is so much more than a simple book on trauma and therapy techniques. It's the history of diagnoses, therapies, techniques, studies, training, patients, doctors, and experiences surrounding trauma. The author must be fucking immortal because he had first hand experience from ages ago and gave stories and examples and information for every single one he spoke of. I got a lot personally from the EMDR section and the structured Family Therapy or whatever and the beginning sections describing the brain and trauma and how it's all connected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Suicide, Sexual violence, Self harm, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

beklovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

An excellent textbook on trauma and the science-backed approaches to healing from it. Also an interesting journey through the author’s professional experiences that led to his outstanding knowledge on the subject. 

Read the trigger warnings and take them seriously. He often gives details about horrific abuse and sensitive information about patients, later illustrating their growth, but I would imagine it would be too much for many people with backgrounds touched by abuse, neglect, suicide etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Incest, Rape, War, Drug abuse, Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Blood, Mass/school shootings, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Confinement, Dysphoria, Torture, War, Biphobia, and Eating disorder

indiana_sorell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Dysphoria, and Eating disorder