Reviews tagging 'Torture'

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

46 reviews

edenfaulkner's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I think trauma is an important topic for everyone to understand, at least to some extent, especially since our current systems often fail to acknowledge or address its long term effects. Odds are we’ve all either experienced trauma or know someone who has. I found this book helpful because Dr. van der Kolk describes trauma and its effects on the body in a way that’s easy to understand and provides in-depth examples of various treatments methods (other than medication) that have proven effective for many patients. My big takeaway from this book is that the road to recovery and healing isn’t always a straight path. Some things work for some people that don’t work for others. It’s important to find what treatment works for you. I also learned a lot about how trauma can affect behavior, how medication is often overprescribed, and much more. Very fascinating and informative read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Sexual violence, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Rape

randeerebecca's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, War, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Rape, Violence, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

mswarning's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

I cried so many times, so many interesting chapters. The audiobook made the patients' stories so very powerful. I will be buying this book in print for sure.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, War, Sexual assault, Drug use, Torture, Murder, Incest, Grief, and Addiction

itsmelaurenc's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Death of parent, Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Bullying, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

taylordeanne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

It was interesting and gave insight to the effects of everyday events and traumatic events on the body. There were multiple points in the book that the term trauma was used too broadly. Allowing trauma to be anything that an individual person may deem traumatic felt ambiguous and meaningless. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide, Rape, War, and Domestic abuse

stephaniemeyers's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

If you’re looking to learn a lot of trauma and therapy, this is a great book. It can be pretty upsetting though, given that most chapters feature 1-2 case stories about horrifyingly traumatic events. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Medical trauma, Murder, Car accident, Death of parent, Incest, Abandonment, Torture, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, and Self harm

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, War, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Violence, Rape, Classism, Alcohol, Addiction, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Medical trauma, Self harm, Infidelity, Bullying, Body shaming, Blood, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Animal death, Gore, Car accident, Cancer, Sexual harassment, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Confinement, Child abuse, Grief, Death, Chronic illness, Child death, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Trafficking, Police brutality, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

akvolcano's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Loved reading this book! Trauma is always spoken in the context of war veterans, but the intricacies are never fully connected. This book well develops the connection. It actually goes further by not separating citizen trauma from war trauma, but speaks of them on the same level. When I began this reading I was skeptical if there would be any new concepts or material. I am happy to say that there was in fact exploration in areas that have not been fed into mainstream media! As a survivor myself, I enjoy that throughout the book there is consistently stories of people being shared. I would like to read a book like this one that takes its central concepts and goes a bit further. Overall, excellent well researched and articulated book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gore, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, War, and Violence

jussery's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

This book was really useful to me in how it summarized a lot of research findings in an interesting and succinct way (not to say this book wasn't long, it definitely was). Halfway into this book I found out that the author is not really a great guy, which definetely soured anything I read from his perspective. I found some of his descriptions of women kinda gross. I thought he went too far describing some patient's trauma. This book has so many triggers and I read it as someone without PTSD (I have a depersonalization disorder though, and was hoping to uncover more about that through this book) - so a big warning to anyone considering reading it! Overall though, I still gave this book 4 stars just because I think it really captured a lot of research studies on trauma in a digestible way (could do without the authors excessive descriptions though). And it really helped me contextualize some of my symptoms and how they are biologically based, which helped me put less blame on myself for them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, War, Chronic illness, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Sexism, Alcoholism, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Rape, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Medical trauma

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