Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

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

3 reviews

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Car accident, Incest, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Alcohol, Child death, Rape, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Pedophilia, Medical content, Alcoholism, Drug use, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, War, Death of parent, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Mental illness, Grief, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Death, and Chronic illness

Minor: Vomit, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Suicide

kathryn_reads_paiges's review

DNF. Yes, there are major content warnings for this book. And no, I don’t think subjects like rape, sexual abuse, and child abuse were handled with compassion. Far from it.

The story that quickly demonstrated this is when van der Kolk tells of a Vietnam veteran who was the sole survivor in his platoon from an ambush. His response? He raped a Vietnamese woman and killed children. Did his wife and children learn about this later? The author notes how this veteran had to temporarily live in a hotel so he “wouldn’t harm his family”…again sympathizing more with this man. Yes, what happened to the soldier’s friends is a tragedy, but the author is quick to excuse his actions. He even tells about how this man became a lawyer who successfully defended an accused murderer (hmm).

There were also some pretty upsetting stories of child death and car accidents early on. And I definitely didn’t need to hear about them while I was driving. The author spent a lot more real estate sympathizing with the Vietnam veteran than he did on, say, the mother from the one car accident. He mentions the Nazis in the first or second chapter but doesn’t condemn them, which I found suspicious, especially for a European author. 

Moreover, van der Kolk was fired from his own trauma center for creating a hostile work environment for women. 

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/renowned-trauma-center-fires-its-medical-director/

I understood what (I think) is the main takeaway before I even picked up this book: Our bodies remember trauma even as our minds try to repress it. If you’ve ever read an incredible novel about this or been to a decent therapist, you probably do, too. 

This book could be very triggering to anyone with PTSD and/or who has survived sexual assault or child abuse. Please read other critical reviews — I’m definitely not alone for DNFing for these reasons.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child death, and Rape

Moderate: Violence, War, Medical trauma, and Xenophobia

tetedump's review

hopeful informative sad slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Antisemitism, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, War, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, and Xenophobia