Scan barcode
ohcorrica's review
4.0
If you are interested in taking a deeper dive into trauma, this book will help you with that. Bonanno shares personal experiences with 9/11 in New York combined with scientific studies to discuss trauma in great detail. If you have enjoyed other trauma books, such as "the body keeps the score" and want to read and understand more, this is a good book to continue that work.
*Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of the book.
*Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of the book.
theybedax's review
4.0
Some interesting postulations about resilience and trauma. I found it pretty hardcore when the author kept calling out doctors who kept ignoring research. Definitely interesting examination of the history of the study of trauma and just the history of trauma itself. Not to mention the fact that trauma wasn't in our vernacular nor eluded to until the (insert time because I'm forgetful). Even if the language was different the fact that there is no history of symptoms fascinates me. is the evolution of our mindset losing resiliency or are we instead harping on the loss rather than the true resiliency of humans.
bookanonjeff's review
5.0
Remarkable Examination of Trauma And Its Permanence. This is a truly eye opening book about the remarkable resilience of many, perhaps most, people - and how the science of trauma often gets the permanence of trauma wrong. Bonanno has spent his career researching these topics, and this is a solid look at his best findings to date. Told using some long-term case studies as a bit of a narrative structure (and certainly a recurrent theme), this book does a great job of showing how intensely personal trauma and resilience are, yet also using facts and studies to back up the case studies and show larger findings and trends. The bibliography here comes in at about 23% of the total text, which is within normal range - and would likely have been a bit more, without the focus on the case studies. Of note, the case studies are from an accidental spine injury - from a traffic accident - and from survivors of the 9/11 attacks, which helps to show the wide range of trauma. Though also of note, sexual traumas are not examined directly. While Bonanno makes the case for general applicability to all traumas for his findings of resilience and the factors that lead to it, one wonders whether more directly studying various types of traumas using Bonanno's framework would truly show true general applicability? Still, that question would be an intriguing premise for a follow up book - but this book itself does in fact make a strong case for its premise and adds quite a bit to the overall discussion of trauma, PTSD, and resilience. Very much recommended.
readnicoleread's review
informative
medium-paced
2.5
Although I’m very interested in thinking about trauma and PTSD differently and thought highly of Bonanno’s work on context sensitivity when I read it in grad school, this book fell a little flat for me. The clinical/practical application feels very underdeveloped, which is probably an accurate state of the science but feels a bit disappointing.
pdxpiney's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
The detailed accounts of real-life trauma were more graphic and longer than necessary - I skimmed or skipped much of them. Neither did the long descriptions of psychological studies hold my interest. I generally don’t shy away from either graphic or scientific writing, so I suppose I was eager to get to the takeaways.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma
More...