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Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
238 reviews
nicmargan's review against another edition
3.5
At the start of the book, we meet a soldier who won’t take his pills because he feels he must remain a living memorial to the friends he lost, so their deaths won’t have been in vain. This introduces the idea that some part of traumatised people remains stuck in the past.
This idea is borne out in studies presented later, in which it is shown that the bodies of some people after a traumatic event will continue to secrete stress hormones long after any threat has passed. This emotional information can make rationalising difficult, so that a small problem can be blown out of proportion because of the inability to self-regulate.
One of the main features of what makes an event potentially traumatic is if the event endangers the person’s sense of safety around other people. This could be from experiencing the horror of what people are capable of in war, or the horror of being sent to war by a government you trusted, or abuse or neglect by a carer or loved one. One study showed that the security of children’s attachments to their mothers consistently predicted the amount of morphine children in a burns unit needed to control their pain.
Trauma can also affect memory. The details of events become repressed or are experienced unlike other memories (in a sequence or narrative), but in sharply exposed, jumbled and incomplete sensations. Historically, trauma has been deemed made-up or the fault of the victim. When soldiers after World War II were treated for PTSD, doctors ‘almost invariably found the root cause in pre-war experience: the sick men were not first-grade fighting material… The military proposition is [that it is] not war which make men sick, but that sick men can not fight wars.’
Most of the second half of the book looks at treatment options and I appreciated that so much space was given to solutions.
Though I struggled at times with the long, technical and heavy nature of this book, it achieved the admirable task of identifying a set of social problems that are so pervasive they are often regarded as normal, and giving a roadmap as to how they don’t have to be.
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
dreamingpages's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical trauma, and Abandonment
danilippert's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Mental illness, and Self harm
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Abandonment
bethboo's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
lafreier's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
beklovesbooks's review against another edition
5.0
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.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, and War
Moderate: Biphobia, Confinement, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and War
indiana_sorell's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria
evalunny's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
random_tuga's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Abandonment
susannadkm's review against another edition
3.5
I listened to the audiobook.
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical trauma, Car accident, and War
Moderate: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder