Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

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

110 reviews

amyalwaysbooked's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

2.0

This one was difficult to review. I found the start of the book to be quite strong. There was some information about the brain and how it functions and how it responds to trauma that I found genuinely interesting. However, the book is repetitive. Van der Kolk would repeat anecdotal stories in different points in the book as if he had not already brought it up before. I found that jarring. And the stories themselves...

I know this is a book about trauma, but I did not expect him to go into such details of the personal traumas of multiple people. It felt gratuitous to me how often he would delve into the nitty gritty of a person's experienced trauma. I was expecting a book on the science of the brain and body's response to trauma, and while that was part of what I read, it was not the whole. I imagine this book would be especially upsetting for people who have experienced any extensive trauma. I also didn't love the ways in which can der Kolk often wrote about the people whose stories he shared. Women were often described physically, and the men were given a lot of slack for some of the horrible things they did because of their trauma. Except for one exception it often felt like he saw women as only victims of spousal or sexual abuse while men were only victims of military PTSD.

There were some excellent points made about the way the medical system in the US works, or rather, how it doesn't work. I appreciated how the lack of universal health care and better care for veterans and mothers only enables a vicious cycle of trauma. Unfortunately this also meant that a lot of what he was saying was "well here are some great ideas of what we could try, but there's no strong study behind any of it so maybe someday???"

I found the personal stories and van der Kolk's treatment of them to be far too distracting for any of the positives I found to be worthwhile. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Pedophilia, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

kathryn_reads_paiges's review against another edition

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

mirificmoxie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Incest, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Car accident, Mental illness, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, War, and Chronic illness

Minor: Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Animal cruelty

joey1914's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Incest, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Addiction, Bullying, Rape, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Miscarriage, Body shaming, Cursing, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and War

_dear_reader_'s review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicide, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Car accident, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Drug use, Child death, Bullying, Alcoholism, Rape, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Self harm, Cancer, Blood, Alcohol, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Incest, and Emotional abuse

malachinelson's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

This is an incredible, empathetic, and intelligent book. However, I would only encourage you to read it if you are ready to be challenged. It would be good to have some emotional reserves while reading this book, and to be gentle with yourself while reading it. It may bring up some uncomfortable emotions which deserve to be navigated carefully.

I started it because I thought to myself, "I haven't dealt with too much trouble, but I know my life hasn't been perfect. I should probably read this to learn tips and tricks to make my life a little better." Well, reading this book was a good idea, but it also challenged me to examine the traumas and difficulties I had underplayed. The book challenged me to be empathetic toward myself and consider the pursuit of interventions which could help me get back in touch with my body. It has also given me greater compassion for those who have experienced a number of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). I think this book has encouraged me to be a better person to myself and others.

However, it is a pretty dense book, too. The content is fantastic and well-explained by Dr. van der Kolk, but still quite academic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Alcoholism, Suicide, Chronic illness, Car accident, Addiction, Pedophilia, Murder, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Abandonment, War, Sexual violence, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Grief, Eating disorder, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Vomit, Gun violence, and Genocide

delery's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.25

this book was... a lot. i don't think i was necessarily in the right headspace to read it at this time. but it covered so many interesting issues, and i liked how it discussed different treatment methods. but also this book made me nauseous so... idk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Grief, Incest, Medical content, Pedophilia, Ableism, Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Car accident, Child death, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Violence, Drug use, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, and Drug abuse

sekempinger's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

plutastar's review against another edition

It seemed more focused on the DSM not acknowledging trauma to include them, rather than giving advice for trauma and how to identify what symptoms in the body could indicate, like I assumed the book would discuss. Maybe I'll continue it at a later date but I would rather read other books now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, Car accident, Child death, War, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Incest, Sexual assault, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Self harm

amandareads246's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Chronic illness, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Car accident, Child death, Death, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault