Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

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

19 reviews

gabriella_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

I tried reading this book twice but had to stop because of how emotional it made me. But now that I’ve finally finished it, I wish I read it sooner. It was incredibly informative and absolutely heartbreaking. Some individual patient stories were gutwrenching, so it’s best to take breaks as needed. Listen to your body with this one. Reflect, and be kind to yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Confinement, Body horror, Child abuse, Car accident, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Incest, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Eating disorder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Self harm, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Gun violence, Genocide, Death, Bullying, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

anna_18's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Self harm, Violence, Emotional abuse, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, Physical abuse, Genocide, Domestic abuse, and War

Moderate: Abandonment and Pedophilia

tetedump's review against another edition

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

ungles's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Classism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Addiction, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, War, Genocide, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

vigil's review against another edition

informative reflective sad slow-paced

the body keeps the score is a dense text; small font on big pages full of scientific jargon and material. however, if you allow the book to be what it is it’s much more accessible than you’d think. 

bessel van der kolk has spent thirty years in practice which gives the book a somewhat academic, frank edge. it’s very insightful into traumatized individuals across the board, but i wouldn’t recommend it to any traumatized person off the bat due to kolk’s unrestrained tone throughout the book.

i have seen some question the ideas and theories he speaks of in here, but i’m (and probably them as well, if we’re being honest) not qualified to dissect that fully. nevertheless, i think everything in here is worth giving some thought to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Car accident, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cancer, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Abortion, Blood, Classism, Death, Medical content, Sexual assault, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Animal death, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, War, Chronic illness, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Eating disorder, Genocide, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

town_scar's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Genocide, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Incest, Gore, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Abandonment, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Rape, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Child abuse, War, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Sexual assault, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, and Car accident

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

4.0

This was a really interesting book. He explores the history of trauma treatments and his own history as a mental health provider. I do wish that there was more acknowledgement of trauma from systemic violence or how systemic factors that influence trauma. He did recognize some of them in the last chapter, mentioning some things like healthcare, poverty, and briefly mentioning the inequalities in the prison system. He also mentions intergenerational trauma some in the book, but it would have been good to see a discussion about broader inequalities, especially since many impact people starting at such a young age. It also would have been good to have more discussion of ADHD/autism and trauma besides the cases he mentions of ADHD being incorrectly diagnosed to some people who were exhibiting behaviors because of trauma. 

There was still a lot in here that I really liked and was helpful for me. There are so many aspects of trauma and the healing process that are really valuable and it serves to counter quite a few myths and negative attitudes that I have heard from people who are uninformed about trauma. And it definitely makes me want to look more into EMDR and other treatments outside of just talk therapy. I definitely see why so many people recommend it so highly. 

Definitely read with caution of potential triggers, though. I see this recommended a fair amount and most people who I've seen that tote is as *the* book on trauma to read don't mention that the traumatic events are laid out in a fair amount of detail. This includes traumatic incidences during war, sexual assault, incest, torture, neglect, alcoholism/substance abuse, and death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Incest, Rape, Child abuse, War, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Genocide, and Medical trauma

helhas3letters's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

3.5

Very informative work on how trauma is held long-term in the body and brain, with a specific focus on PTSD (incurred either in childhood or adulthood).
The first few chapters detail cause-and-effect with lots of evidence from scientific studies, inclusion of brain scans and diagrams, reference to the author's personal experience working for many years in the field of psychiatry, and fascinating case studies of patients at trauma centres. Concludes with a hopeful and substantial chapter on various empirically proven methods of healing from trauma.
Can be heavy at times as it deals with some very serious issues, but overall an inspiring, enlightening, research-based read. Knocked off 1/2 a star as I thought it was a little repetitive at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, and Child abuse

Moderate: Incest, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Self harm, Violence, and Rape

Minor: Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, War, and Violence

As this book deals with trauma, there is lots of mention of disturbing and scarring events, however I felt that Van Der Kolk does not go into more detail than is necessary. Most things that can be considered triggers - e.g. death, trafficking, war, domestic abuse - are only mentioned or briefly described to give context to what follows. The author goes into a moderate amount of detail on some instances of child abuse, sexual assault, incest, and self-harm. Mental illness, especially PTSD, is discussed in detail throughout.

fiveredhens's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

favorite quotes:

A stern schoolteacher may be an intimidating presence to an average kid, but for a child whose stepfather beats him up, she may represent a torturer and precipitate a rage attack or a terrified cowering in the corner.

I remember being surprised to hear this distinguished old Harvard professor confess how comforted he was to feel his wife's bum against him as he fell asleep at night. By disclosing such simple human needs in himself he helped us recognize how basic they were to our lives. Failure to attend to them results in a stunted existence, no matter how lofty our thoughts and worldly accomplishments.

For now I want to emphasize that emotion is not opposed to reason; our emotions assign value to experiences and thus are the foundation of reason.

...traumatized parents, in particular, need help to be attuned to their children's needs. Caregivers often don't realize that they are out of tune. I vividly remember a videotape Beatrice Beebe showed me. It featured a young mother playing with her three-month-old infant. Everything was going well until the baby pulled back and turned his head away, signaling that he needed a break. But the mother did not pick up on his cue, and she intensified her efforts to engage him by bringing her face closer to his and increasing the volume of her voice. When he recoiled even more, she kept bouncing and poking him. Finally he started to scream, at which point the mother put him down and walked away, looking crestfallen. She obviously felt terrible, but she had simply missed the relevant cues. It's easy to imagine how this kind of misattunement, repeated over and over again, can gradually lead to chronic disconnection.

Many of them hold tight to the memory of that one teacher, neighbor, shopkeeper, coach, or minister who showed that he or she cared, and that memory is often the seed of learning to reengage. We are a hopeful species. Working with trauma is as much about remembering how we survived as it is about what is broken.

If Margaret shouts, "I hate you!" in the middle of an argument, Joe probably thinks she despises him—and in that moment Margaret might agree. But in fact only a part of her is angry, and that part temporarily obscures her generous and affectionate feelings, which may well return when she sees the devastation on Joe's face.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Fatphobia