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A review by amallard
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
2.5
The Good:
Van der Kolk is a super interesting guy. He seems to have been everywhere, got around all the hotspots in psychiatry, seen the discipline's evolution and change.
His writing also provoked some strong emotions. I got pretty teary at parts.
His writing also provoked some strong emotions. I got pretty teary at parts.
The Concerning:
That same emotion, actually. This book felt designed to provoke, designed to upset and distress. He liked reminding you that you were traumatised, which is really very insidious. If you opened this book perfectly sound in brain, mind, and body, I think you would finish it with a longlist of newly discovered ailments. I'm not surprised it's done so well. It hits hard because it deliberately angles to elicit an emotional reaction, deliberately takes your feelings and blows them up viscerally.
The Body Keeps the Score acknowledged that I might not be doing okay. That was a painful, welcome validation. But I did not want to wallow in that. I wanted an empowerment, a sense that everything could be fine; Trauma and Recovery by Judith Lewis Herman is my recommendation for that. Van der Kolk was playing games.
The Body Keeps the Score acknowledged that I might not be doing okay. That was a painful, welcome validation. But I did not want to wallow in that. I wanted an empowerment, a sense that everything could be fine; Trauma and Recovery by Judith Lewis Herman is my recommendation for that. Van der Kolk was playing games.