helhas3letters 's review for:

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

3.5

emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

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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: Child abuse, Mental illness, Medical content

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

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

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.