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zen_chaos 's review for:
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
by Bessel van der Kolk
So... Mixed feelings here.
I feel like I can't not round it up to 4 stars due to the wealth of well researched information, organized in a sensible chronological progression, and because it really is an important, crucial line of inquiry to a critical problem. Most of it feels like it's clearly meant for practitioners though; it's not that a sufferer won't get value out of knowing how trauma works, leaves imprints on ones body and functioning, and the innovative treatments that a deeper knowledge of this has created, but... It's a bit hard to read without being triggered due to an insensitivity of the author's bluntness of detail on patient's experiences. Even knowing that people go through terrible things and this is a book meant to inclusively address all the traumatic experiences that can lead to PTSD (which is a nice deviation from some authors sole focos on military causes), the recounts included felt a bit like they went into explicit detail to be sensationalist at first, then weird and almost voyeuristic in the middle. By the end the author did make a decent case that in order to process trauma, one has to be able to talk about it /use language to communicate about it, and I know eventually that it can be empowering to condemn terrible things rather than skirt around them, but I could definitely use someone earlier in their processing time/in the throes of intense PTSD putting this book down and wanting to torch it/never pick it up again-which sucks, because it does have a lot of great and helpful information that could benefit many who suffer; it's just worded indelicately even when the author seems to feel he is communicating clearly and being detailed for a better purpose. It is marketed as feared towards professional and patients, and while it's acknowledged that the former were the primary audience, the latter are still addressed and welcomed (and then no warnings when explicitly detailed recounts are about to be dived into, problematically.) Still, being years out and already through exposure and CBT therapies it wasn't entirely unbearable (with breaks for queasiness or tears) and I do feel like it offers additional tools that are helpful, and information I was not fully informed on pertaining to the full experience of trauma and recovery, borh which make it worth the read (if you're disassociated or integrated enough to get through it.)
I feel like I can't not round it up to 4 stars due to the wealth of well researched information, organized in a sensible chronological progression, and because it really is an important, crucial line of inquiry to a critical problem. Most of it feels like it's clearly meant for practitioners though; it's not that a sufferer won't get value out of knowing how trauma works, leaves imprints on ones body and functioning, and the innovative treatments that a deeper knowledge of this has created, but... It's a bit hard to read without being triggered due to an insensitivity of the author's bluntness of detail on patient's experiences. Even knowing that people go through terrible things and this is a book meant to inclusively address all the traumatic experiences that can lead to PTSD (which is a nice deviation from some authors sole focos on military causes), the recounts included felt a bit like they went into explicit detail to be sensationalist at first, then weird and almost voyeuristic in the middle. By the end the author did make a decent case that in order to process trauma, one has to be able to talk about it /use language to communicate about it, and I know eventually that it can be empowering to condemn terrible things rather than skirt around them, but I could definitely use someone earlier in their processing time/in the throes of intense PTSD putting this book down and wanting to torch it/never pick it up again-which sucks, because it does have a lot of great and helpful information that could benefit many who suffer; it's just worded indelicately even when the author seems to feel he is communicating clearly and being detailed for a better purpose. It is marketed as feared towards professional and patients, and while it's acknowledged that the former were the primary audience, the latter are still addressed and welcomed (and then no warnings when explicitly detailed recounts are about to be dived into, problematically.) Still, being years out and already through exposure and CBT therapies it wasn't entirely unbearable (with breaks for queasiness or tears) and I do feel like it offers additional tools that are helpful, and information I was not fully informed on pertaining to the full experience of trauma and recovery, borh which make it worth the read (if you're disassociated or integrated enough to get through it.)