A review by bookfriend8
The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

Really appreciate this book. I was worried about it being too medical and difficult to understand, but the author provides thorough and accessible explanations on what happens to the human body and mind after trauma, and also offers his opinion on how conditions such as (C)PTSD can effectively be cured. He supports his scientific descriptions with personal and patient anecdotes, and although these were often very graphic and distressing (trigger warning for everything), it helped to balance out the scientific information and to see how they manifest in real life. Understanding how distressing experiences can literally change a person forever really explains the origins of people’s behaviours and patterns. Overall, would give it 5/5, but some chapters were also long-winded and repetitive, and there was plenty of US-defaultism.
It was deeply enlightening for me to read this book and I’m glad I decided to pick it up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, War, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Medical content, Incest, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Suicide, Medical trauma, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Addiction, Abandonment, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Includes virtually all triggering topics, would not recommend to people who aren’t comfortable with difficult or graphic stories, particularly if they relate personally.