Reviews tagging 'War'

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

154 reviews

seawarrior's review against another edition

Quit reading because of lack of focus. I doubt I will continue the book because its descriptions of war criminals are so far removed from what I wanted to know about trauma in order to apply it to myself and my own settings. The author also seemed uncomfortably self-absorbed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, and Rape

chelanna22's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Incest, Abandonment, Self harm, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Rape, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mass/school shootings

akvolcano's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Loved reading this book! Trauma is always spoken in the context of war veterans, but the intricacies are never fully connected. This book well develops the connection. It actually goes further by not separating citizen trauma from war trauma, but speaks of them on the same level. When I began this reading I was skeptical if there would be any new concepts or material. I am happy to say that there was in fact exploration in areas that have not been fed into mainstream media! As a survivor myself, I enjoy that throughout the book there is consistently stories of people being shared. I would like to read a book like this one that takes its central concepts and goes a bit further. Overall, excellent well researched and articulated book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gore, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, War, and Violence

eelizard's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, War, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, and Self harm

rebeccakate07's review

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Rape, Sexual violence, War, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

very good, well written and informative. i do wish the author focused less on veterans and more on those with different forms and reasons for ptsd and trauma. obviously nothing wrong with the information/research about veterans but i feel like there wasn’t enough diversity in its participants/examples

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and War

karladuhrla's review

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Incest, Domestic abuse, War, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

jussery's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

This book was really useful to me in how it summarized a lot of research findings in an interesting and succinct way (not to say this book wasn't long, it definitely was). Halfway into this book I found out that the author is not really a great guy, which definetely soured anything I read from his perspective. I found some of his descriptions of women kinda gross. I thought he went too far describing some patient's trauma. This book has so many triggers and I read it as someone without PTSD (I have a depersonalization disorder though, and was hoping to uncover more about that through this book) - so a big warning to anyone considering reading it! Overall though, I still gave this book 4 stars just because I think it really captured a lot of research studies on trauma in a digestible way (could do without the authors excessive descriptions though). And it really helped me contextualize some of my symptoms and how they are biologically based, which helped me put less blame on myself for them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, War, Chronic illness, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Sexism, Alcoholism, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Rape, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Medical trauma

cwerber's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Death, and War

moonylovesstars's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

I can’t help but rate this 5 stars. It talks about the stories of others and is very informative. I have seen myself in parts of their stories and many other things. It made me feel seen, and feeling seen is the best feeling ever. I feel like everyone should read it. I feel like everyone should give it a try.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Blood, Car accident, and Physical abuse

Minor: Cursing and Mass/school shootings