Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

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

226 reviews

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

lilareadssometimes's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.75

covers relevant content to those interested in the impacts of trauma on the body and mental/social functioning and wellbeing of traumatized individuals, but is quite long, sometimes repetitive, and gets lost in the weeds a bit. unlikely to recommend to others but interesting nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, and Self harm

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

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

slop_queen's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault

schopflin's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

This is highly readable despite the complexity of some of the concepts. I have no background in neuroscience but I was able to follow these parts and understand them. From another aspect, this book is potentially life-changing. I wouldn't say my experiences were traumatic on the scale of the patients described here, but I recognised so many of the physical responses to stressful situations. Not least, the pure lack of safety I feel in relation to others. This isn't an easy read, but we'll worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Self harm, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault

skylover's review against another edition

textbook heavy content and mildly triggering 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, Suicide, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and War

katiedalton's review

I think this book was well written but it was very heavy and my brain was not prepared for the topic. I’m not sure why it certainly promotes itself as a book about trauma. 

I did not expect the graphic and countless descriptions of sexual assault, to include incest and child sexual abuse. It also detailed veteran trauma experiences, but the sexual abuse stories of children got to me. 

And I am not sure such quantity and detail of trauma stories were necessary to make the authors point, which is that the brain rewires itself in response to trauma. 

I have heard so many people praise this book and I wanted to appreciate it but it was very hard to listen to. It moved very slowly, and the solutions seem to be at the last chapters of the book and I couldn’t hold out for them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Self harm

rbarajas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and War