Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

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

229 reviews

bblu3's review against another edition

It's a very interesting book, but the great level of detail made it a chore to go through at times. I wish I skipped through some of the first chapters to read the later ones on treatments. I'm no stranger to non-fiction tomes, but this one started feeling tedious so I couldn't finish it. Maybe one day I'll pick it back up. 

It's also very graphic at times, so it may get triggering for those with experiences of abuse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Incest, and Rape

Moderate: Child abuse

stephdadi's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Gun violence, Eating disorder, Addiction, Suicide, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

sydneyah's review

i really like this book - once he got into describing the very real physical manifestations i had to take a break but i look forward to finishing it. best to take your time with this book and take breaks

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

I don't know if I'm evaluating the level of these warnings very well and I only have gotten through the beginning of this book. The most important thing to know is he describes the potential aftermath of trauma and the physical/psychological symptoms very well.

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

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

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

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

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