Reviews tagging 'Violence'

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

143 reviews

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

alexisgarcia's review

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

bookaddictang's review

emotional slow-paced

3.5

I enjoyed this book because it helped me understand trauma; the history of trauma treatment in the psychology world; and the type of treatments available/studied and their success rates. I also enjoyed learning why some treatments are widely available and others are not. 

This book was eye-opening and really helped me understand and categorize some of my emotions and how I react/respond to things, especially in response to what I now know was a neglectful upbringing. 

What I did not like was the detailed trauma/case study the author went into for some of these examples. It may be beneficial detail to a psychologist but I was disturbed by a majority of the ones that I read and did not need those details to comprehend the points the author was making. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, and Incest

Moderate: Medical trauma, Trafficking, Violence, and Sexual violence

karladuhrla's review against another edition

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

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

rachelmabarca's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

5.0

This book was life-changing and paradigm-shifting for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Torture, Rape, Incest, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, and War

Overall intense, sometimes painful to read. Not for the faint of heart.

angelintherye's review

challenging hopeful informative sad slow-paced

4.0

The first half of the book is about his research and includes graphic depictions of his clients trauma which can be difficult to read. The second half of the book is tools for those with CPTSD/trauma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Violence