The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel Van Der Kolk M.D. - 2014

 

Thanks for the recommendation Brad Chedwick during his episode of the yoga chat. Pretty boring overall and a bit too academic for me. It is essentially a series of case studies regarding trauma and how effective (or not) various types of treatment have been/are. The science is probably a bit outdated as the book is 11 years old now. 

The big take away for me is that trauma (especially childhood trauma) is a problem like cancer in the U.S. It does not receive as much press. If you are a parent please treat your kids well as it could truly affect them and society for the rest of their lives.

I also came away a bit depressed by how many people have such terrible lives when they are growing up. I am a bit shocked by some of the stories in this book. 

For me personally, I really enjoyed the section on neuro feedback training. Perhaps it could help me to become less anxious. 

There is also a really cool therapy technique where in group therapy you get to revisit the past by assigning roles to other members of the group. For example you can assign someone to be your abusive father and then tell them to fuck off. The doctor is the moderator. I think this is a great idea. 

Finally for ptsd, the mind basically breaks down during the event so the memory is not integrated into the brain’s normal space time memory integration (i am not a doctor but this is what I understand from the book). Techniques to integrate this memory can help ptsd patients to recover. 

I also like how the author is a proponent of finding the root cause of the problem instead of just prescribing drugs. For example, he repeatedly states that kids/patients act up for a reason and that they are not simply born to be disruptive. Surely there are outliers, but I tend to agree with this analysis. 

I would say shelf it mostly unless you like academic reading. I also felt the main thesis and title “the body keeps the score” was a bit too obvious. Have a great day friends! Be well!