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# 2018-02-19 - The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk | |
I have spent scant time studying psychology and trauma, so most of | |
this book was new territory for me. The most interesting themes: | |
* the deleterious effect of suppressing trauma and emotions. | |
* our natural need to feel separate from others (sense of self), | |
and in control (agency, or internal locus of control), even if | |
those feelings don't objectively reflect reality. | |
* the emphasis on curiosity and imagination for healing | |
* the value of acting (theater or "faking it") for creating virtual | |
memories to build up and restore parts of ourselves left void from | |
chronic omissions and unmet needs. | |
Below are my notes, almost entirely excerpts from the book. | |
# Chapter 1 | |
Imagination is absolutely critical to the quality of our lives. Our | |
imagination enables us to leave our routine everyday existence by | |
fantasizing about travel, food, sex, falling in love, or having the | |
last word--all things that make life interesting. Imagination gives | |
us the opportunity to envision new possibilities--it is an essential | |
launchpad for making our hopes come true. It fires our creativity, | |
relieves our boredom, and enriches our most intimate relationships. | |
When people are compulsively and constantly pulled back into the | |
past, to the last time they felt intense involvement and deep | |
emotions, they suffer from a failure of imagination, a loss of mental | |
flexibility. Without imagination there is no hope, no chance to | |
envision a better future, no place to go, no goal to reach. | |
They felt fully alive only when they were revisiting their traumatic | |
past. | |
In other words, for every soldier who serves in a war zone abroad, | |
there are ten children who are endangered in their own homes. | |
The brain-disease model overlooks four fundamental truths: | |
* Our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to | |
heal one another. Restoring relationships and community is central | |
to restoring well-being; | |
* Language gives us the power to change ourselves and others by | |
communicating our experiences, helping us define what we know, and | |
finding a common sense of meaning; | |
* We have the ability to regulate our own physiology, including | |
some of the so-called involuntary functions of the body and brain, | |
through such basic activities as breathing, moving, and touching; | |
and | |
* We can change social conditions to create environments in which | |
children and adults can feel safe and where they can thrive. | |
When we ignore these quintessential dimensions of humanity, we | |
deprive people of ways to heal from trauma and restore their | |
autonomy. Being a patient, rather than a participant in one's | |
healing process, separates suffering people from their community and | |
alienates them from an inner sense of self. | |
# Chapter 2 | |
Their bodies register the threat but their conscious minds go on as | |
if nothing has happened... stress hormones keep sending signals to | |
the muscles to tense for action or immobilize in collapse. The | |
physical effects on the organs go unabated until they demand notice | |
when they are exposed as illness. | |
After trauma the world is experienced with a different nervous | |
system. The survivor's energy now becomes focused on suppressing | |
inner chaos, at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life. | |
All are a product of the synchrony between the two branches of the | |
autonomic nervous system (ANS): the sympathetic (SNS), which acts as | |
the body's accelerator, and the parasympathetic (PNS), which serves | |
as its brake. | |
There is a simple way to experience these two systems for yourself. | |
Whenever you take a deep breath, you activate the SNS. The resulting | |
burst of adrenaline speeds up your heart, which explains why many | |
athletes take a few short, deep breaths before starting competition. | |
Exhaling, in turn, activates the PNS, which slows down the heart. If | |
you take a yoga or meditation class, your instructor will probably | |
urge you to pay particular attention to the exhalation, since deep, | |
long breaths out help calm you down. As we breathe, we continually | |
speed up and slow down the heart, and because of that the interval | |
between two successive heartbeats is never precisely the same. A | |
measurement called heart rate variability (HRV) can be used to test | |
the flexibility of this system, and good HRV--the more fluctuation | |
the better--is a sign that the brake and accelerator in your arousal | |
system are both functioning properly and in balance. | |
Three levels of safety: | |
* Social engagement -- VVC -- ventral vagal complex | |
* Fight or flight -- SNS -- sympathetic nervous system | |
* Freeze or collapse -- DVC -- dorsal vagal complex | |
Once this system (DVC) takes over, other people, and we ourselves, | |
cease to matter. Awareness is shut down, and we may no longer even | |
register physical pain. | |
# Chapter 5 | |
It is especially challenging for traumatized people to discern when | |
they are actually safe and to be able to activate their defenses when | |
they are in danger. | |
But the polyvagal theory helped us to understand and explain why all | |
these disparate, unconventional techniques worked so well. ... All | |
rely on interpersonal rhythms, visceral awareness, and vocal and | |
facial states, reorganize their perception of danger, and increase | |
their capacity to manage relationships. | |
# Chapter 6 | |
Traumatized people are prone to being disconnected from their bodies. | |
This may be related to the disappearance of medial prefontal | |
activation. Profound lack of self-awareness. | |
> What we witnessed here was a tragic adaptation: In an effort to | |
> shut off terrifying sensations, they also deadened their capacity | |
> to feel fully alive. | |
> If the self-sensing system breaks down we need to find ways to | |
> reactivate it. | |
> Agency is the technical term for the feeling of being in charge | |
> of your life: knowing where you stand, knowing that you have a say | |
> in what happens to you, knowing that you have some ability to shape | |
> your circumstances. | |
Agency starts with what scientists call interoception, our awareness | |
of our subtle sensory, body-based feelings: the greater that | |
awareness, the greater our potential to control our lives. Knowing | |
what we feel is the first step to knowing why we feel that way. | |
Alexithymia - not registering feelings in the mind. Being out of | |
touch with one's feelings, contributes toward difficulty feeling | |
pleasure and having a sense of meaning. | |
Depersonalization - losing sense of self. Detachment from body. | |
> Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and | |
> befriend the sensations in their bodies. ... In order to change, | |
> people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that | |
> their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical | |
> self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the | |
> past. | |
# Chapter 7 | |
Associating intense sensations with safety, comfort, and mastery is | |
the foundation of self-regulation, self-soothing, and self nurture... | |
A secure attachment combined with the cultivation of competency | |
builds an "internal locus of control," the key factor in healthy | |
coping throughout life. Securely attached children learn what makes | |
them feel good; they discover what makes them (and others) feel bad, | |
and they acquire a sense of agency: that their actions can change how | |
they feel and how others respond. Securely attached kids learn the | |
difference between situations they can control and situations where | |
they need help. They learn that they can play an active role when | |
faced with difficult situations. | |
The need for attachment never lessens. Most human beings simply | |
cannot tolerate being disengaged from others for any length of time. | |
People who cannot connect through work, friendships, or family | |
usually find other ways of bonding, as through illness, lawsuits, or | |
family feuds. Anything is preferable to that godforsaken sense of | |
irrelevance and alienation. | |
# Chapter 8 | |
Rage that has nowhere to go is directed against the self, in the form | |
of depression, self-hatred, and self-destructive actions. | |
In order to know who we are--to have an identity--we must know (or at | |
least feel that we know) what is and what was "real." We must | |
observe what we see around us and label it correctly; we must also be | |
able to trust our memories and be able to tell them apart from our | |
imagination. Losing the ability to make these distinctions is one | |
sign of what psychoanalyst William Niederland called "soul murder." | |
Erasing awareness and cultivating denial are often essential to | |
survival, but the price is that you lose track of who you are, of | |
what you are feeling, and of what and whom you can trust. | |
# Chapter 9 | |
In this chapter, and the next, I will discuss the chasm between | |
official diagnoses and what our patients actually suffer from and | |
discuss how my colleagues and I have tried to change the way patients | |
with chronic trauma histories are diagnosed. | |
... As he [Vincent Felitti] and his team started to inquire more | |
closely, they were shocked to discover that most of their morbidly | |
obese patients had been sexually abused as children. They also | |
uncovered a host of other family problems. | |
Little consideration is given to the possibility that many long-term | |
health risks might also be personally beneficial in the short-term. | |
We repeatedly hear from patients of the benefits of these "health | |
risks." The idea of the problem being a solution, while | |
understandable disturbing to many, is certainly in keeping with the | |
fact that opposing forces routinely coexist in biological systems. | |
... What one sees, the presenting problem, is often only the marker | |
for the real problem, which lies buried in time, concealed by patient | |
shame, secrecy, and sometimes amnesia--and frequently clinician | |
discomfort. | |
# Chapter 10 | |
Epigenetics. "Major changes to our bodies can be made not just by | |
chemicals and toxins, but also in the way the social world talks to | |
the hard-wired world." | |
Social support is a biological necessity, not an option, and this | |
reality should be the backbone of all prevention and treatment. | |
Recognizing the profound effects of trauma and deprivation on child | |
development need not lead to blaming parents. We can assume that | |
parents do the best they can, but all parents need help to nurture | |
their kids. Nearly every industrialized nation, with the exception | |
of the United States, recognizes this and provides some form of | |
guaranteed support to families. James Heckman, winner of the 2000 | |
Nobel Prize in Economics, has shown that quality early-childhood | |
programs that involve parents and promote basic skills in | |
disadvantaged children more than pay for themselves in improved | |
outcomes. | |
# Chapter 11 | |
Most day-to-day experience passes immediately into oblivion. On | |
ordinary days we don't have much to report when we come home in the | |
evening. The mind works according to schemes or maps, and incidents | |
that fall outside the established pattern are most likely to capture | |
our attention. ... We remember insults and injuries best: The | |
adrenaline that we secrete to defend against potential threats helps | |
to engrave those incidents into our minds. ... As James McGaugh and | |
colleagues have shown, the more adrenaline you secrete, the more | |
precise your memory will be. But that is true only up to a certain | |
point. | |
Janet noted significant differences between ordinary and traumatic | |
memories. Traumatic memories are precipitated by specific triggers. | |
... When one element of a traumatic experience is triggered, other | |
elements are likely to automatically follow. | |
Ordinary memory is essentially social; it's a story that we tell for | |
a purpose... But there is nothing social about traumatic memory... | |
Janet coined the term "dissociation" to describe the splitting off | |
and isolation of memory imprints that he saw in his patients. He was | |
also prescient about the heavy cost of keeping these traumatic | |
memories at bay... He predicted that unless they became aware of the | |
split-off elements and integrated them into a story that had happened | |
in the past but was now over, they would experience a slow decline in | |
their personal and professional functioning. This phenomenon has now | |
been well documented in contemporary research. | |
# Chapter 12 | |
This chapter includes an interesting story about English suppression | |
of the term "shell shock" in General Routine Order Number 2384 and in | |
the Southborough Report. | |
It also struck me that these soldiers seemed to keep a much tighter | |
lid on their anger and hostility than the younger veterans I'd worked | |
with. Culture shapes the expression of traumatic stress. | |
The essence of trauma is that it is overwhelming, unbelievable, and | |
unbearable. Each patient demands that we suspend our sense of what | |
is normal and accept that we are dealing with a dual reality: the | |
reality of a relatively secure and predictable present that lives | |
side-by-side with a ruinous, ever-present past. | |
"In our last month of therapy, I asked my psychiatrist why he did not | |
try to fix me as all the other therapists had attempted, yet failed. | |
He told me that he assumed, given what I had be [sic] able to | |
accomplish with my children and career, that I had sufficient | |
resiliency to heal myself, if he created a holding environment for me | |
to do so. This was an hour each week that became a refuge where I | |
could unravel the mystery of how I had become so damaged then | |
re-construct a sense of myself that was whole, not fragmented, | |
peaceful, not tormented. Through Pilates, I found a stronger | |
physical core, as well as a community of women who willingly gave | |
acceptance and social support that had been distant in my life since | |
the trauma. This combination of core strengthening--psychological, | |
social, and physical--created a sense of personal safety and mastery, | |
relegating my memories to the distant past, allowing the present and | |
future to emerge" | |
# Chapter 13 | |
Trauma robs you of the feeling that you are in charge of yourself, of | |
what I will call self-leadership in the chapters to come. The | |
challenge of recovery is to reestablish ownership of your body and | |
your mind--of your self. This means feeling free to know what you | |
know and to feel what you feel without becoming overwhelmed, enraged, | |
ashamed, or collapsed. For most people this involves: 1. Finding a | |
way to become calm and focussed. 2. Learning to maintain that calm | |
in response to images, thoughts, sounds, or physical sensations that | |
remind you of the past. 3. Finding a way to be fully alive in the | |
present and engaged with the people around you. 4. Not having to | |
keep secrets from yourself, including secrets about the ways that you | |
have managed to survive. | |
The first order of business is to find ways to cope with feeling | |
overwhelmed by the sensations and emotions associated with the past. | |
Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way | |
we feel is by becoming aware of our _inner_ experience and learning | |
to befriend what is going on inside ourselves. | |
... we have a host of inbuilt skills to keep us on an even keel. | |
In chapter 5 we saw how emotions are registered in the body. Some | |
80 percent of the fibers of the vagus nerve (which connects the | |
brain with many internal organs) are afferent; that is, they run | |
from the body into the brain. This means that we can directly | |
train our arousal system by the way we breathe, chant, and move, a | |
principle that has been utilized since time immemorial in places | |
like China and India, and in every religious practice that I know | |
of, but that is suspiciously eyed as "alternative" in mainstream | |
culture. ... Mainstream Western psychiatric and psychological | |
healing traditions have paid scant attention to self-management. | |
In contrast to the Western reliance on drugs and verbal therapies, | |
other traditions from around the world rely on mindfulness, | |
movement, rhythms, and action. ... Aside from yoga, few of these | |
popular non-Western healing traditions have been systematically | |
studied for the treatment of PTSD. | |
Body awareness puts us in touch with our inner world... Simply by | |
noticing our annoyance, nervousness, or anxiety immediately helps us | |
shift our perspective and opens up new options other than our | |
automatic, habitual reactions. ... When we pay focussed attention to | |
our bodily sensations, we can recognize the ebb and flow of our | |
emotions and, with that, increase our control over them. | |
In order to change you need to open yourself to your inner | |
experience. The first step is to allow your mind to focus on your | |
sensations and notice how, in contrast to the timeless, ever-present | |
experience of trauma, physical sensations are transient and respond | |
to slight shifts in body position, changes in breathing, and shifts | |
in thinking. Once you pay attention to your physical sensations, the | |
next step is to label them... A further step is to observe the | |
interplay between your thoughts and your physical sensations. | |
Study after study shows that having a good support network | |
constitutes the single most powerful protection against becoming | |
traumatized. ... Our attachment bonds are our greatest protection | |
against threat. ... Traumatized human beings recover in the context | |
of relationships... | |
As we have seen, much of the wiring of our brain circuits is devoted | |
to being in tune with others. Recovery from trauma involves | |
(re)connecting with our fellow human beings. ... Most traumatized | |
individuals need an anchor and a great deal of coaching to do this | |
work. | |
Choosing a Professional Therapist: The critical question is this: Do | |
you feel that your therapist is curious to find out who _you_ are and | |
what _you_, not some generic "PTSD patient," need? | |
From the moment of our birth, our relationships are embodied in | |
responsive faces, gestures, and touch. ... When we play together, we | |
feel physically attuned and experience a sense of connection and joy. | |
... the most natural way that we humans calm down our distress is | |
by being touched, hugged, and rocked. Touch, the most elementary | |
tool we have to calm down, is proscribed from most therapeutic | |
practices. | |
... stress hormones are meant to give us strength and endurance to | |
respond to extraordinary conditions. Helplessness and | |
immobilization keep people from utilizing their stress hormones to | |
defend themselves. When that happens, their hormones are still | |
being pumped out, but the actions they're supposed to fuel are | |
thwarted. | |
When patients can physically experience what it would have felt like | |
to fight back or run away, they relax, smile, and express a sense of | |
completion. | |
People cannot put traumatic events behind until they are able to | |
acknowledge what has happened and start to recognize the invisible | |
demons they're struggling with. | |
Since that capacity to quietly observe oneself is a critical factor | |
in the integration of traumatic memories, it is likely that hypnosis, | |
in some form, will make a comeback. | |
# Chapter 14 | |
Discovering your Self in language is always an epiphany... | |
Helen [Keller] later recalled that moment in The Story of My Life: | |
"Water! That word startled my soul, and it awoke, full of the spirit | |
of the morning. ... Until that day my mind had been like a darkened | |
chamber, waiting for words to enter and light the lamp, which is | |
thought. I learned a great many words that day." | |
Learning the names of things enabled the child not only to create an | |
inner representation of the invisible and inaudible physical reality | |
around her but also to find herself: Six months later she started to | |
use the first-person "I." | |
Language evolved primarily to share "things out there," not to | |
communicate our inner feelings, our interiority. (Again, the | |
language center of the brain is about as far removed from the center | |
for experiencing one's self as is geographically possible.) | |
We can get past the slipperiness of words by engaging the | |
self-observing, body-based self system, which speaks through | |
sensations, tone of voice, and body tensions. Being able to perceive | |
visceral sensations is the very foundation of emotional awareness. | |
There are other ways to access your inner world of feelings. One of | |
the most effective is through writing. When you write to yourself, | |
you don't have to worry about other people's judgment--you just | |
listen to your own thoughts and let their flow take over. Later, | |
when you reread what you wrote, you often discover surprising truths. | |
Such changes are called "switching" in clinical practice, and we see | |
them often in individuals with trauma histories. Patients activate | |
distinctly different emotional and physiological states as they move | |
from one topic to another. ... Some patients even appear to change | |
their personal identity... | |
Dealing with traumatic memories is, however, just the beginning of | |
treatment. Numerous studies have found that people with PTSD have | |
more general problems with focussed attention and with learning new | |
information. | |
Modern neuroscience solidly supports Freud's notion that many of our | |
conscious thoughts are complex rationalizations for the flood of | |
instincts, reflexes, motives, and deep-seated memories that emanate | |
from the unconscious. As we have seen, trauma interferes with the | |
proper functioning of brain areas that manage and interpret | |
experience. A robust sense of self--one that allows a person to | |
state confidently, "This is what I think and feel" and "This is what | |
is going on with me"--depends on a healthy and dynamic interplay | |
among these areas. | |
In other words trauma makes people feel like either _some body else_, | |
or like _no body_. In order to overcome trauma, you need help to get | |
back in touch with _your body_, with _your Self_. | |
There is no question that language is essential: Our sense of Self | |
depends on being able to organize our memories into a coherent whole. | |
# Chapter 15 | |
"On some level he felt that the tragic loss of his eye gave him | |
permission to abuse other people, but he also hated the angry, | |
vengeful person he had become." | |
EMDR = Eye Movement Desensitizing and Reprocessing | |
* EMDR loosens up something in the mind/brain that gives people | |
rapid access to loosely associated memories and images from the | |
past. This seems to help them put the traumatic experience into a | |
larger context or perspective. | |
* People may be able to heal from trauma without talking about it. | |
EMDR enables them to observe their experiences in a new way, | |
without verbal give-and-take with another person. | |
* EMDR can help even if the patient and the therapist do not have a | |
trusting relationship. This was particularly intriguing because | |
trauma, understandable, rarely leaves people with an open, trusting | |
heart. | |
EMDR is more effective for adult-onset trauma than childhood trauma. | |
Interestingly, in the first solid scientific study using EMDR in | |
combat veterans with PTSD, EMDR was expected to do so poorly that it | |
was included as the control condition for comparison with | |
biofeedback-assisted relaxation therapy. To the researchers' | |
surprise, 12 sessions of EMDR turned out to be the more effective | |
treatment. EMDR has since become one of the treatments for PTSD | |
sanctions by the Department of Veterans Affairs. | |
Seeing novel connections is the cardinal feature of creativity; as | |
we've seen, it's also essential to healing. | |
While we don't know precisely how EMDR works, the same is true of | |
Prozac. Prozac has an effect on seratonin, but whether its levels go | |
up or down, and in which brain cells, and why that makes people feel | |
less afraid, is still unclear. We likewise don't know precisely why | |
talking to a trusted friend gives such profound relief, and I am | |
surprised how few people seem eager to explore that question. | |
Clinicians have only one obligation: to do whatever they can to help | |
their patients get better. Because of this, clinical practice has | |
always been a hotbed for experimentation. ... I am much comforted by | |
considering the history of penicillin: Almost four decades passed | |
between the discovery of its antibiotic properties by Alexander | |
Fleming in 1928 and the final elucidation of its mechanisms in 1965. | |
# Chapter 16 | |
All yoga programs consist of a combination of breath practices | |
(pranayama), stretches or postures (asanas), and meditation. | |
In our first yoga study we had a 50 percent dropout rate, the highest | |
of any study we'd ever done. When we interviewed the patients who'd | |
left, we learned that they had found the program too intense. Any | |
posture that involved the pelvis could precipitate intense panic or | |
even flashbacks to sexual assaults. Intense physical sensations | |
unleashed the demons from the past that had been so carefully kept in | |
check by numbing and inattention. This taught us to go slow [sic], | |
often at a snail's pace. | |
During the past few years brain researchers such as my colleagues | |
Sara Lazar and Britta Hoelzel at Harvard have shown that intensive | |
meditation has a positive effect on exactly those brain areas that | |
are critical for physiological self-regulation. | |
# Chapter 17 | |
How well we get along with ourselves depends largely on our internal | |
leadership skills--how well we listen to our different parts, make | |
sure they feel taken care of, and keep them from sabotaging one | |
another. Parts often come across as absolutes when in fact they | |
represent only one element in a complex constellation of thoughts, | |
emotions, and sensations. | |
Modern neuroscience has confirmed this notion of the mind as a kind | |
of society. | |
As Schwartz states: "If one accepts the basic idea that people have | |
an innate drive toward nurturing their own health, this implies that, | |
when people have chronic problems, something gets in the way of | |
accessing inner resources. Recognizing this, the role of therapists | |
is to collaborate rather than to teach, confront, or fill holes in | |
your psyche." The first step in this collaboration is to assure the | |
system that all parts are welcome and that all of them--even those | |
that are suicidal or destructive--were formed in an attempt to | |
protect the self-system, no matter how much they now seem to threaten | |
it. | |
* DID = dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple | |
personality disorder | |
* IFS = internal family systems | |
* Exiles (IFS) = parts of ourselves we need to deny at all costs | |
* Managers (IFS) = critical/perfectionist parts | |
* Firefighters (IFS) = emergency responders | |
* Bending (IFS) = identifying with a single part of the Self | |
# Chapter 18 | |
It is one thing to process memories of trauma, but it is an entirely | |
different matter to confront the inner void--the holes in the soul | |
that result from not having been wanted, not having been seen, and | |
not having been allowed to speak the truth. | |
Microtracking = tracking subtle shifts in body posture, facial | |
expression, tone of voice, and eye gaze, the nonverbal expressions of | |
emotion | |
Being validated by feeling heard and seen is a precondition for | |
feeling safe, which is critical when we explore the dangerous | |
territory of trauma and abandonment. A neuroimaging study has shown | |
that when people hear a statement that mirrors their inner state, the | |
right amygdala momentarily lights up, as if to underline the accuracy | |
of the reflection. | |
The more pain and deprivation we have experienced, the more likely we | |
are to interpret other people's actions as being directed against us | |
and less understanding we will be of their struggles, insecurities, | |
and concerns. If we cannot appreciate the complexity of their lives, | |
we may see anything that they do as confirmation that we are going to | |
get hurt and disappointed. | |
PBSP psychomotor therapy | |
Like the model mugging classes that I discussed in chapter 13, the | |
structures in psychomotor therapy hold out the possibility of forming | |
virtual memories that live side by side with the painful realities of | |
the past and provide sensory experiences of feeling seen, cradled, | |
and supported that can serve as antidotes to memories of hurt and | |
betrayal. In order to change, people need to become viscerally | |
familiar with realities that directly contradict the static feelings | |
of the frozen or panicked self of trauma, replacing them with | |
sensations rooted in safety, mastery, delight, and connection. | |
# Chapter 19 | |
Neurofeedback | |
To my knowledge no other treatment has achieved such marked | |
improvement in executive functioning, which predicts how well a | |
person will function in relationships, in school performance, and at | |
work. | |
The connectome refers to the exquisitely interconnected network of | |
neurons (nerve cells) in your brain. Like the genome, the | |
microbiome, and other exciting 'ome' fields, the effort to map the | |
connectome and decipher the electrical signals that zap through it to | |
generate your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors has become possible | |
through development of powerful new tools and technologies. | |
# Chapter 20 | |
Since time immemorial human beings have used communal rituals to cope | |
with their most powerful and terrifying feelings. Ancient Greek | |
theater, the oldest of which we have written records, seems to have | |
grown out of religious rites that involved dancing, singing, and | |
reenacting mythical stories. | |
Greek drama may have served as ritual reintegration for combat | |
veterans. | |
Collective movement and music create a larger context for our lives, | |
a meaning beyond our individual fate. | |
Despite their differences, all of these programs share a common | |
foundation: confrontation of the painful realities of life and | |
symbolic transformation through communal action. | |
# Epilogue | |
When i give presentations on trauma and trauma treatment, | |
participants sometimes ask me to leave out the politics and confine | |
myself to talking about neuroscience and therapy. I wish I could | |
separate trauma from politics, but as long as we continue to live in | |
denial and treat only trauma while ignoring its origins, we are bound | |
to fail. | |
author: Van der Kolk, Bessel A., 1943- | |
detail: http://besselvanderkolk.net/the-body-keeps-the-score.html | |
LOC: RC552.P67 V358 | |
tags: book,health,non-fiction | |
title: The Body Keeps The Score | |
# Tags | |
book | |
health | |
non-fiction |