13/11/2025
โBessel van der Kolk's "The Body Keeps the Score is not just a text on trauma; it is a radical re-envisioning of the mind-body connection.
Van der Kolk, a pioneering psychiatrist and researcher, lays out, with devastating clarity and profound compassion, how trauma literally rewires the brain and gets trapped in the body, not as a memory, but as a physical, present-tense reality.
Trauma is a Civil War Within the Self
Van der Kolkโs central thesis is that trauma is not the story of something that happened back then. It is a physiological state to be re-lived. The brain's alarm system gets stuck on 'on,' leaving the body in a constant state of defense, at war with its own senses, its own safety. The past is not past; it is an ever-present physiological emergency.
The Mind Can Lie, But the Body Always Tells the Truth
We can construct narratives to survive, to make the unbearable seem neat. But the body refuses to be edited. Healing begins when we stop arguing with the story and start listening to the flesh.
The Path Out is Through the Body, Not Just the Mind - Talk therapy can only take you so far when your body is still on the battlefield. The goal is to teach the body that the danger is over, and that it is safe to inhabit itself again.
The Emotional Brain is Held Hostage
Trauma fundamentally alters brain structure. It hijacks the rational, "thinking" part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) and gives ultimate authority to the emotional, survival brain (the amygdala). This is why traumatized people can't just "calm down" or "think rationally." Their brain's command center has been overthrown.
Trauma Shatters the Sense of Self
Survivors often feel disconnected, numb, or as if they are watching their life from a distance (dissociation).
Healing, therefore, is not just about processing a memory, but about reclaiming the selfโthe right to feel, to desire, and to be present in one's own skin.
Van der Kolk highlights two of the most fundamental regulators of our nervous system: rhythmic movement and attuned, safe relationships. These are primal sources of comfort that can help re-regulate a dysregulated system and rebuild a sense of connection that trauma destroyed it.
The bookโs ultimate message is one of profound hope. Neuroplasticity means the brain can change.
We are not condemned to be prisoners of our past. We can learn to live in the present, with a body that is no longer an enemy, but a trusted ally.โ
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