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Criticisms of “The Body Keeps the Score”

(josepheverettwil.substack.com)
249 points adityaathalye | 4 comments | 22 Oct 25 18:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.876s | source
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hrimfaxi ◴[22 Oct 25 19:13 UTC] No.45673782[source]▶
> Chances are, you’ve heard of The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. At 79,898 reviews, the book has more reviews on Amazon than the first book of A Game of Thrones.

> “The Body Keeps the Score has spent 248 weeks on the New York Times paperback-nonfiction best-seller list and counting. To date, it’s sold 3 million copies and been translated into 37 languages.”

Wow 3 million copies despite being translated into 37 languages? The Game of Thrones finale had 19 million viewers. I don't know anyone who has heard of this book and even if all of the 3 million copies were sold to Americans, only 1 in 11 of them would have heard of it.

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1. Pet_Ant ◴[22 Oct 25 19:15 UTC] No.45673804[source]▶
That's funny because I swear almost every woman in my life has read it or at least knows enough to reference it. Even women who are from different walks of life and don't know eachother.
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2. ndriscoll ◴[22 Oct 25 19:26 UTC] No.45673969[source]▶
There are ~130 million US households, so if each copy were bought by a unique household and all 3 million copies were sold in the US, that would mean ~97.5% of US households don't have a copy. Maybe there's some huge multiplier on borrowing from libraries? Personally I've never heard of it, but it seems like it's pretty far outside of my bubble of interests.
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3. throwup238 ◴[22 Oct 25 19:33 UTC] No.45674048[source]▶
Then a hundred Instagram and TikTok influencers make videos about the book.

Reading is at an all time low in the US, the majority of people who have heard of this book probably haven't read a single sentence of it. It's mostly coming from social media content about the book.

4. ◴[22 Oct 25 19:36 UTC] No.45674090[source]▶