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Criticisms of “The Body Keeps the Score”

(josepheverettwil.substack.com)
250 points adityaathalye | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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softwaredoug ◴[] No.45674571[source]
This article (and author) seems to be something of a trauma-skeptic, which doesn't seem to agree with mainstream science (setting aside Body Keeps the Score)

> That is, trauma doesn’t lead to dysfunction or abnormal brain function, physiology or hormonal regulation. Rather, an unhealthy person may be more susceptible to trauma.

What has been documented about Adverse Childhood Experiences doesn’t agree with this. There is copious evidence that the presence of ACEs, independent of other factors, leads to poor health outcomes [1]

It's also well known that past trauma predisposes you to future trauma [2]

There's also data indicating CPTSD, PTSD, and Borderline are distinct disorders [3]

1 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882933/ https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s...

2 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5858954/

3 - https://www.psychiatrypodcast.com/psychiatry-psychotherapy-p...

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taeric ◴[] No.45674663[source]
I think there is a bit of a crowd that is pushing the idea that you can make events worse by telling people that they are forever scarred from them? That is, yes, some trauma sticks with you. History shows people are also very resilient at moving on from trauma. Kind of have to be, so that we aren't devastated when we ultimately do lose some family.

Would be like saying you should hammer people on how much grieve they must be feeling because they lost a dog. Now, nor should you also scold people for feeling said grief. It is very personal and hard to really know what experience someone will have until they have it.

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marcelr ◴[] No.45674793[source]
more information is better if it’s also provided with the context of how to heal.

> History shows people are also very resilient at moving on from trauma

i’m extremely skeptical that people move on

they suppress, they survive, but without deep understanding its impossible to say move on

you can be ignorant and survive, or face reality and climb the deeply uphill battle of real growth.

of course you can be paralyzed by it, but no one is advocating for that as treatment

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1. lmm ◴[] No.45677216{3}[source]
> you can be ignorant and survive, or face reality and climb the deeply uphill battle of real growth.

> of course you can be paralyzed by it, but no one is advocating for that as treatment

Nominally yes. But in practice what are the effects of the treatments that people advocate for? Do people end up better or worse off?