←back to thread

Criticisms of “The Body Keeps the Score”

(josepheverettwil.substack.com)
250 points adityaathalye | 1 comments | 22 Oct 25 18:49 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
softwaredoug ◴[22 Oct 25 20:13 UTC] 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...

replies(9): >>45674663 #>>45675026 #>>45676644 #>>45676731 #>>45676884 #>>45677092 #>>45677381 #>>45678481 #>>45678796 #
casey2 ◴[23 Oct 25 01:10 UTC] No.45677092[source]▶
None of that controls for socioeconomic status which is likely the most common factor in poor health outcomes. In particular some of these try to put a measure on "family dysfunction"... yeah, good luck with that.

Trauma is a very politically charged topic anyhow with at least a few modern political movements tying themselves to it, it would be very inconvenient for it to not be an all encompassing problem.

replies(3): >>45677266 #>>45677802 #>>45677834 #
1. HalcyonCowboy ◴[23 Oct 25 03:20 UTC] No.45677834[source]▶
The person you replied to specifically listed multiple studies that do account for socioeconomic factors. Take a look at the second paper, and in the introduction you’ll see that they did sub group analysis for multiple socioeconomic factors. I.e. among people of the same geographic, economic, and ethnic backgrounds, those with higher ACE were at higher risk for a bunch of diseases.

Not to say that I think it’s useful to focus so much on personal trauma outside of therapy, I don’t. But dismissing evidence presented to you without engaging with it doesn’t feel useful either.