The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Van der Kolk summarizes the text, noting that trauma therapy is still an active field. He finds himself “close to despair” (350) since even with advances in neuroscience, in some ways, trauma therapy seems to be regressing. Reiterating his assessment of modern psychiatry, van der Kolk adds, “Many psychiatrists today work in assembly-line offices where they see patients they hardly know for fifteen minutes and then dole out pills to relieve pain, anxiety, or depression” (351).

For van der Kolk, trauma, especially in children, is a serious epidemic that is running unchecked. He spells out how the current system fails traumatized youth and lists ways it could be improved, particularly through specific programs that the National Child Traumatic Stress Network has implemented around the country in an attempt to combat the problem. He ends with a plea for his audience to take action now, before the problems of traumatized youth become too much for society to handle.