The Body Keeps the Score
2014 · Bessel van der Kolk · 464 pages · Psychology
Bessel van der Kolk's landmark book on trauma changed how millions of people understand their own minds and bodies. Drawing on decades of clinical experience and research, he explains how trauma reshapes the brain, disrupts the body's stress response, and creates patterns that talk therapy alone often can't reach. The science is presented clearly, the case studies are powerful, and the range of treatment approaches he covers gives readers practical paths forward. It's dense in places, his writing can be clinical, and not every treatment he advocates has the same evidentiary support. But as a comprehensive introduction to what trauma does and how healing might work, nothing else comes close.