An analysis of how Bessel van der Kolk's influential book has revived debates about the body storing traumatic memories, the history of the memory wars, and the dangers of suggestive therapies.
The phrase 'the body keeps the score ' has become a common way to describe how stress and trauma manifest physically, popularized by Bessel van der Kolk's 2014 bestseller.
However, the book advances a more controversial claim: that traumatic memories are stored in the body and remain inaccessible to conscious recall. This notion of repressed memories resurfacing through somatic symptoms has historical roots in the 'memory wars' of the 1990s, a heated scientific dispute over the reliability of recovered memories. Despite decades of research casting doubt on repression as a mechanism, the idea is making a comeback, now intertwined with the body's role.
Van der Kolk suggests healing requires 'releasing' these hidden memories via alternative therapies like yoga, psychedelic-assisted sessions, and guided imagery-methods often lacking robust evidence. While it is scientifically accepted that trauma can dysregulate the nervous system and produce physical symptoms such as panic attacks or sleep disturbances, the specific claim that the body stores repressed memories is not supported by mainstream memory science. Autobiographical memory is reconstructive; suggestive techniques can implant false memories.
Professional bodies like the APA and BPS warn against memory-recovery therapies due to their risks. The current cultural focus on trauma sometimes blurs the line between acknowledging its bodily impact and endorsing unproven memory theories. This five-part series examines the evolving definition of trauma, the limitations of talk therapy, and alternative approaches.
Some methods like yoga may alleviate stress without necessarily accessing repressed memories, but marketing that links nightmares to unremembered trauma can exploit vulnerable individuals, directing them to paid coaching programs under the guise of 'trauma-informed' care
Please follow us on Google to support us Repressed Memory Trauma Body Keeps The Score Memory Wars False Memories Alternative Therapy PTSD Suggestive Therapy
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
As US turns 250, Trump adds fuel to battles over monuments and memoryProposed memorials have become flashpoints in a wider struggle over history and political power
Read more »
‘My diagnosis was a blessing’: composer Sally Beamish on tackling the condition that ruined every joyful memoryAs she prepares to mark 70 with a birthday concert, the musician talks about her destructive mindset – and the steps she took to finally make sense of her life and music’s part in it
Read more »
Palestinians trapped between Israeli forces and Hamas rule, report findsA UN report finds that Palestinians are being subjected to 'mass atrocities' by Israeli forces and being 'violently repressed and controlled by the very faction that claims to govern them'.
Read more »
The future of Australian swimming has arrived – and they’re only 17If there are two names you should commit to memory ahead of the swimming program at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, make them Sienna Toohey and Henry Allan.
Read more »