[t]rauma produces actual physiological changes, including a recalibration of the brain's alarm system, an increase in stress hormone activity, and alterations in the system that filters relevant information from irrelevant. we now know that trauma comprises the brain area that communicates the physical, embodied feeling of being alive. these changes explain why traumatized individuals become hypervigilant to threat t the expense of spontaneously engaging in their day-to-day lives. they also help us understand  why traumatized people so often keep repeating the same problems and have such trouble learning from experience. we now know that their behaviors are not the result of moral failings or signs of lack of willpower or bad character—they are caused by actual changes in the brain.

bessel a. van der kolk
the body keeps the score


this book is going to be good and clarifying. i hope you don't mind me sharing some passages as i read. i think we are in a traumatic culture, a cult almost of trauma, that's how i might characterize neoliberal society. so this is relevant to all of us. we're all on this spectrum or continuum that i hope is going to radically change before it ends.