While we’re at it—stealing things from Time magazine—here’s this.

Bessel Van Der Kolk’s 2014 book The Body Keeps the Score, about the emotional injury trauma inflicts on victims, the advances in medical treatments, and the imperative for further progress, met with a vastly appreciative audience, including clinicians. But even though he’s still a sought-after speaker, fewer universities and hospitals are clamoring for his time. The unconventional remedies he advocates get people bristling.

Understandable. But it’s one thing to be bristled at and another to have one’s research-based evidence rejected. For all Van Der Kolk’s efforts, persistent emotional injury in childhood has still not been assigned a trauma diagnosis by the DSM. PTSD is the sole trauma listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—which means insurers can refuse to reimburse for therapies for emotional damage not related to war. Oof.

Other issues here, too, catch the attention.

1. The fireplace hearth in Van Der Kolk’s living room.

2. The white stripe on his pants leg.

3. His propped foot.

Maybe they’re track pants? That’s twill tape running down the side, to suggest speed? Nothing worrisome, really.

But Van Der Kolk’s foot? Doesn’t he know that in certain cultures, exposing the soles of one’s feet or shoes is highly offensive? Didn’t he and the photographer discuss the possibility of the picture appearing in Time’s international edition?

And the hearth! Jutting up from the floor, right where everybody walks! What was Van Der Kolk’s top-dollar architect thinking? Won’t someone trip and fall and crack open their cranium?

A person doesn’t have to be picky to spot the hazard.

Insurance would pay, though. I guess.

 




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