The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma is a 2014 book by Bessel van der Kolk about the purported effects of psychological trauma.[1][2] The book describes van der Kolk's research and experiences on how people are affected by traumatic stress, including its effects on the mind and body.
Scientists have criticized the book for promoting pseudoscientific claims about trauma, memory, the brain, and development.[3][4][5]
The Body Keeps the Score has been a hit, routinely topping bestseller lists in the nonfiction category. It has been published in 36 languages.[6] As of August 2025, it has spent 355 weeks (almost 7 years) on the New York Times bestseller list for paperback nonfiction, with a substantial number of them in the No. 1 position.[7][8]
Publication history
The book is based on van der Kolk's 1994 Harvard Review of Psychiatry article "The body keeps the score: memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress".[9][10]
Overview
In the book, van der Kolk focuses on the central role of the attachment system and social environment to protect against developing trauma related disorders. Where trauma does occur, he discusses the effects[1] and possible forms of healing, including a large variety of interventions to recover from the impacts of traumatic experiences.[11] These include EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), yoga, and limbic system therapy.[12]
Reception
The Body Keeps the Score was well-received, including a starred review from Library Journal.[13] Reviewing the book for New Scientist magazine, Shaoni Bhattacharya wrote that "[p]acked with science and human stories, the book is an intense read that can get technical. Stay with it, though: van der Kolk has a lot to say, and the struggle and resilience of his patients is very moving."[2]
In 2019, The Body Keeps the Score was ranked second in the science category of The New York Times Best Seller list.[14] As of July 2021, the book had spent more than 141 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List for nonfiction, with 27 of those weeks spent in the No. 1 position.[8]
A 2024 article in The Financial Times wrote that "In recent years, his 2014 masterwork The Body Keeps the Score has become an improbable sensation. Buoyed by a groundswell of popular interest in trauma and psychology in the wake of the pandemic, the dense, scientifically rigorous text has become a latent, runaway success, spending nearly 300 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list."[15]
As of August 2025, the book remains a huge hit. Amazon's bestselling nonfiction list has included it for 238 weeks in a row (at #8 in August 2025).[16] It has spent 355 weeks (nearly 7 years) on The New York Times bestselling paperback fiction list (#1 in August 2025).[7]
Criticism regarding pseudo-scientific claims
In his 2005 Canadian Journal of Psychiatry article psychologist Richard McNally described the reasoning of van der Kolk's 1994 article "The Body Keeps the Score" as "mistaken", and his theory as "plague[d]" by "[c]onceptual and empirical problems." McNally describes "recovered memory therapy," inspired by van der Kolk's approach, as "arguably the most serious catastrophe to strike the mental health field since the lobotomy era".[3] McNally's 2003 book Remembering Trauma gave a detailed critique (pp. 177–82) of van der Kolk's article, concluding van der Kolk's theory was one "in search of a phenomenon".[17]
The book received a negative review in The Washington Post in 2023 for promoting "uncertain science".[5]
A 2023 editorial published in Research on Social Work Practice criticized the book for promoting treatments that have limited to no evidence. It states that van der Kolk and Levine "regularly ignore, misrepresent, and sometimes veer into or close to pseudoscience when it comes to the scientific knowledge base of PTSD treatment".[4]
In a 2024 Mother Jones article, Emi Nietfeld criticized the book, writing it "stigmatizes survivors, blames victims, and depoliticizes violence."[18] She reached out to multiple researchers of the original research the book cites for comments, and reported multiple researchers said The Body Keeps the Score distorted their research. The evidence the book presents regarding how trauma is "remembered" by the body is also weak. She also illustrates the book lacks considerations for broader social and political factors of violence and trauma.[18]
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