Does the body really ‘keep the score’ after trauma? How the debunked idea of ‘repressed memories’ is making a comeback
Have you heard someone say online or in casual conversation, when responding to someone’s struggles, “well, the body keeps the score”? For many people, this phrase is a useful way to name the physical toll stress and trauma can take when the body is in “fight or flight” mode. The everyday use of this phrase also demonstrates the extraordinary reach of the 2014 non-fiction book that popularised it, The Body Keeps the Score by Dutch psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk. But as the
The popular phrase "the body keeps the score," derived from Bessel van der Kolk's book, suggests that trauma's physical toll is significant. While the book acknowledges trauma's impact on the body, its core argument posits that traumatic memories are stored unconsciously within the body, inaccessible to conscious recall. This concept echoes the controversial "repressed memories" theory from the 1990s, which proposed that the mind could unconsciously block traumatic events as a defense mechanism. Despite extensive research casting doubt on repression's reliability, the idea is resurfacing, now asserting that these stored memories manifest through physical symptoms.
The resurgence of the "repressed memories" concept, popularized by "The Body Keeps the Score," raises concerns among memory researchers due to its potential to influence trauma treatment approaches and public understanding of memory and healing.
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