This wasn't a perfect book, but it has probably permanently changed the way I view and treat other human beings, hopefully for the better. Van der Kolk is a persuasive and passionate writer, clearly well-educated by his experience as a psychiatrist and researcher but good at writing for a general audience. I also largely agree with his views on society and mental health, which made this a pretty smooth read, with lots of nodding and highlighting and very little critical margin-scrawling. I learned a lot about the mechanisms of trauma and trauma treatment, and I have a new resource through which to make my own arguments.

I say "this wasn't a perfect book" mostly only because the organization seemed strange to me; the treatments were all listed at the end, and were so varied and presented in so random an order that they didn't really seem to suggest anything coherent, other than "fund more of my research please" (which, fair, I get it). It doesn't seem like it's clear yet how to predict when certain of these treatments will be more effective than others.