books on trauma biographies

9 Memoirs About Recovering from Trauma

Kate is a 2011 Drake University grad, where she received her BA in magazine journalism. A hopeless romantic with a cynical heart, Kate will read anything that comes with a content warning, a love triangle, and a major plot twist. Twitter: @katekrug Blog:  http://snarky-yet-satisfying.com

View All posts by Kate Krug

This list of memoirs about recovering from trauma is sponsored by  Inspirational Books Publishing .

Recovery from any trauma, be it physical, emotional, psychological, or anything in between, can be a long and arduous process. It looks different for everyone, but all are equally inspirational. These memoirs take the reader through unimaginable experiences and how the author found acceptance and peace.

Content warnings apply to all of these books; the main subject matter can be found in parentheses under each description.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

We know Maya Angelou as one of the world’s most renown poets and civil rights activists. In her first of seven autobiographies, Angelou (then Marguerite Johnson) chronicles her childhood up to age 17, including her rape at eight years old and the oppression she faced because of the color of her skin. Her entire collected works express how her inner strength, tenacity, and love of books helped her to overcome her trauma.

(CW: childhood rape, racism)

Lost Boy by Brent W. Jeffs

The nephew of the now imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), Warren Jeffs, Brent was the first member to file a sexual abuse lawsuit against his uncle. As a member of FLDS and a polygamous family, Brent suffered sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of his relatives. Brent writes about his life as a “lost boy,” or someone who has left FLDS, and how he ultimately finds himself.

(CW: childhood sexual and emotional abuse, religious cult)

That Mean Old Yesterday by Stacey Patton

When Stacey is placed with a permanent family, she couldn’t imagine that anything could be worse than the foster system. Over the course of her childhood, she endures physical, verbal, and emotional abuse at the hands of her adoptive mother, while her adoptive father turned a blind eye. While weaving in African American history within, Patton grows up to become an inspiration and award-winning journalist.

(CW: childhood abuse)

Boy Erased: A Memoir by Garrard Conley

When Garrard is outed as gay at 19, he is given an ultimatum by his small-town Arkansas Baptist pastor father: begin conversion therapy or lose his friends and family. Conley is enrolled in Love in Action and in his memoir he recounts the emotional harm inflicted on him, and his journey to acceptance.

(CW: conversion therapy)

Desert Flower by Waris Dirie

Dirie’s memoir recounts her trauma stemming from the tradition of female genital mutilation that she was subjected to as a child. Now an international fashion model and human rights ambassador to the United Nations, Waris’s perseverance and courage shines through as she confronts the horrors of her past and hope for the future.

(CW: female genital mutilation)

Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi

Slahi was detained by the U.S. government in 2001 and ultimately sent to Guantanamo after a year of torment. A written account of his time within the prison walls, Guantanamo Diary is the first and only memoir from someone still in imprisonment at Guantanamo. Since arriving, Slahi has been subjected to countless forms of torture in an attempt to get him to admit to his crimes.

(CW: physical, sexual, emotional abuse)

Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory

Beginning in early childhood, Julie was continually subjected to operations, medications, and other unnecessary medical services by her mother. A survivor of Munchausen by proxy (MBP), a form of child abuse where the parent invents or induces physical symptoms in their child to gain attention. Now an adult, Julie looks at the potential reasoning behind her mother’s behavior and mental instability, as well as how she broke free from her mother’s hold.

(CW: childhood abuse, Munchausen by proxy)

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

At the age of thirteen, Beah was taken by the Sierra Leone army and became a soldier. He and the other child soldier were consistently emotionally manipulated, leading them to become cold-blooded murderers before their eighteenth birthday, as well as drug abuse. During his rehabilitation, Beah was forced to face his demons and the fact that he was capable of such violence.

(CW: emotional abuse, drug abuse, war)

A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer

During childhood, Pelzer suffered severe physical and emotional torture at the hands of his mother, who was living with alcoholism and mental instability. Pelzer was often forced to partake in “games” that nearly cost him his life. What kept him alive is his dream of one day being a part of a loving family and being recognized as a person and not an “It.” Pelzer ultimately had the bravery to speak up at school and was taken into foster care.

You Might Also Like

10 Best Trauma Books for Healing Your Past

• Emma McAdam, LMFT
• September 7, 2022

Share This Post

Hey, everyone. I love to read and learn more about how to treat trauma and PTSD, so I thought I’d share my favorite trauma books to help you heal from trauma and PTSD.

1. Healing Trauma

So here is my favorite PTSD book. It’s Healing Trauma by Peter Levine. Now, I often don’t have a copy of this to show — I just bought this new one — because I’m constantly giving this book to people and then buying another. 

It’s an awesome book. It explains how trauma gets trapped in the body and how you can process through it and heal. It’s also a really short read. It’s got gentle examples and some easy exercises. 

It’s my number one because it’s very accessible, it’s very easy to read, it’s not very triggering, and it comes with a CD, with exercises to help you start healing your relationship with your body. 

2. The Body Keeps the Score

Number two is The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. So Dr. van der Kolk has done just tons of research on effective treatments for PTSD and trauma, and in this dense book he outlines how trauma impacts the brain, the mind, and body. 

Bessel explains what effective treatments are available, and he gives some clear insights into actions that both individuals and society as a whole can do to prevent and treat trauma. His book includes a lot of detailed stories that could be quite triggering. 

This book has spent 74 weeks on Amazon’s top 20 non-fiction books. I’m just happy that there’s a trauma book in the top 20. And there’s a good reason why it has been. It’s just a really good, really comprehensive approach to understanding trauma.

3. The Transformation

Number three: The Transformation by Dr. James Gordon. He’s a compassionate doctor who understands the biological and medical aspect of trauma treatment, but he also understands the importance of dancing and laughing and pets as part of healing. So this book is a really holistic approach to treating the body and mind and heart after trauma. 

4. Moving Beyond Trauma

Number four: Moving Beyond Trauma by Eileen Smith. I like the combination of clinical experience, treating trauma using a somatic experiencing approach, and the personal story of how the author personally used somatic experiencing therapy to heal from trauma and become more resilient. 

I would say this book is not very triggering and includes some really practical exercises that you can use. So it’s another good book that I recommend.

5. Getting Past Your Past

Number five: Getting Past Your Past by Francine Shapiro. She is the founder of EMDR. And this book walks you through the fundamentals of how trauma changes you and how you can get your life back. It includes a lot of personal stories and also a lot of practical exercises. And I would say this book is probably moderately triggering. 

It’s a little bit more of a dense book, so I don’t recommend it as often to my clients, but if you like really diving in, it’s a great book. 

6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

So now I’m going to share some memoirs that I found inspiring because personal stories of working through trauma I think are really powerful. 

So number six is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. My clinical director gave me this book, and I loved it. It really beautifully describes the pain and joy and also healing by the amazing author and poet Maya Angelou. She faces the really painful moments in her childhood head-on, but also with grace. 

It’s definitely triggering if you have a history of sexual abuse, but it’s a wonderful read.

7. Man's Search for Meaning

Number seven: Man’s Search for Meaning. This copy has been around hiking in the desert with me for a long time. I’ve shared it with a lot of kids, a lot of teenagers. And this is a classic. 

Victor Frankel says, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” And this book tells the story of Viktor Frankl’s experience in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He survived the concentration camps and came out believing in man’s ability to choose their attitude and man’s ability to overcome horrific experiences through a purposeful life. 

8. My Story

Number eight — I don’t have it; I think I gave it away — is My Story by Elizabeth Smart. Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped and sexually abused for months at the age of 13. And in this book — I mean, it’s definitely triggering, but it’s also uplifting — she shares the powerful account of her trauma and healing. So I really like that because she’s very vulnerable but very real.

9. CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving

I’ve got a couple honorable mentions. These are on my reading list, but I haven’t gotten to them yet. 

So I’ve heard nothing but good about this book by Pete Walker: CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving. Everyone tells me that this book explains CPTSD better than any other. So CPTSD is when you’ve been chronically abused as a child or experienced ongoing abuse that really affected your development. I just haven’t gotten to this book yet. It’s next up on my reading list. But I’ve heard great things about it. 

10. What Happened to You?

Number 10 is another book that’s on my reading list: What Happened to You? by Oprah. It’s a bestseller. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s another one that comes highly recommended. So Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry share personal stories, interviews, and scientific insight into how trauma impacts you and the healing process. 

I hope this is helpful. Thank you for watching, and take care.

For more ways to help with Trauma/PTSD check out my free course below. 

More To Explore

How to do Exposure Therapy for Fears and Anxiety – Break the Anxiety Cycle 27/30

In this post, you will learn how to do exposure therapy for fears and anxiety. Hey everyone! Real quick if you’d like to learn more

How to Deal with Uncertainty – Without Self-Sabotage

In this post, you’ll learn how to deal with uncertainty without self-sabotage. Imagine this: you are wired to an electric shock device and which one

Solving Actual Problems (Instead of Just Coping Skills) – Break the Anxiety Cycle 26/30

In this post, you’ll learn more about solving actual problems instead of just coping skills.  I recently got an email from a woman who said

How Menopause Impacts Anxiety, Depression and Panic Attacks 

In this post, you’ll learn how menopause impacts anxiety, depression and panic attacks.  Menopause can have a huge impact on women’s mental health. Let me

Get Weekly Tips Sent Directly to Your Inbox

Business Inquiry

• Sign up and get a free ebook!
• Don't miss our $0.99 ebook deals!

An Autobiography of Trauma

A healing journey.

• Unabridged Audio Download

Trade Paperback

LIST PRICE $18.99

Buy from Other Retailers

• Amazon logo
• Bookshop logo

Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Peter A. Levine, Ph.D., is the renowned developer of Somatic Experiencing. He holds a doctorate in Medical and Biological Physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a doctorate in Psychology from International University. The recipient of four lifetime achievement awards, he is the author of several books, including Waking the Tiger , which has now been printed in 33 countries and has sold over a million copies.

Product Details

• Publisher: Park Street Press (April 2, 2024)
• Length: 200 pages
• ISBN13: 9798888500767

Browse Related Books

• Self-Help > Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Psychology > Psychopathology > Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Biography & Autobiography > Personal Memoirs

Raves and Reviews

“This book is a peek behind the curtain of one of the greatest leaders of our time in the fields of spirituality and psychology. An Autobiography of Trauma is a powerfully transparent, knowledge-drenched, and generous invitation into the personal world of a man who birthed one of the most impactful models of trauma healing of all time. I felt giddy beholding his story of emergence, persistence, resilience, and leadership. This book moved me to apply Peter’s awareness and perception to my own ongoing and deepening personal practice of returning to wholeness. Peter’s work fosters healing, cohesion, and a ‘coming home’ to who we were each born to be.”

– Alanis Morissette, artist, activist, and wholeness advocate

“Peter Levine is a wise and kind pioneer of somatic therapies who has been a beacon for clinicians all over the world for understanding and dealing with the physical imprints of traumatic stress.”

– Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., author of The Body Keeps the Score

“A valedictory ode to humanity penned by one of the seminal trauma pioneers and master healers of the past half century, this book is the account of a remarkable soul journey from searing pain to joy, from self-hatred to selflove. Its every page is infused with poetic eloquence, dramatic story-telling, unsparing honesty, and touching vulnerability. Prepare to be enchanted and to be instructed and, above all, prepare to be moved.”

– Gabor Maté, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and

“A brave, self-revealing memoir of a man and his journey into wholeness. Levine intimately recounts the traumas and experiences that helped shape his legacy.”

– Mark Wolynn, author of It Didn’t Start with You

“This intimate and authentic memoir by Peter Levine, the developer of Somatic Experiencing, may serve as inspiration for all of us in our healing journeys.”

– Esther Perel, New York Times bestselling author of The State of Affairs

“I was so deeply touched by Peter Levine’s story of facing severe violence and trauma as a child and how he transformed these wounds, restoring psyche, body, and soul. I am moved by his grace and authenticity in how he used his own deep wounding to help countless people around the world to heal from their wounds. After the first page, I could not put the book down as I accompanied him, as Chiron the wounded healer, on his healing journey. What I also found fascinating was his ‘conversations’ with Albert Einstein as an inner ‘spirit guide,’ a virtual mentor on his quest for knowledge, wisdom, wholeness, and connection.”

– Dr. Edith Eva Eger, New York Times bestselling author of The Choice: Embrace the Possible and The Gi

“Peter Levine’s vulnerable sharing of his own attachment and bodily assaults to well-being in this painful yet illuminating set of reflections reveals the inner workings of his psyche—soul, spirit, and mind—and a glimpse of the impact of both the inner and outer mentors that have guided him during various life stages. The raw human realities offered to us here may be triggering for some, yet they may also serve as an example of intellectual inspiration and courage. In these pages we see a journey to challenge dogma, to be open to the limitations of empirical linear science, and to see the liberations of a systems view of emergence and the importance of the body in healing. It is this openness to being a conduit of life’s truths that can empower us all to embrace the fullness of life even in its most difficult moments.”

– Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of Aware

“This book is a powerful vehicle for a heroic narrative. True to the title, An Autobiography of Trauma , Levine provides the reader with an unfiltered glimpse into his personal traumas and his journey of healing. As the preeminent trauma therapist, it may not be surprising that his life was greatly influenced by adversity. Clearly his passion to reduce the burden of pain and suffering in others, and especially the consequences of childhood adversity, finds root in his own history. However, as Peter tells his story, we are privileged to see how he heroically repurposed the insights he gained through his own experiences to go well beyond a journey of self-healing to develop treatment models that are literally changing the world through their powerful positive impact on humanity. In this book we get to meet the bold, intuitive visionary who courageously convinced the mental health community of the important role that the body plays in experiencing the impact of trauma, both in expression and in serving as a welcoming, but often reluctant, partner in a journey of healing.”

– Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D., originator of the polyvagal theory and author of The Pocket Guide to the P

“Peter Levine’s autobiography explores the depths of his untold trauma story. The vulnerability he shares will help readers understand why he took the path toward being an accomplished healer. I believe his new book will inspire others to share their stories and find a place of wholeness.”

– Diane Poole Heller, Ph.D., author of The Power of Attachment

“A kaleidoscopic personal quest for sexual healing. An Autobiography of Trauma is beautifully written with smooth transitions between a myriad of shifting facets. At times this book is heartbreakingly painful and personal. It’s also highly scientific, informative, and intellectual, highlighting the influence of Eros in letting go and ecstatic expansion while maintaining conscious awareness. Brilliant, breathtaking, and masterful.

– Diana Richardson, author of Tantric Sex for Lovers, a 3-volume boxed set

“We always want to know who the man or woman is behind the model, but too often their memoirs are promo pieces. In contrast, in this remarkable book, Peter Levine courageously reveals his own severe childhood trauma history, his consequent struggles to find intimacy, and how much connecting to the divine influenced his work and life. Somatic Experiencing is a powerful approach to healing trauma, and I’m so glad Peter is sharing the fascinating backstory to its development and to his healing journey. I was particularly touched by the chapters on sexuality and expect they will help people be more honest and open with themselves and others about this delicate and tender topic.”

– Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D., founder of Internal Family Systems

“An inspiring journey of trauma and triumph. A uniting of science and shamanism in transforming trauma and restoring wholeness.”

– Joachim Bauer, M.D., professor of medicine and neuroscience, University of Freiburg and Internationa

“Brilliant, moving and wise. Honest and vulnerable enough to redeem your broken heart and then visionary enough to learn deeply from his intensely curious mind.”

– Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

“Compelling and revelatory, Peter Levine takes us with him in a journey through his own traumas toward healing, love, and service. Each page is gripping, intimate, and profound. Exploring dreams, neurobiology, psychedelics, clinical practice, shamanism, sexuality, and more, he shows us how to be in the world with all of its sorrows, while still finding inner freedom and joy.”

– Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha's Brain

"A personal and revealing...memoir from a trailblazing therapist."

– Kirkus Reviews

Resources and Downloads

High resolution images.

• Book Cover Image (jpg): An Autobiography of Trauma Trade Paperback 9798888500767

Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today!

Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.

More books from this author: Peter A. Levine

You may also like: Thriller and Mystery Staff Picks

More to Explore

Limited Time eBook Deals

Check out this month's discounted reads.

Our Summer Reading Recommendations

Red-hot romances, poolside fiction, and blockbuster picks, oh my! Start reading the hottest books of the summer.

This Month's New Releases

From heart-pounding thrillers to poignant memoirs and everything in between, check out what's new this month.

Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love.

100 Best Trauma Books of All Time

We've researched and ranked the best trauma books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more

The Body Keeps the Score

Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk M.D. | 5.00

Matthew Green Reading The Body Keeps the Score was a eureka moment for me. (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl, William J. Winslade, et al. | 4.58

Tony Robbins Another book that I’ve read dozens of times. It taught me that if you change the meaning, you change everything. Meaning equals emotion, and emotion equals life. (Source)

Jimmy Fallon I read it while spending ten days in the ICU of Bellevue hospital trying to reattach my finger from a ring avulsion accident in my kitchen. It talks about the meaning of life, and I believe you come out a better person from reading it. (Source)

Dustin Moskovitz [Dustin Moskovitz recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)

Trauma and Recovery

The Aftermath of Violence--From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Judith L. Herman | 4.55

Tara Westover | 4.53

Bill Gates Tara never went to school or visited a doctor until she left home at 17. I never thought I’d relate to a story about growing up in a Mormon survivalist household, but she’s such a good writer that she got me to reflect on my own life while reading about her extreme childhood. Melinda and I loved this memoir of a young woman whose thirst for learning was so strong that she ended up getting a Ph.D.... (Source)

Barack Obama As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018... (Source)

Alexander Stubb If you read or listen to only one book this summer, this is it. Bloody brilliant! Every word, every sentence. Rarely do I go through a book with such a rollecoaster of emotion, from love to hate. Thank you for sharing ⁦@tarawestover⁩ #Educated https://t.co/GqLaqlcWMp (Source)

Waking the Tiger

Healing trauma.

Peter A. Levine | 4.52

Dr. Gabor Maté [The author's] first book. And he’s written many wonderful books since then. (Source)

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook

Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz | 4.49

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving

A Guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma

Pete Walker | 4.44

The Deepest Well

Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity

Nadine Burke Harris M.D. | 4.36

Jamie Grayson This is one of the best interviews I’ve ever heard. Explained a lot-even about myself. @DrBurkeHarris I downloaded your book (because I LOVE listening to you speak) and cannot wait to listen. Keep ON. What a gift. Truly. ❤️ https://t.co/KhCa9H0MDD (Source)

In an Unspoken Voice

How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness

Peter A. Levine, Gabor Mate | 4.36

Trauma Stewardship

An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, Connie Burk | 4.33

Don't have time to read the top Trauma books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

• Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
• Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
• Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Gail Honeyman | 4.32

Twinkle Khanna Eleanor is awkward, funny, an alcoholic and clearly not fine. A great book for someone who wants to get over a reading slump. Loved it! #mustread #eleanoroliphantiscompletelyfine #TweakIt https://t.co/fVQu4sYhSi (Source)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky | 4.31

Richard Speight Jr. A pal for 30 years, @StephenChbosky ‘s first book #ThePerksofBeingaWallflower had a MASSIVE impact on me & countless others. Then came his great movies. Now..THE NEXT BOOK! Be like me & buy it THE DAY it comes out. (Then harass him until he agrees to put me in the movie! 🎥 🤠) https://t.co/02bMKPgF9A (Source)

Jamie Grayson Holy shit there’s no way this book is that old because that really ages me but I COMPLETELY agree. This book is a masterpiece and a must-read. Lessons about being human are in there and those are important right now. https://t.co/fF1spEFrUH (Source)

Rae Earl It is a tremendously powerful study of PTSD, a mental health issue that isn’t talked about enough (Source)

It Didn't Start with You

How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle

Mark Wolynn | 4.30

A Child Called "It" (Dave Pelzer, #1)

Dave Pelzer | 4.29

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien | 4.27

Karl Marlantes But when O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried he came down to absolute real brass tacks. It was no longer surreal, it was like here’s a list of what a grunt carries, an infantry soldier… (Source)

Caroline Paul A beautiful book by a writer who fought in Vietnam. (Source)

Eugene Gu @realDonaldTrump Tim O’Brien is the author of the book The Things They Carried, which was about the Vietnam War. Must be very triggering for Trump since he dodged the draft multiple times with fraudulent doctors’ notes for fake bone spurs like a coward. (Source)

Our Deepest Desire And Greatest Fear

Laurence Heller Ph.D. | 4.26

The Body Remembers

The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment

Babette Rothschild | 4.24

Laurie Halse Anderson | 4.23

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara | 4.22

Soman Chainani The greatest work of fiction I’ve ever read, with the simplest theme: All of us come with baggage and wounds and pain; all of us. (Source)

Jane Mcgonigal @rhondakap @kellymcgonigal If you haven't read this only read it if you want to be emotionally brutalized. Virtuoso portrayal of compassion but Jesus you could not make worse things happen to your characters. Almost sadistic. Amazing book but traumatic read (Source)

Ella Botting This may be the best book I’ve ever read. It’s a long old book and I bloody love a long book. I don’t possess the vocabulary to describe this book - it was so good, but I’d say it was an intricate analysis of the character’s daily lives and their daily lives are hella intense at times. This booked reminded me that while success in the workplace is very important to me, so is the time spent with... (Source)

Trauma and the Body

A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy

Pat Ogden, Kekuni Minton, Clare Pain, Daniel J. Siegel, Bessel van der Kolk | 4.21

We Were Liars

E. Lockhar | 4.21

Milk and Honey

Rupi Kaur | 4.20

My Grandmother's Hands

Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts

Resmaa Menakem | 4.19

The Hate U Give

Angie Thomas | 4.19

Bianca Belair For #BlackHistoryMonth  I will be sharing some of my favorite books by Black Authors 7th Book: The Hate U Give By: Angie Thomas @angiecthomas The movie was really great, but it just hits different when you read the book! https://t.co/rxMH5Uu6JN (Source)

Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel | 4.18

Johanna Reiss Elie Wiesel wrote..that he was considering running into the barbed wire once, but he didn’t because his father needed him. (Source)

Steven Katz Probably the best known memoir that has been written about the experience of the death camps. (Source)

The Drama of the Gifted Child

The Search for the True Self

Alice Miller | 4.17

Dr. Gabor Maté All about the fact that stuff happens to us as children, negative things happen. Then, we adapt to those things by taking on certain defensive ways of being. And then, we live the rest of our lives from those defensive modes. (Source)

A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body

Peter A. Levine Ph.D. | 4.17

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini and Simon & Schuster Audi | 4.17

James Altucher Excellent novel. (Source)

Vanessa Keng I've always loved fiction - mainly crime and legal thrillers, but there's something wonderful about reading a completely different style of writing from what I'm used to. I found myself absorbed in the narrative of guilt and love in The Kite Runner, and The Curious Incident told me a story from a completely different perspective. (Source)

Magda Marcu I’m currently reading “The Kite Runner”. I never have expectations from books, I let them surprise me as I get into the story. Learning about characteristics of different cultures, in this case the Afghan one, it’s one aspect I am interested in. (Source)

Hillbilly Elegy

A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

J. D. Vance | 4.16

Bill Gates The disadvantaged world of poor white Appalachia described in this terrific, heartbreaking book is one that I know only vicariously. Vance was raised largely by his loving but volatile grandparents, who stepped in after his father abandoned him and his mother showed little interest in parenting her son. Against all odds, he survived his chaotic, impoverished childhood only to land at Yale Law... (Source)

Ryan Holiday In terms of other surprising memoirs, I found JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy to be another well-written gem. (Source)

Ben Shapiro A very well-written book. [...] The whole thing is a critique of individual decisions. (Source)

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors

Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation

Janina Fisher | 4.16

Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation

Skills Training for Patients and Therapists

Suzette Boon, Kathy Steele, et al. | 4.16

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls | 4.15

A Memoir of (My) Body

Roxane Gay | 4.15

Brene Brown This book will take your breath away with its truth-telling. A searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself. (Source)

Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past

A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory

Peter A. Levine PhD | 4.15

Overcoming Trauma through Yoga

Reclaiming Your Body

David Emerson, Elizabeth Hopper, Bessel van der Kolk, Peter A. Levine, Stephen Cope | 4.15

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood | 4.14

Grady Booch I read this several years ago but — much like Orwell’s 1984 — it seems particularly relevant given our current political morass. (Source)

Cliff Bleszinski @HandmaidsOnHulu Done. Love the show, book is a classic, can't wait for season 2. (Source)

Jason Kottke @procload Not super necessary, since you've seen the TV show. This first book is still a great read though...different than the show (tone-wise more than plot-wise). (Source)

The Courage to Heal

A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Ellen Bass, Laura Davis | 4.12

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness

Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing

David A. Treleaven, Willoughby Britton | 4.11

Know My Name

Chanel Miller | 4.10

Marian Keyes Oh! So GREAT! If you're able, PLEASE read her powerful book. https://t.co/3itlgrS7Mz (Source)

Laura I. Gómez Finished Chanel Miller's book. My eyes and soil are still raw from emotion. What a powerful memoir. (Source)

Charlie Brinkhurstcuff Chanel Miller's book is breathtaking and painful (Source)

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates | 4.09

Barack Obama The president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (Source)

Jack Dorsey Q: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most. : Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading! (Source)

Doug McMillon Here are some of my favorite reads from 2017. Lots of friends and colleagues send me book suggestions and it's impossible to squeeze them all in. I continue to be super curious about how digital and tech are enabling people to transform our lives but I try to read a good mix of books that apply to a variety of areas and stretch my thinking more broadly. (Source)

In the Dream House

Carmen Maria Machado | 4.09

Lydia Polgreen This is a brilliant and shattering book. https://t.co/tjcPgIlX2F (Source)

Childhood Disrupted

How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal

Donna Jackson Nakazawa | 4.09

Thirteen Reasons Why

Jay Asher | 4.09

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Close Encounters with Addiction

MD Gabor Maté, Peter A. Levine Ph.D. | 4.08

Johann Hari If you wanted to design a system that would make addiction worse, you’d design the system we have now. (Source)

When the Body Says No

Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection

Gabor Maté M.D. | 4.08

Naomi Klein Gabor Maté’s connections—between the intensely personal and the global, the spiritual and the medical, the psychological and the political—are bold, wise and deeply moral. He is a healer to be cherished (Source)

Bruce Lipton Once thought to be in the domain of genes, our health and behavior have recently been revealed to be controlled by our perception of the environment and our beliefs. Gabor Mate, M.D., skillfully blends recent advances in biomedicine with the personal insights of his patients to provide empowering insight into how deeply developmental experiences shape our health, behavior, attitudes, and... (Source)

Toni Morrison | 4.08

Esi Edugyan I was shocked by the blunt force of its subject matter and its exquisitely torqued prose. It remains one of my most adored novels. (Source)

Bianca Belair @ylc130 I went to the library when I was in the 3rd grade and read Beloved... I remember being so confused and my Mama having to explain it to me... I later read it as an adult and it hit me completely different. GREAT BOOK! (Source)

Farah Jasmine Griffin Beloved was Morrison’s fifth novel. It’s a gripping story, inspired by a famous abolitionist case, the true story of a woman who runs away from slavery with her children, but when the slave catchers catch up with her, she kills one of her own and tries to kill the others, rather than returning them to slavery. (Source)

Emma Donoghu | 4.07

The Unsayable

The Hidden Language of Trauma

Annie Rogers | 4.07

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn | 4.07

Jessica Northeyshaw @TheBrandyClark It's awesome! Did you read the book? It's super twisted and dark. Enjoy! 😘 (Source)

Toxic Parents

Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life

Susan Forward, Craig Buck | 4.07

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green | 4.07

Elon Musk Must admit to liking [this book]. Sad, romantic and beautifully named. (Source)

James Comey @johngreen You should not be. It is a great book. Was recently in Amsterdam and walked some of the scenes with your huge fan, my youngest daughter. Loved hearing from you and meeting you at Kenyon. (Source)

The Way I Used to Be

Amber Smit | 4.06

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

Lindsay C. Gibson | 4.06

Bogdan Lucaciu “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents” is also worth mentioning, it allowed me to tame some old demons. (Source)

The Color Purple

Alice Walker | 4.06

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak | 4.05

Lydia Ruffles The (Source)

The Haunted Self

Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization

Onno van der Hart Ph.D., Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis Ph.D., Kathy Steele | 4.05

Trauma Through a Child's Eyes

Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing

Peter A. Levine Ph.D. and Maggie Kline | 4.05

Running on Empty

Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect

Jonice Webb and Christine Musello | 4.05

Not That Bad

Dispatches from Rape Culture

Roxane Gay, Brandon Taylor, et al | 4.04

Healing from Trauma

A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life

Jasmin Lee Cori and Robert Scaer | 4.04

The Complete Maus

Art SPIEGELMAN | 4.04

Susan Bordo It’s about the Holocaust. It’s also a comic book, in which the various characters are depicted as animals – the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats. (Source)

The Gift of Fear

Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Gavin De Becker | 4.04

David Heinemeier Hansson The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker shares a bunch of anecdotes from violent attacks, how the victims often knew per instinct that something wasn’t right, but suppressed that instinct for fear of seeming rude or silly or whatever. He also presents a bunch of analytical frameworks for evaluating threats, stalkers, and other menaces. But it’s not a dry textbook. Gavin had a violent upbringing and... (Source)

Nicholas C. Zakas If I had a daughter, girlfriend, or wife, I’d highly recommend this book to them. https://t.co/rwuAY7cIXw Less useful for men unless you have reason to fear assassination, but an interesting read nonetheless. (Source)

On Homecoming and Belonging

Sebastian Junger | 4.04

Ryan Holiday To balance out that depressing book, I highly recommend David Brooks’ The Road To Character, Sebastian Junger’s Tribe and Chuck Klosterman’s What If We’re Wrong. (Source)

Jason Kander After years of people recommending it, I finally picked up Tribe by @SebastianJunger. I’m halfway done and it’s already the best non-fiction book I’ve read in years. (Source)

Andrew Youderian And finally, the book "Tribe" by Sebastian Junger reinforced in my the importance of relationships and in-person community, and made it something I'm trying to prioritize more in my life. (Source)

The Complex PTSD Workbook

A Mind-Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control and Becoming Whole

Arielle Schwartz PhD | 4.04

Traumatic Stress

The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society

Bessel A. van der Kolk, Alexander C. McFarlane, Lars Weisaeth | 4.04

Voices from Chernobyl

Svetlana Alexievich, Keith Gessen | 4.04

Craig Mazin These are sources I found fascinating and useful. Not ALL of them, but a bunch. First up, obviously... Svetlana Alexievich's Voices From Chernobyl. Absolutely essential, and heartbreaking, reading. There's a reason Ms. Alexievich has a Nobel Prize. (Source)

Kate Brown It’s a very beautiful work and I think it gives you the emotional landscape of how people dealt with their anxieties, fears, the health problems that ensued, and their growing sense of disillusionment with their political leaders and the Communist party. (Source)

Rebecca Altman What follows events like Chernobyl is a politics of measurement. Who counts? What counts? Who does the counting? How are boundaries drawn for the purposes of counting and comparing? And what is discounted, or never counted at all? (Source)

Why Does He Do That?

Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men

Lundy Bancroft | 4.04

Alice Sebold | 4.03

Embrace the Possible

Dr. Edith Eva Eger | 4.03

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey | 4.03

Richard Branson Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Bianca Belair For #BlackHistoryMonth I will be sharing some of my favorite books by Black Authors 5th Book: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings By: Maya Angelou Another autobiography classic that will be hard to not find on any must- read book list! https://t.co/mGRG76lLRn (Source)

Julia Enthoven I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is beautifully written, and I really enjoy the voice of the protagonist and think it’s sad and fascinating to read about her time in history. (Source)

The Inner World of Trauma

Archetypal Defences of the Personal Spirit

Donald Kalsched | 4.03

Getting Past Your Past

Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy

Francine Shapiro | 4.03

Big Little Lies

Liane Moriarty | 4.02

Maus II: A Survivor's Tale

And Here My Troubles Began (Maus, #2)

Art Spiegelman | 4.02

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut and Kevin Power | 4.02

Carlos Eire Even though he is no philosopher Vonnegut is still able to ask the questions that all of us think about – how time affects our lives. (Source)

Dan Christensen @MetaHumean Love that book. (Source)

Bernard Tan I’m also a Murakami and Vonnegut fan, Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Slaughterhouse-Five, etc. Now that I look at the books listed, they seem to carry an existential theme. I guess I like to understand humanity and human behaviour ultimately to better understand myself. I find reading a means to connect with people who may have lived before my time, or in a... (Source)

The Sexual Healing Journey

A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse

Wendy Maltz | 4.02

Nurturing Resilience

Helping Clients Move Forward from Developmental Trauma-An Integrative Somatic Approach

Kathy L. Kain, Stephen J. Terrell, et al | 4.02

It Ends with Us

Colleen Hoover | 4.02

Beartown (Beartown, #1)

Fredrik Backman | 4.02

Peter King Fathers Day Book 1: “Beartown,” by Fredrik Backman. Terrific, disturbing speed-read about hockey’s grip on a small Swedish town, and how the addiction to the game warps good people. Sports are fun. Sports are not life. Great lessons here. Could not put this book down. (Source)

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale

My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)

Art Spiegelman | 4.01

Vladimir Nabokov | 4.01

Richard Cohen It’s more imbued with references to the sun and using the sun as symbol or metaphor – almost a kind of character in the novel – than any other work in literature. (Source)

Bryan Callen So here are my three must read books. I've been reading a lot of great books like: Outsmart Your Instincts, The Culture Code, and Antonio Damasio’s The Strange Order, and sometimes when you read a lot of nonfiction it’s very enriching, sometimes you need a novel. I really believe you should take a minute and read something beautiful. Listen, listen to Lolita by Nabokov. But also listen to Blood... (Source)

Steven Amsterdam What’s spectacular for me is the triumph of the humour over his loathsomeness. (Source)

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold | 4.01

Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones , unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it,...

Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones , unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue ."

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife . Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Laurie Halse Anderso | 4.01

Trauma and the Soul

A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Human Development and Its Interruption

Donald Kalsched | 4.01

Will I Ever Be Good Enough?

Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers

Karyl McBride | 4.01

Attachment, Mind, Body and Brain

Daniel J. Siegel M.D., Marion Solomon Ph.D. | 4.01

An American Memoir

Kiese Laymon | 4.01

Trauma Treatment Toolbox

165 Brain-Changing Tips, Tools & Handouts to Move Therapy Forward

Jennifer Sweeton | 4.01

Love is the Answer, God is the Cure

A True Story of Abuse, Betrayal and Unconditional Love

Aimee Cabo Nikolov | 4.01

Trauma and the Avoidant Client

Attachment-Based Strategies for Healing

Robert T. Muller | 4.01

Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

Jon Krakauer | 4.01

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison | 4.01

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer | 4.01

All the Bright Places

Jennifer Niven | 4.01

The Impossible Knife of Memory

Laurie Halse Anderson | 4.00

A Terrible Thing Happened A Story For Children Who Have Witnessed Violence Or Trauma

Margaret M Holmes, Sasha J Mudlaff, et al. | 4.00

The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation

Deb A. Dana | 4.00

The Sea of Tranquility

Katja Milla | 4.00

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus

A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma

Becca Puglisi | 4.00

The Body Bears the Burden

Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease

Robert C. Scaer | 4.00

• NONFICTION BOOKS
• BEST NONFICTION 2023
• BEST NONFICTION 2024
• Historical Biographies
• The Best Memoirs and Autobiographies
• Philosophical Biographies
• World War 2
• World History
• American History
• British History
• Chinese History
• Russian History
• Ancient History (up to 500)
• Medieval History (500-1400)
• Military History
• Art History
• Travel Books
• Ancient Philosophy
• Contemporary Philosophy
• Ethics & Moral Philosophy
• Great Philosophers
• Social & Political Philosophy
• Classical Studies
• New Science Books
• Maths & Statistics
• Popular Science
• Physics Books
• Climate Change Books
• How to Write
• English Grammar & Usage
• Books for Learning Languages
• Linguistics
• Political Ideologies
• Foreign Policy & International Relations
• American Politics
• British Politics
• Religious History Books
• Mental Health
• Neuroscience
• Child Psychology
• Film & Cinema
• Opera & Classical Music
• Behavioural Economics
• Development Economics
• Economic History
• Financial Crisis
• World Economies
• Investing Books
• Artificial Intelligence/AI Books
• Data Science Books
• Sex & Sexuality
• Death & Dying
• Food & Cooking
• Sports, Games & Hobbies
• FICTION BOOKS
• BEST NOVELS 2024
• BEST FICTION 2023
• New Literary Fiction
• World Literature
• Literary Criticism
• Literary Figures
• Classic English Literature
• American Literature
• Comics & Graphic Novels
• Fairy Tales & Mythology
• Historical Fiction
• Crime Novels
• Science Fiction
• Short Stories
• South Africa
• United States
• Arctic & Antarctica
• Afghanistan
• Myanmar (Formerly Burma)
• Netherlands
• Kids Recommend Books for Kids
• High School Teachers Recommendations
• Prizewinning Kids' Books
• Popular Series Books for Kids
• BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS (ALL AGES)
• Ages Baby-2
• Books for Teens and Young Adults
• THE BEST SCIENCE BOOKS FOR KIDS
• BEST KIDS' BOOKS OF 2023
• BEST BOOKS FOR TEENS OF 2023
• Best Audiobooks for Kids
• Environment
• Best Books for Teens of 2023
• Best Kids' Books of 2023
• Political Novels
• New History Books
• New Historical Fiction
• New Biography
• New Memoirs
• New World Literature
• New Economics Books
• New Climate Books
• New Math Books
• New Philosophy Books
• New Psychology Books
• New Physics Books
• THE BEST AUDIOBOOKS
• Actors Read Great Books
• Books Narrated by Their Authors
• Best Audiobook Thrillers
• Best History Audiobooks
• Nobel Literature Prize
• Booker Prize (fiction)
• Baillie Gifford Prize (nonfiction)
• Financial Times (nonfiction)
• Wolfson Prize (history)
• Royal Society (science)
• Pushkin House Prize (Russia)
• Walter Scott Prize (historical fiction)
• Arthur C Clarke Prize (sci fi)
• The Hugos (sci fi & fantasy)
• Audie Awards (audiobooks)

Make Your Own List

Psychology » Mental Health

The best books on psychological trauma, recommended by matthew green.

Aftershock: The Untold Story of Surviving Peace by Matthew Green

The way we deal with psychological trauma is outdated and overly focused on the individual. Matthew Green , author of Aftershock , picks books that could help us, as a society, heal soldiers and others who have been through more than they can cope with.

Interview by Cal Flyn , Deputy Editor

War and the Soul by Edward Tick

The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

The Theatre of War by Bryan Doerries

Waking From Sleep by Steve Taylor

True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise by Terence McKenna

1 War and the Soul by Edward Tick

2 the body keeps the score: mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma by bessel van der kolk, 3 the theatre of war by bryan doerries, 4 waking from sleep by steve taylor, 5 true hallucinations: being an account of the author's extraordinary adventures in the devil's paradise by terence mckenna.

W hat prompted you to look into the subject of psychological trauma for your latest book,  Aftershock ? Was it a personal experience, or is this something that you’ve always had an interest in?

The question I wanted to ask was: what is it that war does, to break people? And what is the best way we can help them to heal? The focus of the book is not just on the sort of survivals that some of these men go through, but also on how they can recover and even transform themselves as a result of that experience.

I wonder if you might be able to explain, briefly, the symptoms a sufferer of psychological trauma might experience.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is actually quite a controversial diagnosis. It was codified in 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association, who were struggling to find a category to group together people with symptoms of post-traumatic stress, from Vietnam veterans to survivors of sexual abuse, and even the Holocaust. It’s been a contested diagnosis from the outset, partly because it covers such a wide range of symptoms. The ‘signature’ symptom of PTSD is the flashbacks, where a sufferer re-experiences, in vivid clarity, a life-threatening or horrific event, as if it was happening all over again. Other symptoms can include: anxiety, depression, problems in forming healthy relationships and hyper-vigilance — whereby a soldier might be constantly on alert, as if he was still back on patrol in Iraq or Afghanistan.

You’ve chosen books that look at psychological trauma more broadly, not only PTSD that has arisen from experiences in war. Are the effects of trauma similar, then, no matter the cause of the trauma?

That’s right. We tend to think of PTSD as something that only happens to people who’ve been through the most extreme experiences. War is often a big part of that. But, as I researched the book, I came to appreciate that trauma, in its broadest sense, can actually underlie many of what we call mental health problems in later life — whether that’s depression or anxiety or addictions . Many of these can be traced back to traumatic events in early life, which are actually a lot more common across the whole population than many people suppose.

I was very curious to find out what the rest of us might learn from military veterans about pathways to healing trauma, whether that be the classic trauma of the battlefield or trauma in a broader sense.

How does the army treat cases of military trauma today? Is it considered an important issue?

Yes. Attitudes have changed in the hundred years since the First World War , when more than 300 soldiers were shot for desertion. A couple of years ago, the army launched a publicity campaign called  Don’t Bottle It Up , which was specifically designed to encourage personnel who might be struggling to come forward and ask for help. This was an absolutely unprecedented public admission that psychological injury is inevitable and even common. So certainly things have changed, but, of course, they are not changing fast enough. In  Aftershock , I argued that we need to have a radically new vision of what the transition to civilian life looks like for service personnel. We need to stop thinking about tackling PTSD in terms of treatment of a disorder, and talk about healing an injury.

The first book you have recommended is  War and the Soul  by Edward Tick. Tick is an expert in post-traumatic stress, he’s treated a lot of victims from an assortment of different conflicts. But he, himself, has a background in faith. His bio mentions classical Greek and native American healing traditions.

He’s a psychotherapist, but he has a very spiritual way of looking at therapy. He has spent decades treating veterans from Vietnam onwards, and he tells some remarkable stories in the book. But what’s so compelling is the way he takes a spiritual approach. His argument is that in classical and native American tradition, serving as a warrior was an archetypal experience characterized by initiation of young men and, then, later, rituals of purification and cleansing that help them to undergo a sort of psycho-spiritual re-birthing process and return to civilian life, not just as civilians, but as individuals who’ve gone through a profound transformation. And that transformation was acknowledged by the wider society.

“I’ve never used the word ‘cure’ when talking about PTSD because it makes it sound like some sort of disease. I like to see it as an injury at the level of the soul.”

In the book, he argues that this has completely broken down in our modern society, and that lies at the root of many of the problems that veterans face. His argument is that we may not be able to get rid of the trauma, but we can help a veteran to grow more soul around the trauma, and that’s the ultimate remedy. He looks at how we can, in a way, return to those ancient traditions in order to achieve that in a modern context.

Is his argument that soldiers need to cleanse themselves before returning to society?

That’s part of the argument. I’m particularly interested in the native American tradition because I’ve been to a number of sweat lodge ceremonies myself, held in the UK, which are conducted to make a powerful catharsis experience for all the participants. I’ve experienced the power of it at first hand. But he is making a broader argument about the way we look at war trauma. It’s not something that has symptoms that can simply be medicated away or treated through individual therapy, although that can be helpful. He conceives it as a much bigger task for the society as a whole. We need to recognize that many veterans who served in combat have gone through a form of ‘psycho-spiritual death.’ They can become trapped in this no-man’s land when they return. In a sense, they’ve lost a part of their soul. His argument is that we need to come together to acknowledge that soul-loss and help veterans find ways to retrieve it. That might be through rituals, partly, but it is also a much bigger process of recognizing the injuries that war does, not just to the individual, but to society as a whole.

One of the figures in the book leapt out at me: one in eight Iraq veterans suffers from post-traumatic stress. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of individuals.

The second book that you recommend,  The Body Keeps the Score,  discusses how people’s traumatic experiences can change their biochemistry as well as their psychology, so that everything is affected.

Reading  The Body Keeps the Score was a eureka moment for me, in that it provided an explanation for the symptoms—the flashbacks, the hyper-vigilance, the paranoia—that I witnessed among the veterans that I’d been speaking to. For a hundred years, our approach to psychotherapy has been primarily through the mind, talking about our problems and trying to arrive at new understandings. The genius in Bessel van der Kolk’s book is that he manages to set out how our memories and experiences live on in the body and how, in his phrase, ‘the body keeps the score.’

“ The problem in Britain is that many people in the psychotherapy and psychiatry profession simply don’t have a good grasp of the neurobiology at all.”

If we’re going to heal trauma—rather than just treat it—we need to find ways to work with the deepest layers of the brain and the oldest, most primitive parts of the nervous system where those traumatic reactions reside. I saw, at first hand, that most of the therapy that is offered, certainly in Britain, isn’t up to the job of doing that. Bessel’s book is a manifesto for how we might start to think about treating trauma afresh.

If we’re talking about profound biochemical changes in the body, can these be reversed?

I think they can be significantly addressed. I’ve never used the word ‘cure’ when talking about PTSD because it makes it sound like some sort of disease. I like to see it as an injury at the level of the soul, but also of the body and the mind. Certainly, certain techniques that Bessel and others, who see trauma through this prism, work with show a lot of promise in adjusting the fight or flight mechanism in the brain, which is at the core of a lot of the symptoms. The problem in Britain is that many people in the psychotherapy and psychiatry profession simply don’t have a good grasp of the neurobiology at all. I think that if we’re going to do a better job at healing survivors of PTSD, then we really need to be embracing these ideas and opening our minds. It’s unfortunate that there’s still a great deal of resistance in the medical establishment in Britain to this kind of new thinking.

What sort of resistance?

The third book that you have recommended,  The Theatre of War,  also addresses alternative ways in, here using ancient Greek tragedies.

This is a remarkable book by Bryan Doerries about how he managed to convince the US military, which was very sceptical at first, to allow him to stage plays of Sophocles and other Greek tragedies before audiences of recently returned veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. These plays are remarkable. Sophocles, the author, was himself an Athenian general and wrote them to speak to the varying issues which veterans grappled with on a daily basis: the anger, the rage, the sorrow, the remorse, and the shame that each soldier so often encountered at home. Doerries saw these plays as a way of providing a collective catharsis to these returning veterans and they proved remarkable.

Get the weekly Five Books newsletter

He describes, in his book, scenes where, temporarily, the military hierarchy is allowed to dissolve in the discussions that take place in the wake of the plays. Men are allowed to say things that otherwise would have been unsayable. The results can be incredibly challenging, but it is clear that some of the men find that it’s the first time they are really able to face their own feelings, and for some of them, it starts the healing journey of the kind that Ed Tick describes in  War and the Soul.  In a sense, what Doerries is doing is providing a way to operationalize and apply the insights that Ed Tick advocates in his book. Those two books go very well together.

The program isn’t just for veterans, is it? He also takes 

The Bacchae  into a drug-plagued town in Appalachia, and the book of Job to a tornado-stuck town. This is looking very much at that universality of trauma that you mentioned.

He went into prisons as well. I think, again, the core insight is that so much of the way we think about therapy is that it is an individual who is struggling, or is depressed or anxious – that it’s their personal problem and they need a therapist that fixes them at an individual level and on an individual basis, a little like a machine that needs to be fixed by a mechanic. But actually it is much more helpful to recognize that many of the problems we face as individuals are a reflection of the collective dysfunction, particularly in the institutions which are founded to apply organized violence. It’s no wonder that the people who participate in them show signs of breakdown.

The work of somebody like Bryan Doerries is incredible. It has reached people and individuals in these institutions in ways that nobody else has. I noticed others doing similar work. There are companies in the US and in the UK who are adopting a similar approach. I really hope that his book will help to promote that, not just for his company, but for many others, in the years to come.

When we spoke about your first book, the spirituality element, I wondered how open soldiers might be to this. Do you think this is a way  to break down those barriers?

Certainly in Britain, we get very uncomfortable with words like ‘spirituality’ or the ‘soul.’ I very consciously avoided using those words in my book. But actually the kinds of journeys that many veterans described, as they tried to come to terms with their trauma, were incredibly spiritual. In  Aftershock,  I wrote about a veteran of the Falklands war called Gus Hales, who suffers from terrible PTSD and embraces meditation as his vehicle for coming to terms with what happened to him, his losses and learning to function again. He underwent a profound spiritual awakening as a result of his trauma.

I also wrote about a sniper who served in the Royal Marines in Afghanistan. He talked about his worst moments, where he was on verge of committing suicide, what he called a ‘meeting God’ experience, when he was suddenly filled with this sense of peace, reassurance, and tranquillity. This numinosity suggested that all will be well. That was only a brief sense that he had, but it was enough to stop him from taking his own life, and start the process of gradually rebuilding his life.

Does this tie into the fourth book,  Waking from Sleep?

I wanted to include this book because we’ve talked about the fact that, in many ways, trauma is an injury to the soul, and, therefore, finding a way to heal the soul or grow more soul is the most promising pathway to helping people to recover. As I said, in our very secular society, this is something that makes people uncomfortable. You won’t hear many therapists or psychiatrists working for the NHS talking about the soul. But actually, what Steve Taylor has done—he is a lecturer in psychology at Leeds University—is that he’s taken an academic approach to examining what we mean by a spiritual awakening. He sets out his findings with academic rigor in his book,  Waking from Sleep.

A lot of the time, this is a conversation that has a religious or a new-age context. Steve Taylor has done an amazing job of bridging the divide with the world of contemporary academic psychology in Britain, and providing a very clear account of what it means when somebody ‘wakes up,’ when they start to see beyond the voice in their heads, the usual patterns of their thinking, into much deeper parts of themselves. Anybody could do that in their daily lives, of course, but as Steve points out, it is often an experience that happens to somebody when they reach their lowest point, when it seems that there is no other way. It can often be that that darkest point is where the breakthrough takes place. It’s about understanding this breakdown not so much as a dysfunction, as a symptom of a spiritual crisis, and the way forward is to explore that and embrace it, and then rise phoenix-like out of the ashes.

For a lot of the men I met in the book, the trauma forced them to undertake a journey of self-discovery that they would have missed, otherwise. Steve Taylor’s book sets out that journey in very clear, academic, empirical terms, almost, in so far as we can talk about this as an empirical field. It’s a very valuable book for anyone who might be struggling or trying to think about this awakening process with a more academic perspective.

Is there a way that people can try to prompt an awakening? 

There are all kinds of spiritual paths that people choose to pursue. In my book, I write about equine therapy, or working with horses. At first, I thought it was a case of a man feeding some ponies apples. Actually, it is a very profound methodology for bridging the gap between neuroscience, psychology, and spirituality. I met veterans who went through a very clear awakening in spirit, who began to live life in a completely different way, as a result of work with the horses.

I wonder if you might explain the inclusion of the final book,  True Hallucinations?

This is one of my favourite books. Terence McKenna is the pioneer of psychedelics. There’s a revival in interest in the power of psychedelic compounds to treat a whole range of psychiatric disorders, in particular PTSD. In Wales, researchers are conducting trials into the use of MDMA  or ecstasy to assist in therapy of PTSD. Other substances are being tested as well. There’s been a great surge of interest in the way psychedelics can be used to treat all kinds of problems because, back in the 1950s, before they were banned, they showed very promising results. There’s been a huge amount of fear, paranoia and repression on the part of the government which is not justified at all by science, but driven by political and ideological considerations.

Terence McKenna was one of the leading pioneers who tried to think about psychedelics in a visionary and intelligent but also scientifically rigorous way. His book is an enormously enjoyable read. It is an absolutely mind-bending, mytho-poetic reality on the banks of a river in the Amazon jungle. It challenges every single preconception you might have about the nature of reality and the human mind. It’s an absolutely rip-roaring read. But he was a pioneer who advocated the study of these substances because he saw their potential for transforming people in positive ways, when used responsibly.

I think that now, again, researchers in mainstream academic institutions are starting to acknowledge that. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but I think that many of the arguments and insights he provides are relevant for anybody seeing how these substances can be harnessed to help people who we simply can’t reach using all our conventional tools. Just because of fear and ignorance, we missed 50 years of research that could have transformed our ability to help people who are facing immense suffering.

I wonder if this ties into something that you said at the outset, about your interest in going to sweat lodges, which are tied to hallucinatory experiences. You’ve reported from Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ve been in some very difficult situations. Is this something you have done to process what you have seen and had to write about?

I’ve never suffered from PTSD in the classic sense from reporting in war zones, but I have had experiences of depression where I had to take stretches of time off work to recover. That’s something that has happened to me a number of times throughout my life. It is certainly true that my own interest in this field is driven partly by my own experiences, my own journey in finding what would help me to reconnect with the sense of joy and rebuild my own life. Although I don’t write about that journey in the book, I think it opened me up to exploring alternative avenues, alternative ways of thinking about what it means to have a personal crisis, and whether or not it can be the doorway to a new appreciation of life and a new way of being in the world.

Having had those experiences and having had my own dark times enabled me to connect with many of the men and women I interviewed in a way that I don’t think I could have done had I not. Although I don’t write about them in the book, certainly they are there in the background. I certainly wouldn’t compare what I’ve been through to anything of the magnitude of the people I interviewed, but I think, ultimately, that some form of breakdown can, in some ways, be the cracking of a shell. Sometimes your old persona has to undergo a form of psychic death before you can emerge. I think that is a universal motif that can resonate with many people, regardless of the experiences they’ve had.

How have you found the response to your book, either from affected circles of sufferers or from people who might not have the same experiences but who hope we can cope with this problem better?

The last thing many people struggling with these symptoms are going to do is read a book. We have to be realistic about that. What’s been very rewarding is that I’ve often been approached, after events or talks, by relatives or friends of soldiers and veterans, who bought the book because they were trying to understand what their loved ones are going through. That’s wonderfully gratifying to me, to write a book that’s been a practical help. I also do regularly receive emails from soldiers or former soldiers who have read the book and felt that the stories they’ve read have resonated with and validated their own experiences. One of them, who served in Afghanistan, wrote, ‘I thought I was the only one, but you’ve given me my sanity back.’

Having the opportunity to write a book is an immense privilege for the author. It is very rewarding to see that it has struck a chord and perhaps given some people, who are still trying to find their way out of that tunnel, hope. It’s not always possible to resolve these symptoms. Some people are trapped, but there are other people who are able to get a lot further than they thought possible when they were at their lowest point. The fact that these emails arrive is a sign that it is working. Hopefully, it will encourage more people to come forward and get the kind of help that can really change their lives — I hope sooner rather than later.

May 27, 2016

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

Support Five Books

Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you've enjoyed this interview, please support us by donating a small amount .

Matthew Green

Matthew Green is the author of Aftershock: The Untold Story of Suriving Peace , which documents the post-conflict experience of British soldiers. He has spent the past 14 years working as a correspondent for the Financial Times and Reuters and has reported from more than 30 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan. His website can be found at www.matthewgreenjournalism.com

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

© Five Books 2024

6 Must-Read Trauma Treatment Books for Clinicians

A trauma psychotherapist's most-recommended books..

Posted February 13, 2022 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

• What Is Trauma?
• Find a therapist to heal from trauma
• Trauma is a client’s unique injuries as a result of their experiences.
• An understanding of trauma and an ability to engage in healing are imperative for every clinician.
• Recommended books include “The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog,” “The Body Keeps the Score,” and “Waking the Tiger."

Trauma is not an event or a cluster of experiences; it’s a client’s unique injuries as a result of their experience(s). Every therapy client experiences some degree of trauma. Therefore, an understanding of trauma and an ability to engage in healing are imperative for every clinician. As a trauma psychotherapist, I’ve chosen my top six trauma treatment book recommendations for clinicians.

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Other Stories From a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook, by Bruce D. Perry, MD, Ph.D., and Maia Szalavitz. You can’t heal trauma without understanding how trauma impacts the brain. Perry and Szalavitz provide vivid case studies of traumatized children in order to describe how trauma impacts the developing brain and how the brain can ultimately heal. With humility, compassion, and strong science, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog transforms horrifying childhood traumatic experiences into opportunities for profound change and resilience .

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma , by Bessel van der Kolk, MD. Many clients have read The Body Keeps the Score and it’s considered required reading in the trauma treatment community. Kolk exceptionally describes how trauma impacts the brain and body. He also explores effective methods used to treat trauma such as safe trusting relationships, eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), yoga, and neurofeedback. If you read just one book from this list, it should be The Body Keeps the Score.

Healing Trauma: Attachment , Mindy, Body and Brain, by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., and Marion Solomon, Ph.D. Complex trauma can be difficult to assess, comprehend, and treat. Siegel’s collection of articles written by heavyweights in trauma treatment such as Bessel A van der Kolk, Marion Solomon, and Francine Shapiro provides attachment research, neurobiology, explanations of developmental trauma, and successful treatment methods. If you find yourself struggling with clients who experience complex/developmental trauma, Healing Trauma is for you.

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, by Peter A. Levine, Ph.D. Many clinicians do not know how to incorporate somatic experiencing into trauma treatment. Waking the Tiger explores the impact of trauma on the body and explains how bodies can heal and self-regulate . Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing, provides specific and simple body-oriented healing methods for traumatized clients. If you struggle to understand or utilize somatic experiencing, Waking the Tiger is the perfect place to start.

What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., and Oprah Winfrey. Published in 2021, this book is the new kid on the block. Winfrey interviews neuroscientist and child trauma expert Perry. They embark on a journey together to reframe the stigmatizing concept of trauma from “What’s wrong with you?” to the more accurate question of “What happened to you?” Winfrey shares her trauma narrative and experiences, which help to ground the reader. Also, the conversational nature makes this book an easier read if one wishes to take a break from dry research studies and intense interventions.

Getting Past Your Past: Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) can be difficult to understand. Shapiro, the founder of EMDR, provides an easy-to-understand exploration of trauma as unprocessed memories, negative cognitions, and body sensations. Getting Past Your Past explains how clinicians use EMDR to treat trauma and how clients can take aspects of EMDR to practice on their own. This book isn’t just for EMDR-trained therapists; Getting Past Your Past serves as an EMDR ambassador to anyone who has experienced trauma or works with traumatized clients.

Amanda Ann Gregory, LCPC, is a Chicago-based trauma psychotherapist, national speaker, and author.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Entertainment

Darius Rucker Says Writing Memoir Helped Him Heal from Deaths of Dad & Brother: 'Hadn't Dealt with Those Traumas' (Exclusive)

The country star's new memoir 'Life's Too Short' is out now

Jason Kempin/Getty; Dey Street Books

• Darius Rucker's memoir is out on Tuesday
• The country star and Hootie & the Blowfish frontman hopes Life's Too Short is like he and the reader "are sitting in a bar and I was telling you my story"
• Among the more personal aspects of Rucker’s story is the complicated relationships he had with his late father and his older brother

Darius Rucker ’s been living out the contents of his new memoir Life’s Too Short for 58 years — but it took becoming an empty nester for him to feel comfortable sharing it with the world.

“You don’t want your kids to be going to high school hearing, ‘I read your dad’s book,’” he tells PEOPLE of his daughters Cary, 29, and Dani, 23, and son Jack, 19 . “I knew I was going to tell the truth, and the truth [can] sometimes be out there. I just wanted them to be old enough to handle it.”

When he says he wanted to tell the truth, Rucker isn’t kidding. The book (out Tuesday, May 28) covers all aspects of the musician’s life, from his humble beginnings singing Al Green for his mother’s friends to the hard-partying peak of his Hootie & the Blowfish fame. It covers friendships with stars like Woody Harrelson and Tiger Woods , and also gives intimate insight into his fears and eventual accomplishments breaking into country music as a Black artist.

“I wanted it to be like we were sitting in a bar and I was telling you my story,” Rucker says. “I guess not a lot of people know a lot about me. They know my music and what I do. I hope my journey pleasantly surprises people.”

Kevin Winter/Getty

Among the more personal aspects of Rucker’s story is the complicated relationships he had with his late father Billy and his older brother Ricky.

Billy was largely absent during Rucker’s childhood, and Life’s Too Short covers several complex reunions they had over the years, including a phone call in which his father asked the star to give him $50,000.

The three-time Grammy winner says that when it came to his dad, “I always told myself I was fine.” But when he finally put pen to paper, it kickstarted a period of healing.

“When I did write about it, I started thinking about, ‘Wow, that really affected me a lot more than I thought it did.’ Even when I did the audiobook, there were some times where I caught myself holding back tears. Reading those things that affected me so much, but I just pretended they didn’t,” he says. “It was very therapeutic for me. It helped me. My therapist got a lot of work for me writing that book. It brought up a lot of stuff that I wanted to deal with. Because I hadn’t dealt with those traumas, I just let them go. And now I get to deal with them because I wrote that book, and I think about them.”

Then there’s Ricky, Rucker’s older brother, who was in and out of jail during the star’s childhood amid substance abuse issues. Rucker has not spoken publicly about his sibling and says he was “surprised” by how much he wrote about Ricky, who died after falling and hitting his head amid a seizure while “f---ed up,” he writes in the book.

“I knew he affected me, because once I went away to college, I was never coming home because of him. I just didn’t want to be around him,” Rucker says. “I always said if I wrote the book, I was going to tell the truth. And I told the truth about him. That was another thing that you have to deal with, that trauma. Watching your older brother with all this potential turn into that was tough. It was traumatic.”

Jason Kempin/Getty

Life’s Too Short covers Rucker’s own issues with substance abuse, especially during Hootie’s heyday (“I don’t think anybody went harder. We always think, ‘God, that all four of us came out the other end…'” he says of bandmates Dean Felber, Mark Bryan and Jim Sonefeld). But Rucker’s dabbles with hard drugs ended thanks to his ex-wife Beth , who gave him an ultimatum he now credits with saving his life.

“The one thing I hope came across in the book [was] she was a wonderful human being,” he says of Beth. “She did everything she could to keep our family together, and I did everything I could to not. And she saved my life. I think if she hadn’t put her foot down like that… I’d probably be dead right now. So that moment was a big moment, and a great moment in my life.”

Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

Elsewhere in the book, the “Wagon Wheel” singer — who released his latest album Carolyn’s Boy , named after his late mother, last October — talks about his crossover into country music and his thoughts on blazing a path for Black artists in the genre.

To PEOPLE, he praises stars who have walked through the door he kicked open, like Kane Brown and Shaboozey , as well as Beyoncé, who recently released the country album Cowboy Carter .

“She’s bringing eyes to the genre, eyes that would’ve never looked at the genre, so you got to love it. I think it’s awesome,” he says. “I love that record. I think it’s a great record.”

At its core, though, Rucker’s book is a humble ode to the people and places that made him who he is — and the fate that brought together a little band called Hootie & the Blowfish. The band is set to tour together this summer, and Rucker is also hard at work in the studio making a rock album with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, former Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman and Tom Bukovac.

“I’m trying to do the best I can, and people ask me all the time what I want on my tombstone,” he says. “I always say, ‘He was a nice guy.’ That’s how I really try to live my life.”

Related Articles

Advertisement

Supported by

The Brilliant Comic Who Shined Brightest Out of the Spotlight

A new biography of the performer, writer and director Elaine May has the intensity to match its subject.

• Share full article

By Dwight Garner

• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius , by Carrie Courogen

Nichols and May, the comedy team, were together from 1957 until 1961. They were so charming and sophisticated and acerbic, selling out Broadway theatres with their crossfire talk, that the critic Edmund Wilson saw them perform four times. He confided to his diary about Elaine May that he was “sorry not to be young enough to fall in love with her and ruin my life.”

She and Mike Nichols, who only briefly were lovers, split amicably. We know what happened to Nichols. By 1967 he had directed the movies “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and “The Graduate,” as well as hit plays on Broadway. May’s arc was not so well-defined. In 1967, Life magazine profiled her under the headline, “Whatever Happened to Elaine May?”

Whatever did? The story is told in Carrie Courogen’s casual, sympathetic and compulsively readable new biography, “Miss May Does Not Exist.” The title comes from short biographies Nichols and May wrote for the back of one of their comedy albums. Nichols’s bio began: “Mike Nichols is not a member of the Actors Studio, which has produced such stars as Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint, Carroll Baker, and others too numerous to mention.” May’s read simply: “Miss May does not exist.”

It’s an awkward title that, as the book goes on, begins to seem apt. Throughout her life, May, 92, has had a knack for disappearing, for being there but not there. She has had a knack, too, for being — for lack of a better word — difficult. It’s one of this biography’s salient contentions that while American culture makes room for its tortured and demanding male talents, it freezes similar women out. “Big movie directors are the modern mad kings,” Pauline Kael wrote in 1973. There has been little room for mad queens.

What happened to Elaine May in the 1960s is that she became attached to a lot of projects, including her own plays, that flopped. She tripped into a messy scandal. She fell in love with her psychiatrist, a man named David Rubinfine, a well-known shrink to the stars. Rubinfine was married. His wife of 20 years killed herself. He had three young daughters who May suddenly needed to raise, in addition to her own daughter from a previous marriage.

May directed two hit movies in the early 1970s, “A New Leaf,” in which she starred with Walter Matthau, and “The Heartbreak Kid,” with Charles Grodin. She became known as a perfectionist — brilliant but also dithering, at least to those who wearied of her. She required take after take of scenes. She liked to say “action” but loathed to say “cut.” She wore her crews down. Matthau, no easy personality himself, commented that May “makes Hitler look like a little librarian.”

She was by then a major director, only the third woman to be a member the Directors Guild of America. She spent years making an over-budget flop, “Mikey and Nicky,” a dark buddy film with Peter Falk and John Cassavetes that was released in 1976. When the studio tried to take the film over, two reels mysteriously went missing. It was a wild caper, and May was a prime suspect. It would be 11 years before she directed again, and the result was “Ishtar” (1987).

In between, she became known as perhaps the best script doctor in Hollywood. She worked with Warren Beatty on “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds.” She and Beatty, obsessives, chimed with each other. He’d fly her into luxury hotels for weeks at a time. She’d bar housekeeping from her rooms because they were so chaotic, with drafts and room-service dishes and cigar ash everywhere.

People paid attention to her smoking. On the set of “Mikey and Nicky,” one observer recalled that you could read her mood by what was between her fingers: “She chain-smoked cigarettes when things were running smoothly . You’d know things were getting dicey once she pulled out her skinny Schimmelpenninck cigars.” And when disaster was imminent, “she would puff away on oversize cigars that were fit for Orson Welles but looked downright comedic hanging from Elaine’s mouth.”

May did script work on “Tootsie,” “What About Bob?” and many of Nichols’s films. She mostly refused to take credit for this work, preferring to remain behind the scenes. The novelist Jim Harrison, who worked with her on the movie “Wolf,” commented: “It’s like some Taoist thing with her. Very mysterious. Come in, do the work, take the money, leave no tracks.” People cut her very large checks.

The story of the filming of “Ishtar” in the Moroccan desert has been told many times before. I won’t reprise the gory details here. The movie was intended to be a kind of homage to the old “Road to …” movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Courogen notes that the film is better than it’s been given credit for, and she coolly dissects the way May’s studio thwarted, antagonized and all but sabotaged her.

May was born in Philadelphia in 1932 and had a nomadic childhood. Her father, who died at 47, was in the Yiddish theater. May didn’t graduate from high school but was an autodidact. After an early failed marriage, she made her way to the University of Chicago, where she never formally enrolled but took classes.

Her intensity, her beauty and her wit made her a formidable character. Onstage, Courogen writes, she was “too threatening to heckle.” She met Nichols, her soul mate, at one of his shows. They did a great deal of improv until Nichols left for New York and she eventually followed. Until the end of his life Nichols would call on her to help with his movies. They frequently got back together to perform their classic routines for good causes.

This is Courogen’s first book, and she relates it as if over Negronis. She casually drops a lot of f-bombs. At times, she rambles. She writes about how she stalked May while wearing a cheap blonde wig. (May did not grant her an interview.) Smart but offbeat, she’s the Elaine May of biographers.

Courogen is not (yet) the most adept critic, nor is she a supersleuth biographer, the kind with a Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass. But she understands why May matters. She tracks May’s influence in popular culture, especially on female writer-directors such as Greta Gerwig and Lena Dunham.

This book is “a love story,” Courogen writes early on, and indeed it is. The author is an ardent fan who’s read everything and talked to whomever she could. Her intensity shines. Sometimes you’d rather ride along with a fan than with a professor.

I wish someone had stepped in to save her when, in the second half of the book, the clichés begin to really weigh down her sentences. They threaten to sink an otherwise buoyant ship.

There are a few quasi-howlers. We are asked to sympathize with May during Covid because “it wasn’t easy that first winter, alone and at risk in her apartment overlooking a desolate Central Park.” Yes, those crisp Central Park views (May lives in the San Remo) have long been known to bring on ennui.

Elaine May, difficult? Give us more like her, Courogen says. “She’s black deli coffee served to those who drink only champagne.”

MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST : The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius | By Carrie Courogen | St. Martin’s | 386 pp. | $30

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged .

Don DeLillo’s fascination with terrorism, cults and mass culture’s weirder turns has given his work a prophetic air. Here are his essential books .

Jenny Erpenbeck’s “ Kairos ,” a novel about a torrid love affair in the final years of East Germany, won the International Booker Prize , the renowned award for fiction translated into English.

Kevin Kwan, the author of “Crazy Rich Asians,” left Singapore’s opulent, status-obsessed, upper crust when he was 11. He’s still writing about it .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

• Literature & Fiction

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Return this item for free

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select your preferred free shipping option
• Drop off and leave!

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

The Autobiography of Trauma: A Survivors Story Of Loss, Pain, Mental Illness, And Recovery Paperback – December 19, 2015

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 142 pages
• Language English
• Publication date December 19, 2015
• Dimensions 6 x 0.36 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 1514436264
• ISBN-13 978-1514436264
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Xlibris (December 19, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 142 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1514436264
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1514436264
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.7 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.36 x 9 inches
• #2,779,768 in Literature & Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

Top reviews from other countries.

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Why Knoxville author Reed Massengill's 'Portrait of a Racist' remains relevant

It has been more than 60 years since civil rights pioneer Medgar Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. And it has been 30 years since Evers' killer, Byron De La Beckwith, was convicted after a third trial.

That conviction was secured in part by the testimony of Knoxville native Reed Massengill, the author of the biography "Portrait of a Racist" about Beckwith, Massengill's uncle by marriage.

Evers was honored earlier this month as one of 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and Massengill believes now is the perfect time to release a new edition of his book. The reissue feels serendipitous to Massengill, who noted Evers' award was far too long in coming.

"Although I've written about Beckwith, I want to pivot some of that attention back to Medgar Evers and his contributions and his legacy," Massengill said. "I don't want him to be overlooked in the conversation."

Who was Byron de la Beckwith and how did Massengill end up writing 'Portrait of a Racist?'

Byron De La Beckwith, who was born in 1920, had been married to Massengill's aunt, Mary Louise "Willie" Williams. But as Massengill notes in the beginning of his biography, Williams' family never spoke of Beckwith, who was suspected of murdering Evers in 1963.

Beckwith's first two trials in 1964 − both times by all-male, all-white juries − ended in mistrials. Delmar Dennis, who acted as a key witness for the prosecution at the 1994 trial, said Beckwith boasted of his role in the death of Medgar Evers at several Ku Klux Klan rallies and similar gatherings in the years after those trials. Beckwith was finally convicted after the third trial in 1994.

Prior to his re-arrest, Beckwith had reached out to Massengill, in the mid-1980s, with the idea that his nephew would write a sympathetic account.

"I had been curious about him since I was a kid, but he came to me," Massengill said. "I got a letter from (him). ... I don't think I would have ended up with the book I did if I had approached him. I owed our interaction almost entirely to this curiosity he had about me as the writer in the family. He was constantly giving me stuff that drew me in even more; his letters invariably provided me with details that led to further research."

One of the items Beckwith sent was the FBI file that had been amassed on his activities since Evers' assassination, Massengill said, adding of his uncle's "complex" personality, "He was definitely a narcissist."

Massengill was interviewed by Knox News in December 1992, shortly after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Beckwith would stand trial for the third time, while Massengill was in the process of writing "Portrait of a Racist." Massengill told reporter Don Williams he had just returned from a jailhouse interview with his uncle.

"Massengill is breaking the family taboo," Williams wrote. "He is airing out the family secret, literally writing the final chapter to a book scheduled to be published by St. Martin's Press in August."

What happened after 'Portrait of a Racist' was published?

The publication of the biography in January 1994 resulted in Massengill being subpoenaed to testify against Beckwith because of the letters his uncle wrote him.

"I feared something might happen to me to keep me from testifying," Massengill said, recalling that a planned hit list with his name on it showed up in his post office box. On another occasion, his windshield was smashed. "It was creepy and scary."

Eventually, Massengill said, he left Knoxville and moved back to his former home − New York City − where he felt "a lot less vulnerable." (Massengill moved back to Knoxville in the early 2000s.)

The publisher of "Portrait of a Racist," St. Martin's Press, tried several times to arrange a book signing in Jackson, but two attempts were canceled due to bomb threats, Massengill said. Finally, with extra security, one did take place.

At that book signing, Beckwith's son showed up in what Massengill described as a "funny run-in."

"He got in my face," Massengill said, adding that his cousin claimed he was printing lies and defaming the family but said he hadn't even read the book. "I literally walked to the cash register and paid for the book and gave it to my cousin ... and then he asked me if I was going to sign it."

What prompted a new edition of Massengill's book about Byron de la Beckwith?

Massengill said an "odd series of events" precipitated the decision to work on a new edition of "Portrait of a Racist."

A fellow board member at Knox Heritage took a trip to Jackson five years ago and toured Medgar Evers' home. When she mentioned Massengill's book to the woman standing next to her on the infamous driveway, a man standing nearby chimed in.

"He was the acquisitions editor for the University of Georgia Press," Massengill said, explaining the chance meeting led to a conversation between the two men about a new edition before COVID-19 put a stop to the potential collaboration.

Fast-forward a few years, to when Massengill was working on a book for the University of Tennessee Press about film director Clarence Brown. Another chance meeting, this time with Scott Danforth, the now-retired director of UT Press, brought the new edition back to life.

"He said, we need to do that book," Massengill recalled. "We did think it was time to look at this again. ... I don't know what kind of reception the new book will get. It's a very different world in some ways, but not in others. It will be interesting to see if the book will be embraced at all."

Massengill will do a book signing at Union Ave Books at 3 p.m. July 13, as well as a brown bag lunch at noon Sept. 18 at the East Tennessee History Center. Still in the works is an appearance in Mississippi, possibly in conjunction with the sketch artist who was present every day of Beckwith's last trial.

The new edition includes an afterword that recounts Massengill’s participation as a witness and his introduction of new evidence in the third trial. It also chronicles Beckwith’s last years of declining health behind bars, examines the deep scholarship on Evers and civil rights that has arisen since this book’s original appearance, and reflects on the catastrophic persistence of Beckwith’s ideology − Christian nationalism and white supremacy − in the current political climate.

"It's more than I could take on, to tie all the loose ends (together), to things like Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and religious nationalism," Massengill said. "But my point in attempting that is to show that we choose to believe that the world has changed for the better, but the evidence is clearly being presented, day in and day out, that times have not changed as much as we think."

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at  knoxnews.com/subscribe .