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A review by synnereads
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
4.5
This book was so beautiful, enlightening, and inspiring.
It's about Stephanie Foo's attempt at finding healing and a way forward in the wake of her traumatic childhood.
I found her visit back to her childhood community and her thoughts on intergenerational trauma in particular very interesting.
And her therapy sessions! Omg, since I listened to the audiobook, I got to listen to the ACTUAL recordings of her sessions😯🥰
Alongside being a memoir, this book is also a journalistic exploration of trauma and complex PTSD. And for the most part, she discussed and explained the different topics very well. However, there were a few things that irked me. I don't think these things detracted significantly from my overall reading experience, but I will give a brief description of one of those things below:
There weren't enough (if any) critical discussion around the mentioned alternative treatments.
The book is about Stephanie Foo's journey, and about the things SHE finds helpful. But considering how much research has clearly gone into this book, where are the comments about the general ineffectiveness of for example acupuncture?
There is no perfect recipe for healing from complex PTSD (or from any other mental illness, for that matter) – that is part of the book's premise: Foo is trying to find a way forward despite the lack of research and treatment options.
However, I feel that some of the "treatments" she tried could have been handled with a little more nuance. This book has a big audience, and inspiring people to seek out (and pay for) treatments that are no more effective than placebo (at a population level), is potentially problematic.
I'm also a little critical to how she summed up a study with the following takeaway: "Racism can cause PTSD". I won't go into any more detail on this, but I doubt you can conclude with that based on the presented study.
Despite some qualms, I still think this is an excellent book, and I will end my review with relaying one of the book's many beautiful and important messages.
Everytime you're sad or you mess up, it's not necessarily your mental illness' fault or because something is "wrong" with you, it's simply you being human.
Not feeling great all the time is very human and very normal <3
It's about Stephanie Foo's attempt at finding healing and a way forward in the wake of her traumatic childhood.
I found her visit back to her childhood community and her thoughts on intergenerational trauma in particular very interesting.
And her therapy sessions! Omg, since I listened to the audiobook, I got to listen to the ACTUAL recordings of her sessions😯🥰
Alongside being a memoir, this book is also a journalistic exploration of trauma and complex PTSD. And for the most part, she discussed and explained the different topics very well. However, there were a few things that irked me. I don't think these things detracted significantly from my overall reading experience, but I will give a brief description of one of those things below:
There weren't enough (if any) critical discussion around the mentioned alternative treatments.
The book is about Stephanie Foo's journey, and about the things SHE finds helpful. But considering how much research has clearly gone into this book, where are the comments about the general ineffectiveness of for example acupuncture?
There is no perfect recipe for healing from complex PTSD (or from any other mental illness, for that matter) – that is part of the book's premise: Foo is trying to find a way forward despite the lack of research and treatment options.
However, I feel that some of the "treatments" she tried could have been handled with a little more nuance. This book has a big audience, and inspiring people to seek out (and pay for) treatments that are no more effective than placebo (at a population level), is potentially problematic.
I'm also a little critical to how she summed up a study with the following takeaway: "Racism can cause PTSD". I won't go into any more detail on this, but I doubt you can conclude with that based on the presented study.
Despite some qualms, I still think this is an excellent book, and I will end my review with relaying one of the book's many beautiful and important messages.
Everytime you're sad or you mess up, it's not necessarily your mental illness' fault or because something is "wrong" with you, it's simply you being human.
Not feeling great all the time is very human and very normal <3