Recovery Writing

 

Writ large, there are two formats in the genre of recovery writing, and the two are not mutually exclusive:

One style is in the first person, meant to directly speak to the person in recovery.

A second style is in the third person, meant to describe recovery from a more objective view.

This month, I read the book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD.  New York: Penguin Books, 2014.  This book fits into the latter category.  As before, I will share about how the book is written, not necessarily a review of the book.

Van Der Kolk dedicates his book "To my patients who kept the score and were the textbook."

While certainly written from an objective, evidence-based medical perspective, the author inserts his voice throughout the book.  From talking about why this topic came to him, to treating Vietnam veterans, to investigating research, and all the other topics, Van Der Kolk stays personal.  He helps the reader understand not just the subject of chapter, but why he concludes it is essential.  

Because of Van Der Kolk's personal touch, the book is both medically sound and a story of hope.

Over the course of the book, the emphasis shifts from analytical to more poetic.  I felt this shift most profoundly in the chapter, "The Unbearable Heaviness of Remembering."  In it was an accurate summary of the evidence thus far.  But it was framed under a title that calls to mind the 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  Van Der Kolk uses this poetic approach to describe the chronic pain and suffering of his patients and all those who live with trauma wounds.  

The Heaviness chapter was immediately before Van Der Kolk describes paths of trauma recovery (e.g., therapy, EMDR, yoga, et al).  

By this point in The Body Keeps Score, Van Der Kolk has earned our (the readers) trust, through knowledge-based empathy and a personalized approach.  The paths to recovery become suggestions from a trusted friend, a trusted healer.

 

Recovering from an injury, trauma, or an addiction, is difficult.  Teaching people to treat patients who have an injury, trauma, addiction, or some other underlying condition, is also difficult.  Effectively speaking to both audiences in one book is a masterclass in writing.