People Still Misunderstand Trauma, Says ‘Body Keeps the Score’ Author Bessel van der Kolk

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has spent 30 years figuring out why people behave so strangely. His specialty is treating those who have endured traumas so horrific—war, carnage, incredible pain that they couldn’t stop—that their brains have not been able to fully process them, and their bodies have reacted to their brain’s precarious state in ways they could not explain or control. But many human behaviors still puzzle van der Kolk, 82. He doesn’t understand why the medical community doesn’t take childhood trauma more seriously.