You know, I've been a trauma neurosurgeon for about 25 years now, so I think about trauma

all the time. And I've seen the term trauma enter the zeitgeist in a way over the past decade

or so that was a bit unexpected. I mean, we're halfway through the 2020s, and trauma is everywhere,

it seems. Childhood trauma. It affects millions of Americans.

It's on our TV and our movie screens.

It's all over social media.

Four signs.

Three signs that you do.

Okay, I want to give you two clear indicators that you're in a relationship where there is trauma bonding.

And more and more of us are signing up for therapy and mental health treatment. And when we do so,

we are often talking about our trauma. Now, fundamentally, I think this is probably a good thing

because it did not get enough attention for a long time. And the reason that it is getting more attention has a lot to do with our guest today.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. He is a Dutch psychiatrist. He has been studying post-traumatic stress in its treatments for more than 50 years.

I think it's fair to say that he is a bit of a founding father of trauma studies. And in doing so, he has become a

bit of an academic renegade as well. I remember one of my colleagues saying, oh, Bessel,

you and trauma, after you croak, nobody ever talk about trauma anymore. Wow. Well, clearly,

we're all still talking about it. In fact, in 2014,

Professor VanderKolk authored a book called The Body Keeps the Score. And to call the book a hit

is an understatement. Even as I record this podcast today, that book is currently sitting at number

four on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller

list. This is the 226th week it's been on that list. And yet, despite the book's blockbuster

success, Van der Kolk feels that his ideas still have not broken through to the mainstream of his field.

...