Chapter 19: Further Reading

Essential Sources

Haslam, N. (2016). "Concept creep: Psychology's expanding concepts of harm and pathology." Psychological Inquiry, 27(1), 1–17. The foundational paper on concept creep. Essential for understanding how "trauma" has expanded beyond its clinical definition.

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., et al. (1998). "Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults." American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. The original ACEs study. Read the actual paper to see the modest, carefully stated findings — then compare to the popular version.

Bonanno, G. A. (2004). "Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?" American Psychologist, 59(1), 20–28. The landmark paper on resilience after trauma. Bonanno demonstrates that resilience is the most common trajectory after adversity — a finding the popular trauma narrative consistently ignores.

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking. The bestselling book that popularized the somatic trauma framework. Read it for its genuine insights into trauma's physiological effects, while being aware that the "stored in the body" framing has been over-literalized in popular culture.

Dias, B. G., & Ressler, K. J. (2014). "Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations." Nature Neuroscience, 17(1), 89–96. The mouse epigenetics study. Read the actual paper to see how specific and controlled the finding is — then compare to the sweeping human claims made from it.

Yehuda, R., et al. (2016). "Holocaust exposure induced intergenerational effects on FKBP5 methylation." Biological Psychiatry, 80(5), 372–380. The most-cited human epigenetic intergenerational trauma study. Small sample (32 offspring, 8 controls), observational design, cannot rule out environmental confounds.

Bonanno, G. A., Westphal, M., & Mancini, A. D. (2011). "Resilience to loss and potential trauma." Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 7, 511–535. Updated review of resilience research, showing that most people recover from adversity without clinical intervention.

McNally, R. J. (2003). Remembering Trauma. Harvard University Press. A careful, evidence-based examination of trauma memory that pushes back against many popular claims about repressed memory and body-stored trauma.

Southwick, S. M., & Charney, D. S. (2018). Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. An evidence-based book on resilience factors — the counterweight to the popular narrative that adversity inevitably produces lasting damage.

Online Resources

ACEs Too High (acestoohigh.com). An ACEs-focused website that, while advocacy-oriented, provides accessible information about the ACEs study and its applications.

The National Center for PTSD (ptsd.va.gov). The VA's resource center for PTSD. Provides evidence-based information about PTSD, its treatment, and resilience.

Cochrane Reviews of trauma-focused therapies. Systematic reviews of PE, CPT, EMDR, and other trauma treatments. The evidence base for what actually works.