An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey

Psychologist Levine (Waking the Tiger) discusses in this stark if disjointed memoir how surviving sexual assault shaped his practice. “The writing of these pages was originally meant to serve as a private excavation of hidden and disowned parts of myself,” Levine begins, but after a vivid dream in which he scattered a stack of papers to the wind, he decided to publish this account. When Levine was 12, he was sexually assaulted by a Bronx gang with ties to the mafia in an attempt to dissuade his father from testifying against a mob boss. In the aftermath, he began having strange dreams that included abstract images and, most strikingly, encounters with Albert Einstein. Much of the book focuses on how the assault pointed Levine toward the development of an alternative therapy practice called somatic experiencing, in which subjects are encouraged to shore up positive feelings in the body before excavating past trauma. Interspersed among lengthy sections detailing the workings of somatic experiencing are anecdotes about Levine’s mother, his encounters with scientists including pioneering autism therapist Mira Rothenberg, and musings on his “visits” from Einstein. While there are brave disclosures in these pages, the project is pitched too uneasily between self-promotion and self-examination. This doesn’t quite cohere. (Apr.)