Bessel van der Kolk

About the Author

He was born in 1943 in the Netherlands. He studied pre-medical curriculum with a political science major at the University of Hawaii in 1965. He got his MD, in 1970, at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, and in 1974, Bessel completed his psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School. After his training, he worked as a director of Boston State Hospital. He became a staff psychiatrist at the Boston Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic. Bessel developed an interest in 1978 in studying traumatic stress as he worked with Vietnam war veterans that suffered from PTSD, and serving on the Harvard Medical School faculty. He was a member of the PTSD committee of the 1980 and 1994 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Dis. Bessel van der Kolk is the author of over 2 books across 1 series. Their most famous work is the Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books series, which has garnered millions of readers worldwide. With such a prolific career, Bessel van der Kolk has established themselves as one of the most influential authors in contemporary fiction.