Summary of Oprah Winfrey's What Happened to You

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Oprah Winfrey's What Happened to You in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”

Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the audiobook, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future - opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638155300

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Every person is born in their own unique set of social, economic, and cultural circumstances. We come into the world feeling whole, but life eventually begins to take its toll. Traumatic events, abuse, or neglect can cause children to ache and follow a pattern of frustration, self-sabotage, violence, and addiction.

#2

The brain is like a four-layer cake. The cortex at the top is responsible for speech, thinking, and planning. The bottom contains the brainstem, which controls less complex functions such as body temperature regulation, breathing, and heart rate. The complexity of the brain’s structural areas increases from lower to higher.

#3

The middle layers consist of the limbic region, which is under the cortex and responsible for reward, memory, bonding, and emotions. The diencephalon region, above the brainstem, is responsible for arousal, sleep, appetite, and movement. All experience is processed starting from the brainstem up to the