Waking the Tiger
Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity to heal as well as an intellectual spirit to harness this innate capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question - why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed. Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Waking the Tiger
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Stress researcher Peter A. Levine watched prey animals like impala on the African plains shake off a life-threatening attack and walk away unmarked, and asked why people do not.
He is a psychotherapist and the developer of Somatic Experiencing, a body-based approach to trauma resolution. Waking the Tiger introduced his framework to a general audience in 1997.
It is part theory and part practical guide. There are exercises and reflections, but the bulk is Levine's case studies and explanations of how trauma is held in the body.
Waking the Tiger was written by Peter A. Levine, published in 1997 by Tantor and Blackstone Publishing.
Waking the Tiger is 1 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Waking the Tiger takes most readers under an hour to finish.
Waking the Tiger is a standalone novel by Peter A. Levine, not part of a series.
Waking the Tiger is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.