The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity

What role does the “happy accident” play in Burke Harris’s approach to research and science? How does her perspective on happy accidents intervene in common ways of thinking about science and medicine?

Burke Harris often expresses indignation over the context that leads to health disparities in her patients. How does she address this frustration, and how does it fuel her approach to her profession?

Burke Harris is explaining complicated scientific and medical contexts in an easily understandable way. To what extent do you think she’s successful in this endeavor? Include at least one example in your discussion. What tools does she use to accomplish her task?

How does Burke Harris’s linkage of ACEs and health outcomes in adulthood undercut the notion that our lives are solely the result of personal choices? How does her argument square with popular ideas about why people have poor health?

Consider the title, The Deepest Well. What is its source, and how does Burke Harris use the idea of the well throughout the book to help illustrate the practice of public health?

Look at the part and chapter titles in The Deepest Well, which blend pop culture references, catchy allusions to medical cases and figures, and (in the part titles) medical terms. How do these choices help Burke Harris frame the discussion for and connect with her audience?

Burke Harris is an American success story—a doctor and an influential scientist whose work is shaping popular and policy conversations about ACEs. In fact, her life may well be distant from the people about whom she writes and for whom she authored the book. What writing choices does she make to overcome this possible gap between her and her audiences? Who are her target audiences? Use evidence from the text to support your views.

Amazon lists The Deepest Well under the health, diet, and fitness category, while the national Library of Congress categorizes it under several other subject headings—child, psychic trauma in children, family and relationships, psychology, science, self-help, and social science. Do you see the book as a self-help book, or does it primarily belong to some other genre? Discuss the purpose, content, and audience to support how you identify the book’s primary genre.