Resilience
The ability to pass the tests
In physics, "resilience" indicates the ability of a body to resist shocks and to resume its initial structure. In the field of psychology, this term indicates the individual's ability to overcome the painful moments of existence and to evolve, despite adversity. In other words, resilience consists in taking note of the trauma (bereavement, abandonment, incest, sexual violence, illness, war), learning to live with it, getting up and looking at things from another perspective. Sometimes you can even get rid of a heavy past, coming out of it tempered.
The evolution of the concept
The most significant phrases about resilience
The first to talk about resilience they were American psychologists, in the Fifties; in Europe, and in particular in France, a decisive contribution was given by the work of John Bowlby (pediatrician and psychoanalyst) in the early 1980s; beyond the Alps, the concept of resilience has been popularized above all by Boris Cyrulnik, ethnologist, neuropsychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Through some successful works (including The wonderful pain) these showed the general public that resilience can become a source of hope. Starting from first-hand experiences and from the observation of different groups of individuals (survivors of concentration camps, Bolivian street children), the scholar has shown that psychology and psychoanalysis can be approached in a more optimistic and fulfilling way. Adversity must, therefore, be perceived as possible stages to be overcome.
In Italy, these theories begin to assert themselves thanks to the work of Elena Malaguti, professor of special pedagogy at the University of Bologna, and author, together with Cyrulnik, of some popular essays such as Building resilience. The positive reorganization of life and the creation of meaningful bonds.(Erickson Study Center, 2005).
The mechanism of the process
According to specialists, the resilient attitude is dynamic and passes through various stages of defense to counteract negative evolutionary trajectories.
- A resilient person goes through a phase of revolt and the refusal to feel condemned to suffering.
- In a second moment, the dream and the sense of challenge arrive, that is the desire to get out of the trauma, setting a goal.
- There is also an attitude of rejection, which consists in creating an image of a strong person in order to defend oneself from the compassion of others, even if there is always a certain inner fragility.
- Finally, a sense of humor: a resilient person tends to develop a form of self-mockery towards his own trauma. It is a way to not feel sorry for each other and to stop being seen by others as victims of life.
It must also be said that many resilients can experience creative phases (writing, drawing). These are ways to exorcise pain, take new paths and indirectly show your diversity.
The innate and acquired factors
Some genetic determinants need to be considered. In fact, from one individual to another, the brain will not produce the same dose of dopamine, serotonin, and, therefore, of euphoric substances. Some babies will be more active and psychologically more stable than others from birth. Other factors to take into consideration are: the child's character (docile, trusting), the family climate in which he grows up in the first years of life (if it is harmonious and reassuring, if the parents are united, if the degree of attachment to the mother is strong) and, finally, the network of external relations that the child is able to create (more or less reassuring and supportive). Statistically, a child who possesses these three attributes from an early age should be equipped with the means to face the difficulties of existence without apparent discomfort.
Is it possible to learn resilience?
Regardless of age, after a trauma or a painful ordeal, every individual is forced to create a process of resilience. It is about taking the blow, taking the reins of one's destiny to transform it and, then, continuing to live normally. Although, of course, the wound is there and will always remain ...
The criticisms
If, in the United States, the concept of resilience has been successful, in Europe it is more difficult to impose. The main reason is that American psychologists are more inspired by behaviorism to analyze certain phenomena and establish appropriate therapies. In Italy, which has been lagging behind the issue of resilience for a long time, many psychoanalysts denounce this method because it tends to worry more about the symptoms than the origin of the suffering of individuals.
(These theories begin to assert themselves in our country thanks to the work of Elena Malaguti, professor of special pedagogy at the University of Bologna, and author, together with Cyrulnik, of some popular essays such as Building resilience. The positive reorganization of life and the creation of meaningful bonds.(Erickson Study Center, 2005).
Resilience must not be perceived as a sign of invulnerability, but it still has the advantage of conveying, in the eyes of the people, an optimistic and anti-fatalistic message or, even better: a hopeful realism.
