The End of Trauma

My favorite kinds of books are ones that challenge conventional wisdom in a way that feels intuitively familiar and true. This is how I felt while reading this book.

As a therapist, I know how capable and resilient people can be, but I also come into contact with prolonged suffering in my work. I really enjoyed reading about the heroic and remarkable people he profiled, and I loved how Bonanno weaves in science with personal narrative.

I felt like his examples and interviews really brought to life the data on resilience, and I got a ton of practical and useful… show more.

This is a fascinating review of research (much of it conducted by Bonanno himself) into the factors that influence whether someone will “bounce back” from tragedy in relatively short order or become crushed by it.

Illuminated with lots of individual case-histories, Bonanno shows how a “flexibility mindset,” incorporating an optimistic outlook, confidence in one’s own ability to cope with the situation, and a challenge orientation (“this is something to be overcome”) is protective against PTSD; and also how such a mindset can be encouraged and developed.