The Psychology Book (48 page)

and suffer nightmares, flashbacks,

study of psychological resilience.

Psychological Association

and anxiety attacks. Other people,

Resilience is not a quality

forms a task force on

however, react differently. They

inherent within a person, Cyrulnik

psychological resilience.

seem to manage not only the normal

found, but one that builds through a

ups and downs of their lives, but

natural process. He says that “alone,

also potentially overwhelming

a child has no resilience… it is an

losses and traumas. Instead

interaction, a relationship.” We build

of becoming depressed and

resilience from developing

PSYCHOTHERAPY 153

See also:
Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ John Bowlby 274–77 ■ Charlotte

Bühler 336 ■ George Kelly 337 ■ Jerome Kagan 339

After disasters such as tsunamis

psychologists have witnessed the

formation of resilient communities,

characterized by the residents’

determination to overcome adversity.

has happened, to find strength in

the experience instead of letting it

defeat them, and to use the strength

to move defiantly forward. Given

the right support, children are

Boris Cyrulnik

especially capable of complete

recovery from trauma. Cyrulnik has

Boris Cyrulnik was born to

Jewish parents in Bordeaux,

shown that the human brain is

France, shortly before the

relationships. We are constantly

malleable and will recover if

outbreak of World War II. In

“knitting” ourselves from people

allowed. The brain of a traumatized

1944, when the Vichy regime

and situations that we encounter,

child shows shrinkage of the

controlled unoccupied southern

through the words we exchange

ventricles and cortex, but where the

France by arrangement with

and the feelings that arise. We

child is well supported and loved

Germany, his home was raided

might feel that if one “stitch” is

after the trauma, brain scans have

and his parents were taken to

dropped, our lives will unravel. In

shown the brain to be capable of

Auschwitz concentration

fact, “if just one stitch holds, we

returning to normal within a year.

camp. His parents had placed

can start all over again.”

Cyrulnik stresses the importance

him with a foster family for

Positive emotions and humor are

of not labeling children who have

safety, but within days they

key factors in resilience. Cyrulnik’s

suffered a trauma, thereby sidelining

turned him over to the

research has shown that people who

them to a seemingly hopeless future.

authorities for a small reward.

are better able to cope with life’s

Trauma consists of the injury and

He escaped while awaiting

difficulties or traumas are able to

the representation of that injury.

transfer to a concentration

camp and worked on farms

find meaning in hardship, seeing it

Enduring humiliating adult

until the age of ten, when he

as a useful and enlightening

interpretations of events can be the

was taken into care. He grew

experience, and even to find ways

most traumatic experience. Labels,

up in France, without any

to laugh. Resilient people always

he says, can be more damaging and

relatives. Largely self-taught,

remain able to see how things may

damning than the experience. ■

Cyrulnik eventually studied

turn out for the better in future, even

medicine at the University of

if the present is painful.

Paris. Realizing he wanted to

reevaluate his own life, he

Meeting the challenge

began to study psychoanalysis

It had previously been thought that

and later neuropsychiatry.

people who show more resilience

He has devoted his career

are less emotional in general, but

Resilience is a person’s

to working with traumatized

Cyrulnik believed that the pain is

ability to grow in the face

children.

no less for resilient people than it is

of terrible problems.

Key works

for others; it is a matter of how they

Boris Cyrulnik

choose to use it. The pain may

1992
The Dawn of Meaning

continue, even over a whole lifetime,

2004
The Whispering

but for these people it raises a

of Ghosts

challenge that they decide to meet.

2009
Resilience

The challenge is to overcome what

154

ONLY GOOD

PEOPLE GET

DEPRESSED

DOROTHY ROWE (1930– )

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

I
f people could stop blaming the idea of a Just World and think

themselves for things that

more rationally about negative

have happened in their lives,

experiences. We might suffer from

the rate of depression would

bad parenting, job loss, or even a

Personal construct theory

decrease dramatically. This premise

devastating tornado, but these

BEFORE

is the foundation of Dorothy Rowe’s

things did not happen because we

success in treating the problem.

are doomed to misfortune, nor do

1940s
Gestalt therapy is

We are generally brought up to

we deserve to be treated badly.

founded, introducing the

believe that the world is a fair and

To recover from these setbacks,

notion that perception

rational place; that if we are good,

we need to stop personalizing

influences meaning.

good things will happen to us. But

events, start externalizing them,

1955
George Kelly publishes

if things go well when we are good,

and realize that sometimes bad

The Psychology of Personal

what does that say about us when

things just happen. ■

Constructs
, outlining the

things go wrong? Our belief in a

theory that everyone has a set

“Just World”—where the good are

of constructs (beliefs) about

rewarded and the bad punished—

the world and the people in it.

makes us blame ourselves for the

bad things that happen to us.

1960
Psychologist and

When we are wronged or hurt in

statistician Max Hamilton

some way, there is a tendency to ask,

To turn natural

constructs the Hamilton

“Why did this happen to me?” People

sadness into depression,

Depression Rating Scale

look back to see what they did to

all you have to do is blame

(HAM-D), a tool used to

cause the situation, even in the case

yourself for the disaster

measure clinical depression.

of a natural disaster. Self-blame, guilt,

that has befallen you.

helplessness, and shame irrationally

Dorothy Rowe

AFTER

arise when bad things happen, and

1980
Psychologist Melvin

these can lead to depression.

Lerner publishes
The Belief in

Rowe explained that we create

a Just World: A Fundamental

and choose our beliefs. Once we

Delusion,
explaining how we

understand this, we can let go of

wrongly believe that people

get what they deserve.

See also:
Fritz Perls 112–17 ■ Carl Rogers 130–37 ■ Albert Ellis 142–45 ■

Melvin Lerner 242–43 ■ George Kelly 337

PSYCHOTHERAPY 155

FATHERS ARE

SUBJECT TO A

RULE OF SILENCE

GUY CORNEAU (1951– )

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

B
efore French-Canadian

analyst Guy Corneau

published
Absent Fathers,

Lost Sons
in 1991, psychology had

Masculine psychology

given little attention to emotional

BEFORE

communication between men.

Corneau’s book examined the

1900s
Freudian analysts

difficulties of intimate conversations

describe the Oedipus complex,

between the male generations. He

which states that sons feel

recounts his attempts to make an

Communication
between fathers and

naturally competitive with

emotional connection with his

sons is often characterized by silences.

their father.

While sons long for recognition and

own father: reaching out, seeking

approval from their fathers, fathers are

1950s
French psychoanalyst

approval, but receiving only silence.

reluctant to give this approval freely.

Jacques Lacan argues that

the son sees the father as

Withholding approval

embodying the law.

Corneau recognizes that this

compromising his own power,

sequence of events is a familiar

making it less valuable. From the

AFTER

pattern in men, who are often

son’s point of view, if approval is

1991
In
Iron John: A Book

unable to shower their sons with

given too easily, without some

About Men
, American author

the praise, affection, or recognition

degree of withholding, the father is

Robert Bly says that fathers

craved by their offspring. When the

then no longer worthy of impressing.

fail to give their sons what

son experiences this silence, he

It appears that in most forms of

they need to become men,

may try harder to impress, or he

society there is a belief that men

and suggests that they

might withdraw, but the silence

cannot be both strong and open.

need to reawaken the

remains irrevocably imprinted in

Corneau says that this behavior

“Wild Man” within.

his mind, according to Corneau.

does a disservice to men. They are

The phenomenon may stem from

denied the opportunity to express

1990s
American writers

a competitive interplay of male

affection toward their sons—and