Resilience, Conceptual Approaches

How do people manage the difficult events they are confronted with?
Most of the people react in these circumstances with a wave of strong
feelings and with incertitude. Today, people adjust more easily to life
changes and to the situations that have as a consequence a higher level of
stress. What makes them capable of doing that? The answer is resilience, a
process that takes time, effort and the successful passing through different
stages. It means “the big comeback” from difficult experiences. Developing
resilience is a personal journey. People do not react in the same way to
traumatic events and to stress. A strategy for building resilience that works
for a person, community or a country’s population could not be efficient for
another.
The concept of resilience has an important impact on the intereses of
experts, science people, analysts and other responsibles in the domains of
health and security of population because it appears in a time of rapid
transformation of the society( in the last 100 years there were more changes
taking place than in the last 30000 years); in a time of incertitude and
inquietudes regarding the capacity of facing them, of a negativist attitude
regarding everything that happens today, attitude which determines a state of
fear that is transmitted to children and to young people [1] and last but not
least, in a time of a poor social-economical situation of the majority of the
planet’s population a time when the brutal threats addressed to the individual
and to the collectivity have increased its number, threats among which we
signal the terrorist attacks, more active at the beginning of this century and
millennium.
The concept was introduced for the first time in 1969 by the psychologist
and psychanalist Fritz Redl. In the years 1980’s many studies dedicated to
resilience appeared, followed by other studies made in the USA at the end of
the last century, under the influence of Emmy Werner[2] and Jhon Bowlby
[3].
Today there are several resilience institutes in Netherlands, Resilience
Universities in USA and Germany and even a doctoral school at University
of South Dakota. In Quebek, the most well-known annalist in the field is the
pedo-psychiatrist Michael Lemay, and in France, Boris Cyrulnik [4], disciple
of Jhon Bowlby, specialist in this field renowned for his researches on
human and animal behaviors.
The term of resilience enjoys current use in today’s world and is applied
to various fields. We speak of moral resilience, physical resilience, social
resilience, communitarian resilience, cultural resilience, ecological
resilience, etc.
The word resilience comes from the latin word “rescindere” which means
to annulate or to resiliate a convention, an act. This notion is presented in the
angle-saxon dictionaries as the moral resort, the quality of someone who
does not let himself be turned from his way.[5].
At its origins, in metallurgy, resilience designates the quality of materials,
connected with elasticity and fragility which manifests itself by the capacity
of coming back to the former state after a shock or a constant pressure.
For an informatician resilience is about that quality of a system that
enables its correct functioning despite of the defects of one or more
constitutive elements. The English language uses the term “system
resiliency” to explain, function of context, by tolerance to breaking and
tolerance to anomalies (hidden vices), the insensibility that is associated
with the weakening of the resilience.
For the ecologist, the resilience expresses, on one hand, the capacity of
recovery or regeneration which characterizes a living organism or of the
population, and on the other hand the aptitude of an ecosystem of recovering
after different perturbations ( variations of temperature, fires, disasters). For
example the water willow has resilience because of the flexibility that
characterizes it, this tree being most of the times the only tree that is not
destroyed by strong wind blasts.
In socio-economy there have been recently introduced the expressions:
“resilient business” and “resilient community”, that appear in the American
and Canadian publications when they are confronted with the problem of
evidenciation of the intrinsic capacities of the enterprises, organizations or
communications of finding their former balance, or a new balance that can
assure their functioning after disaster or in conditions of continuous threat.
In the same context we can speak about nationalities or faiths that
beneficiate of cultural resilience. Many cultures and peoples have appeared
and disappeared, some of them have survived; the cultures that have
succeeded to survive can be considered resilient. The cultural resistance
refers to the capacity of a culture to keep and develop its cultural identity
and its tradition. Despite the difficulties and provocations they can confront
with, a resilient culture has the capacity to survive and develop. A resilient
culture can succeed in the fight with the natural disasters or with other
cultures and continues to exist and develop. For example, the Jewish people
has proved to be resilient at the provocations of the Second World War and
the people and the culture of Palestinians have proved to be resilient to
changes that have taken place in Israel.
 If in medical science and criminology the problem of resilience is
connected with physical resistance as phenomenas of spontaneous healing or
sudden recovery, in psycho pedagogy it represents the individual’s and
system’s aptitude of facing risk situations, of not manifesting psychological
dysfunctions and of reestablishing an emotional balance by a better
understanding of the psychological resort.
Next I will present a few clarifying aspects on the content of resilience,
especially of population resilience to risk situations associated to terrorism
and crime.
In the work of the ethnologist Boris Cyrulnik, A wonderful misfortune,
edited in year 1999, we find the concept of resilience and its content:
“We always wondered about those children that have overcome immense
challenge and build a normal life despite all difficulty. The misfortune is not
always pure, just like happiness. There is one word that helps us organize
our way of understanding the misery of those who have succeeded to survive
an unfortunate event. It is the word “resilience” which designates the
capacity to succeed, to survive, to develop despite adversity.
Understanding this we will modify our perception on misfortune and,
despite sufferance we will search for the wonder, the miracle.
Under the coordination of Boris Cyrulnik, the French researchers have
elaborated studies not only for analyzing the sources of resilience but also
for learning about the concrete measures that can be adopted in the field of
preventive actions: we have in mind here names as Jackues Leconte,
Stephen Vanistendael, Michel Manciaus[7].
This can explain why some people have the ability to succeed to recover
quicklier than others after a trauma, knowing that there are many situations
when certain people are affected and carry the negative psychical effects for
a certain period of time or even for a lifetime. Resilience becomes the key
element of a good mental state.
We are asking ourselves why some veterans that have fought in different
wars are marked for life while others succeed in their career, becoming well-
known personalities of political, economical and cultural life or in other
domains. The resilience is what characterizes the people that overcome
successfully the difficult challenges of life, without remaining affected.
In 1984, Garmezy, Masten and Tellegen have analysed the concept of
resilience during one of the first projects that referred to the manifestation of
abilities at children despite the exposure to stressing events. Later, Sir
Michael Rutter defined resilience as a modality of manifestation of a person
in stress conditions that facilitates the development of self esteem and social
abilities of a person, that enables him to raise at the level required for
accomplishing the responsibilities.”[9]
In 1994, Masten defined resilience as “an individual way of successful
adaptation in a situation, despite risks and adversities”[10].The author
remarks next: “resilience refers at a primary model of action characterized
by good adaptation at situations, despite of the risks ,of the acute risk factors
or of chronical adversity.” In 1995, Gordon defined the resilience in the
following terms:” the ability of a person to form and develop his
competencies when confronted with an unfavorable situation. These
circumstances can include biological abnormalities or obstacles imposed by
their life medium. These difficult circumstances can become chronical and
consistent or severe and sporadical. For developing these competences a
person must bring forth all his resources of internal, biological and
psychological resources and also external resources, offered by the
surrounding medium.[11]
In an international project of studying resilience developed in the years
1993-1994 that enjoyed the participation of 30 states, this concept was
defined as “the universal capacity that enables a person, a group or a
community to prevent, to minimize or overcome the destructive effects of
adversities”[12].
The problem of resilience was comprised in the theme of the reunion
that took place between 17-18 march 2007 and was organized in
collaboration by the Birzei University and the Institute of International
Studies Ibrahim Abu Lughod with two Palestinian nongovernmental
organizations (Palestinian Counseling Centre and les Enfants du Rue et de
L’education).
Resilience represents the human capacity of confronting with the
adversities of the medium, resisting and overcoming them in health
conditions, the consequence being the transformation into a stronger, better
person.
These approaches represent only a few of the contents of the definitions of
resilience created by renowned researches in the field. These definitions
describe practical situations, which mean for practiciens that some people
that are exposed to severe or chronical adversity will succeed to become
more competent. In time, these people will succeed to adapt successfully and
will need extraordinary resources of biological, psychological and external
resources if they want to succeed in doing so. But these people will not be
able to face this by themselves; instead, they need support, care and help, not
only from their families but also from their community.
 Resilience, as a possibility of being competent despite the exposal to
severe or chronical adversity, seems simple in the beginning, but is proved
not so due to the fact that the competences suffer changes in time.
The definition is not simple because the resilience is a contextual
phenomenon.
The individual characteristics and the medium factors connected with
resilience in a certain context can be separated from it in another context.
For example, the academic resilience can be connected with a certain set
of individual characteristics and with the medium, while emotional
resilience will have nothing to do with these factors. Different types of
resilience are sustained by different types of factors.
The definition is not simple because of the fact that resilience is a
complex. For the apparition of the phenomenon of resilience, several
personal characteristics are required, like the social abilities and some
medium factors like a proper mentorship.
Resilience does not simply appear at a person, instead it is obtained by
the combination of the biological characteristics (temperament) and
psychological characteristics ( internal localization of control) of the person.
The role of the surrounding medium can’t be ignored, the external factors
being very important. The people around, the opportunities, the life
conditions, all these factors bring their influence in the equation of
resilience. A resilient personality is not sufficient, but the resilience refers to
the person and to the medium.
The definition is not simple for other reasons as well. For showing
resilience, a person makes great sacrifices and endures pain, confronts stress
and terrible adversity. The resilience is followed by emotional difficulties or
stress connected with the health problems specific to each age. Resilience
has a cost, represented by emotional and health problems, problems that we
cannot ignore.
The enquiries about who are the resilient people and how do they
behave are complicated matters. There is no profile of a resilient personality
or of a resilient personality, but there are a few characteristics common to al
resilient people. These characteristics appear in childhood and continue to
manifest until adulthood. It is possible that a person proves resilience in a
certain stage of development and later to loose them. Some of the
characteristics like the sociability can manifest itself permanently during all
the stages of development of the personality, while others, like the ability to
control the alimentary behavior are more specific to some of the stages than
to the others.
 All the resilient people have in common the fact that they have
overcome the acute and chronical stress or adversity situations. We can
observe some of these characteristics as manifested at other people, still, if
they did not successfully pass through adversity situations they cannot be
considered resilient.
The people that overcome intense or chronical stress or adversity
situations have certain characteristics that manifest themselves beginning
from childhood and continuing at maturity. Starting from childhood, the
resilient people are active, full of energy and easy to include in activities.
These children usually enjoy a positive attitude from the adults, one of the
reasons being the fact that their temper is easy to manage, they respond to
stimulus from the social medium and obtain from the adults the required
attention. No doubt they manifest themselves as active and determined
people with great tolerance to frustration , they control their impulses and
are able to postpone the fulfillment of their own will in situations that
demand abstination. ”They have apparently developed a genetical and
neurochemical structure made to help them.”[15]
The most important process in consolidation of resilience is represented by
the development of certain adapting abilities. The resilience appears as the
capacity of an individual to overcome difficulties despite, or maybe because
of the factors of risk and stress. The resilient people and the communities
have the tendency to see the problematic situations as opportunities for
development. In other words the resilience, seen as a psychological concept
implies not only individual but also collective factors.