Resilience and Mental Health: Challenges Across the Lifespan

Humans are remarkably resilient in the face of crises, traumas, disabilities, attachment losses and ongoing adversities. To date, most research in the field of traumatic stress has focused on neurobiological, psychological and social factors associated with trauma-related psychopathology and deficits in psychosocial functioning. Far less is known about resilience to stress and healthy adaptation to stress and trauma. This book brings together experts from a broad array of scientific fields whose research has focused on adaptive responses to stress. Each of the five sections in the book examines the relevant concepts, spanning from factors that contribute to and promote resilience, to populations and societal systems in which resilience is employed, to specific applications and contexts of resilience and interventions designed to better enhance resilience. This will be suitable for clinicians and researchers who are interested in resilience across the lifespan and in response to a wide variety of stressors.

About the Author

Steven M. Southwick is Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine and Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA.

Brett Litz is Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.

Dennis S. Charney is Dean and Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.

Matthew J. Friedman is Executive Director, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, US Department of Veterans Affairs and Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Toxicology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, USA.