Forced Resilience

In listening to a podcast, in which Dr. Payne was interviewed on Psychologists off the Clock, she highlighted an eye opening perspective relating to the “double-edged sword” of resilience, in which some people are resilient because they are surviving rather than thriving. Moreover, Dr. Payne makes an important distinction about our frame of reference when we view resilience. For example, when we communicate that someone is resilient, do we also acknowledge whether the external adversity is due to a mostly uncontrollable situation like a hurricane, fire, or maybe even a car accident versus adversity due to a hate crime, years of systemic oppression, or discriminatory practices in the workplace? Most critical in the distinction is also challenging the ideas of why should one even have to suffer through and survive a system that subjugates people to pain, marginalization, and unwantedness? If we only look at an individual or a group’s resilience we might not be exploring or trying to change the problem that is creating the forced resilience.

A recent article by Harnisch, Montgomery, and Knoop (2020) begins to examine the idea of Forced Resilience due to “coercive conditions, contexts and experiences of human beings who face life-threaten­ing adversity.” How might we take the idea of forced resilience and expand upon it to reflect coercive conditions within larger social contexts where there are likely degrees and temporal effects of forced resilience. For example, being held at gun-point to make a choice, where threat to life is immediate versus repeatedly being passed up from economic opportunities, where threat to livelihood may be like a slow decaying process?

How might understanding all these distinctions impact the way we as mental health professionals connect with our clients as well as inform our in-session interventions? To reflect upon this idea further, at what point do we also acknowledge that we ourselves may have played a role, not knowing at the time, in a larger oppressive system? In an effort to provide authentic and culturally responsive care, it is our duty to examine these questions and to process the results of our understanding.

References:

1. Harnisch, H., Montgomery, E., & Knoop, H. H. (2020). Forced Resilience: Conceptualizing Resilience in Life-Threatening Adversity. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.546

Recommended Books:

1. Out of the Fire: Healing Black Trauma Caused by Systemic Racism Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy