The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD

Product Description

A top expert on human trauma argues that we vastly overestimate how common PTSD is and fail to recognize how resilient people really areAfter 9/11, mental health professionals flocked to New York to handle what everyone assumed would be a flood of trauma cases. Oddly, the flood never came.In The End of Trauma, pioneering psychologist George A. Bonanno argues that we failed to predict the psychological response to 9/11 because most of what we understand about trauma is wrong. For starters, it’s not nearly as common as we think. In fact, people are overwhelmingly resilient to adversity. What we often interpret as PTSD are signs of a natural process of learning how to deal with a specific situation. We can cope far more effectively if we understand how this process works. Drawing on four decades of research, Bonanno explains what makes us resilient, why we sometimes aren’t, and how we can better handle traumatic stress.Hopeful and humane, The End of Trauma overturns everything we thought we knew about how people respond to hardship.

Review

“A fresh perspective… Bonanno adeptly succeeds in capturing the profound lived experience of trauma and in balancing these accounts with cutting edge findings from psychology and neuroscience.”―
Science

”Bonanno proposes a new way to look at trauma in this hopeful examination… he masterfully conveys his extensive research on 9/11 survivors, and on people who suffered severe spinal cord injuries yet who didn’t experience long-term traumatic effects… Bold and accessible, this offers much to consider.”―
Publishers Weekly

“Necessary and important…Bonanno’s research is brilliantly presented through the personal stories of his interview subjects and comes alive through the lenses of personal experience, as people explain their feelings of stress and worry, hope, and optimism in their own words.” ―
Library Journal

George Bonanno has done groundbreaking research on the psychology of resilience. In this book, he reveals how people can break free from the aftershocks of traumatic events. I can’t think of a better time for his insights.―
Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

George Bonanno has hit a home run. With a blend of page-turning stories, illuminating examples, and cutting-edge science,
The End of Trauma is guaranteed to change your mind about the sources and prevalence of trauma. Reading this gorgeously-written book will make you appreciate your own mind’s flexibility and how to capitalize on it to become a more resilient person.―
Sonja Lyubomirsky, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of The How of Happiness

Everything you know about trauma — about how human beings deal with the worst things that can possibly happen to them – is probably wrong. One book can fix that, and this is the one. The world’s expert on human resilience has written a powerful, important, and fascinating book that explains how ordinary people take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.―
Daniel Gilbert, bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness

Bonanno is a master storyteller. The End of Trauma turns common sense on its head with impeccable science and a narrative like a suspense novel. If you or your loved ones have ever faced great adversity, this book is for you.―
Lisa Feldman Barrett, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and author of How Emotions Are Made

George Bonanno is a rare scientist-researcher who knows how to systematically and deeply explore whatever he’s attempting to understand, while also being able to translate it into clear, easy to follow guidance. The End of Trauma was four decades in the making, and it was worth the wait.―
Patricia Nelson, National Center for PTSD

George Bonanno is a leading thinker about trauma and resilience. And in his new book,
The End of Trauma, he argues that much of what you think you know about trauma is wrong. Bonanno uses moving accoun