Resilience, Consilience, Desilience:
How to bounce-back in the right
direction.
Rob Gordon, PhD
Consultant Psychologist
Evolving language
Welfare
Recovery
Vulnerability
Hazard
Risk
Resilience
Change from: creative name – technical term – jargon – cliché
Recovery from Disaster & Trauma
What is to be recovered from?
Re – Cover: to cover again.
What is the cover?
The social world and the life that is immersed and
supported by it.
Definitions of Recovery
1. Replacement of losses
2. Getting back to where you were before the impact
3. Getting to where you should have been if it had not
happened.
BUT: Are the Goals, Plans, the same? How has the experience
changed the direction of life?
4. A life no longer directed toward the trauma, but once again
towards self-selected goals.
Resilience
OED Resilience: elasticity; spring back; rebound; recoil;
recovery from sickness, depression,
Latin: resilio: leap, spring back; rebound, recoil; shrink away
from; retreat, draw back contract.
salio: leap, spring, jump, bound,
The capacity to bounce back assumes elasticity which allows
deformation without damage
Hence refers to structures and functions that are unchanged
and can be used for recovery tasks
Problems with “bounce”
How high, in which direction, or what else goes on?
Anything bounces a bit, but may be damaged in the process.
Some resilient people do poorly in the long term.
Do we measure resilience in getting up and doing or
resuming previous functions?
“Resilience” can be used to avoid the loss, tragedy and
lasting ill-effects
Value of Resilience
The affected have capacities they can use to recover
with
Communities have assets or networks that can be used
– social capital.
The affected can do more than just look after
themselves, they can participate in decision making
about themselves and their community
And they want to do these things.
Encouraging passive dependence on others does not
enhance recovery.
BUT …. This assumes The past can be recreated
Goals, plans, hopes, values etc for life are still the same
The old life can be gone back to
The way things were is still relevant
HOWEVER ….
Trauma and Disaster often mean life will never be the
same again.
Resilience in Child Development
Children who have some factor that neutralises
adversity:
High IQ
Good social skills
Good communication skills
Sporting or academic ability
Outgoing personality
Attractive appearance
Trauma & Disaster
Trauma means “wound, damage, injury”
Occurs when fundamental assumptions about world, self,
others, life, reality are destroyed and have to be rebuilt.
Assumptions are formed in time by repeated experienced of
the same thing.
Dis-aster means “against the stars” ie against the order of
things
The order of things is upturned and things can never be as
secure again.
Redefining Recovery
If we cannot return to the old life what is the goal of recovery?
Recovery from trauma may take 5 years (Mean recovery time)
From disaster recovery takes between 3 & 7 years or longer
Canberra & Yarra Ranges: 40% rebuilt or approved end of 2 years;
Marysville: 50% rebuilt or approved end of 5 years.)
Time of recovery is disrupted time; the old life is often lost in the
turmoil –without realising it has gone, because there is so much to
focus on.
The Real Task of Recovery:
Neutralise the damage caused by the trauma or disaster
Maintain what is important and survives of the old life
Adjust what does survive so that it does not reorganise
around the damage
Integrate the trauma/disaster experience into the existing
life so it does not negate what is important
Review and adjust values, goals, priorities, in the light of
the experiences so they can be the basis of a new life
Resilience in Recovery
The need for a new life means not “bounce back” but “leap
forward”
Find a new direction which -
relates to the past & carries what survives
takes the experience as the basis for a new start
builds a new lifestyle
This must be creative and supportive to be satisfying, not a
refuge from the fear.
It has to integrate the old, the trauma and the new
PTSD Trajectories: Galazer-Levy, Ankri, Freedman, Israeli-Shalev, Roitman, Gilad & Shalev (2013)
Consilience
‘jumping together’
Concurrent, accordant
Consilience: fact of … coincidence, concurrence,
Latin: consilere: to jump together.
Elasticity is the basis for a new coherence, pattern,
meaning, routine, design of life.
How to Promote Consilience?
Define the meaning and consequences of the trauma or disaster –
this takes time … (years.)
Trace the changes caused by it – some are avoidant, some are
caused by the damage, some are new perspectives (growth).
Preserve what was not damaged at impact, though it may be
damaged by repercussions: relationships, families, careers, social
relationships, activity patterns and rewards
Create a protective social context larger than the individual or
their family.
Meaning, normality, evaluation, are inherently social and involve
other people.
What are the social dimensions?
Each is trauma or loss is as unique as a physical injury
No two people have the same problem, but every problem involves
commonalities
Eg arson deaths vs power line fire deaths
Meaning and evaluations of experiences come from relating
individual stories to others’ stories
Personal work must be complemented by social work on the trauma
The damage is to assumptions which are always formed in a social
world – work, family, community, etc.
Recovery
Is a social process
Often the importance of the social dimension of important
aspects of life is apparent to people for the first time
Need to bring people together in ways they may not have
needed before
Group events of all sorts – support groups, meetings,
information exchange, advocacy groups, meals, recreation,
etc.
Recovery is not solitary.
BUT ….
Some people are vulnerable
There are obstacles to their recovery.
The trauma/disaster impacts more severely
They lack undamaged structures
They lack elasticity of their capacities
There is no bounce. (Dented, bent, broken,
shattered)
“Desilience”
Lack of elasticity, spring back, rebound, recoil,
bounce,
Due to good reasons for the person/family
Continuing damage from the trauma
Damage from inappropriate management
Prior trauma
Lack of supports
Other life problems
Lack of confidence, optimism, hope, self-esteem
Lack of community belonging or cohesion
Remedies for Desilience
Acceptance of vulnerability
It is not always evident in pre-trauma
situation
Early recognition
Social integration
Sensitive support and recognition by
authorities (cf allergies, back injuries etc)
Support for meaning and values work
Recovery Trajectories
Resilient
Consilient
Desilient