Who, in this increasingly precarious
know the feeling of insecurity and crisis,
to those who struggle and resist, play, falls and rises again,
who knows that every day is good for learning to live
withstand impact. Reorganize their lives positively.
There is a word rarely used in Italian but this in French (impact strength) and English (resilience) that recently the social sciences are giving much attention: resilience. The Italian vocabulary defines this term, which belongs to physics, such as resistance of a material to shock without cracking and breaking (Lo Zingarelli, Zanichelli, Milano, 1995). Resilience is a term that is the common heritage of the humanities, technological, economic, ecological, biological: engineering resilience defines the ability of a material to resist impulsive; in biology and human ecology is equivalent to the capacity of a system self-repair, a return to a state of balance as a result to a disturbance, in the human sciences the term in question expresses the capacity to deal with any critical incident, is linked to the concepts of wellness, trauma and vulnerability, stress and empowerment in recent years the concept of resilience is often used in economics, in computer is used to indicate the opposite sign of weakness. In psychology it is instead the use of the term resilience to express the human capacity to respond positively to the difficulties in cultivating inner resources, restoring the psycho-physical balance prior to the crisis with the possibility of improving it. Broadly speaking we can distinguish between individual and collective resilience:
• PERSONAL IMPACT: Understanding resilience as a quality individual as it summarizes a set of capabilities that put the person in a position to react flexibly to changes and active life difficulties;
• RESILIENCE GROUP: resilience as a quality characterized by the collective ability to react in difficult situations oriented towards the common good and guided by principles of solidarity, cooperation, collaboration, which evolves and develops in mutual aid relationship with the mobilization of resources, with responsibility for promoting the welfare of people and of belonging to the same community (regional, corporate and social).
Obviously we are all influenced by both these levels of resilience, both individually and collectively be fitted with resilient means having the ability to face life's adversities, overcome and emerge strengthened or even transformed. Comes a crisis breaks into our lives, break our habitual patterns: the breaking creates fear and insecurity, the impact strength is the basis of our capacity flexibility, the ability to react positively to the detriment of the difficulties, the desire to build using the power its interior of human beings, the ability to cope with painful events and to rise from traumatic situations (principle historically demonstrated in times of global and massacres of genocide caused by man).
Being resilient does not mean only survive at all costs, but also have the ability to use the experience born out of difficult situations to build the future. The theme of the resilience owes much to the Romanian psychologist Boris Cyrulnik (son of deported to Auschwitz, which escaped from the train to the concentration camps) have been conducted over the past decade, however, many studies and research on this topic and it seems that every person possesses this characteristic, but by each of us depends on which can be developed, if we allow ourselves the opportunity to do that, maybe choosing with care, attention and love the people we surround. Who is more resilient (ie, more shock resistant!) seems to be with a good ability to: introspection (the ability to examine themselves, ask questions and respond with sincerity), independence (the ability to keep a certain distance, physical and emotional of the problems, but not isolated), interaction (the ability to establish intimate relationships and satisfying you with other people) initiative (the ability to address the problems, understand and be able to control them) creativity (the ability to create order, beauty and goals starting from chaos and disorder) fun (state of mind to joy, it allows us to move away from the focal point of tension, relativize positivization and events that affect us). Not having good skills in this area does not mean that we can not develop. We must get involved, groped, the first attempts will be perhaps a little 'bankruptcy, but do not give up, the first step to strengthen their resilience to withstand the shock and then, is to believe we can do it. I recall the words of Holderlin quoted by Morin: "If the danger grows, also grows salvation"; so, the more our lives are in crisis, our society becomes more precarious and dangerous, the more we pay attention to our chances of survival, resistance.
I hesitated a bit 'before deciding to place a post on this subject, not because he considered it important, indeed. My hesitation was related to two main reasons. Sometimes when I stop to listen to the views of the reader or, more generally, those who have not much knowledge in the socio-psychological constructs such as talk about the resilience in our case, it sounds a little 'how to speak of the discovery of 'hot', I have heard that such a time as this famous resilience was called simply hope, and perhaps it is true, but it is also true that study, understand and disseminate information on particular characteristics that are the basis of our sense of hope, optimism, ability to react, or our resiliency, if you prefer, is a good way to spread hope and provide tools to address the psycho-emotional crisis. Another of my hesitation was then dictated by the fact that sometimes even our psychological and social sciences tend in some way to "make cool" to speak on the subject of which more than talk, because it is commercial, because it's effect. And, well, join the fashion "resilience", did not convince me that much; I had a kind of deep respect for this marvelous human ability to react, I did not want to talk too much: it was a bit 'like trying to protect something that is considered very valuable by the overexposure that is going to undermine and diminish. I decided to have only a small space to devote to the subject, as if to say "know that it is human to fall into crisis, both individually and collectively, it is equally human to react, and maybe if we all knew intuitively, now also seems to scientifically proven. " And so if the crisis were to go through your day, call it hope or call it resilience, but know that it exists, you can find it. Keep keep in mind that a negative period 'and then overcome, however temporary, but if it is a permanent situation, which can not be changed, then it must learn to manage it. Get lost in the "I, I should have" and so on. Will not be very productive, rather it can serve not do everything alone and ask for help when you need it.
I personally believe that there is a right to complain of its crisis and ultimately also to not want to overcome, just accept their condition, consequences, and take note of their responsibilities. But what brings me to love my profession and mankind, beyond all the bad and terrible of which can which is likely to be responsible for or has that wonderful ability to react and take back their lives. I do not think to relate their own crisis to a crisis that can be considered more serious than someone may console, also see up close the pain of others, consider what harm is there in the world can not and should not be enough for anyone to address their own personal crisis , some may perhaps, in some cases be used to scale the entity. I mean you can not love their lives, including crisis, because "there are worse" but I think one of the most useful things, always, but especially in times of grief and crisis is not close in big or small your world of pain: we must look inward conviction that there is a point from which to depart, perhaps an unexplored resource waiting to be put into play. I've seen people sink into crisis situations that others would consider absolutely trivial (they can not buy more clothes, having to live in a smaller house, etc..) And people affected by severe trauma and withstand repeated, bringing the signs, but without surrendering to crisis and violence of life, as I have definitely seen people crumble under the weight of the tragedies which have been affected, and learn from other small crises every day and invent a new life and resist "slapping" more strong that life has given them later. Everyone has their own life, its crisis, its resilience, it is, if you will, to withstand the shocks and reorganize their lives. I can not say from where and how to share, there is a valid indication for all, we must examine what's around (people, situations) and always walk along a dual track: the inner world of trauma, its small and Great Depression on the one hand, and the resources, skills and abilities that are developed or may develop other.
To close this post, public below an article I wrote a few years ago (in Movement Psychology, 2005), when I think of resilience I can not help but think that I will talk to women here. As I said before, I do not consider the experience of others, in this case of the Argentinian mothers, can help alleviate the tone of its crisis, and indeed sometimes make a comparison with situations so great (in their grief and their strength), serves only to say that you do not have such a force, that is not so good, that they are exceptional people. But it is precisely for this reason (besides the fact that it is one of the articles which are related) that I chose to write an article below about the Argentinian mothers, like many women, mothers, wives, before which is hard to think that it is remarkable women; but the point is that there can be no comparison between different stories, different lives, different crisis, can not and should not be compared but it certainly can be learned and you can find an incentive to reduce (if necessary) their crisis or to deal with it head on. I chose the mothers of Plaza de Mayo because I'm very passionate about their history, in this context, these extraordinary women are just an example that can serve as an example of strength, courage and pride, in short, resilience.
"The insane courage
June 2005: some women, seventy 'years or so, aching legs, half-empty suitcase, and a kerchief on her head so hard depart from Buenos Aires, Italy destination, stopping only two days, not business, not for health reasons, not to visit their loved ones, not for entertainment, but to talk. Atypical trip, I'd say! But this is precisely what they want these women, not housing, not money, but can talk and talk about the possibility 'of ideal plant to cultivate hope,' so they say. And they say more than thirty years, from when he and a group of women, not military, not politicians, not entrepreneurs, but women, mothers and wives, have made a simple gesture, took to the streets to find out, seek justice and tell the world. They described their pain and Their strength, their humanity el'atrocità of the facts that they were experiencing, and the only way they could know: they have heard of missing sons and husbands, men tortured in concentration camps and scattered throughout the country, thrown into the sea with the 'flight death ', all this,' Mothers of Plaza de Mayo 'and they said, as he says Daniela Padoan, their is now somehow' a tale of resistance, the resistance of life over death, to give birth mother give the death of the schemes'. Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, have been able to gather in one place all the strength, pain, anger, depression, courage, fear, love and hate in their history, and have been able to find their own truth. Twenty-eight years, every Thursday, taking to the streets and in the meantime, many of those who called them 'the crazy', they stopped doing it: 'They called us the crazy, and someone thought it was an insult. Of course we put into it every Thursday, and we returned. They said, there they were, the crazy. The arrested and their return. But we knew we were crazy love, crazy desire to find our children ... And why not? A bit 'of madness, it is important to fight. We have reversed the meaning of the insult of those murderers. No more offended that call us crazy. To do what we did, what do we have to continue to be a bit 'crazy. Insanity is important. Sometimes they are just crazy people, along with children, to tell the truth '(Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo)'. These women have found insane courage to tell their story and show the truth, have been able to tear barriers of indifference and violence; have known how to love and fight, they knew how to love and fight, they could not resist, go ahead and continue to love , were able to march and travel, just to talk and tell. 'The only Pierdo lucha que se es la que se abandon' The only struggle you lose is the one used to say that you leave and I believe that Freud, Jung, and other greats of the history of psychology, could not teach better and I think all of us, when we can make it hard to believe, when she thinks she can no longer love, when is giving up his personal history or a significant struggle, may also try to stop and listen to the crazy courage that echoes from Argentina, the courage that does not give in to despair, that these simple women have shown and described and that each of us in the places of the soul or in the streets around the world, I believe, can be found (Di Nardo, 2005).
