Paper short abstract:

Stress and trauma are present in almost every person's life. However living with it shows diversity. Resilience implies the highest level of functioning after trauma. A clear clarification of this concept is essential for societies to show flexibility in the face of future traumas.

Paper long abstract:

„Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands" (APA, 2023).

The concept of resilience has changed a lot over time. The physical term is now used in a wide range of disciplines, from security policy to medical clinical practice. The interpretation of the term tends to expand across disciplines, but the underlying processes are becoming less and less clear. An important distinction is that the original passive meaning of resilience is now assumed to be "active" in the human interpretation. One consequence of this is that part of the literature marginalises the notion of resilience as a passive, innate quality that is present independently of our will. What is unclear at the individual level is difficult to translate into the societal level. By returning to the roots of the concept in physics and psychology, and by placing resilience on a new footing, we can move closer to a social understanding, which is essential for future struggles. Societies that have accumulated historical trauma and transgenerational memories of it deserve increased attention in understanding what gives them resilience.