During this global pandemic, many of us will experience trauma, which the authors define as a severely stressful life-altering event. A traumatic event is like an earthquake, shattering an individual’s coherent world-view the way an earthquake can shatter the foundations of buildings. A traumatic event is undesirable in the extreme and significant enough to challenge “the basic assumptions about one’s future and how to move toward that future…such as the loss of loved ones, of cherished roles or capabilities, or of fundamental, accepted ways of understanding life.”
Posttraumatic Growth: Theory, Research and Applications (Routledge, 2018), Richard G. Tedeschi and his colleagues (Jane Shakespeare-Finch, Kanako Taku and Lawrence G. Calhoun rework and overhaul the seminal 2006 Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth. It provides a wide range of answers to questions concerning knowledge of posttraumatic growth (PTG) theory, its synthesis and contrast with other theories and models, and its applications in diverse settings.
The book starts with an overview of the history, components, and outcomes of PTG. Next, chapters review quantitative, qualitative, and cross-cultural research on PTG, including in relation to cognitive function, identity formation, cross-national and gender differences, and similarities and differences between adults and children.
The final section shows readers how to facilitate optimal outcomes with PTG at the level of the individual, the group, the community, and society.
Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a Jerusalem-based psychologist, Middle East television commentator, and host of the Van Leer Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel
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