The Resilience Myth

Subtitle: New Thinking on Grit, Strength, and Growth After Trauma

Author: Soraya Chemaly

Genre: Nonfiction

Format: Digital ARC

Publish Date: May 2024

Read: March 2024

Favorite Quote: The key to using optimism to enhance resilience is in rejecting black-and-white, either/or thinking. Resilient people use both optimism and pessimism strategically to gain the critical insights and information they need to adjust to change.

Synopsis: Resilience is something we hear far too often. Workplaces want resilient employees, and the media wants resilient citizens who are able to weather the ups and downs of systems over which they have no control. Employees and citizens want resilient systems that are able to stand up to the temporal societal demands that confuse and control us.

But resilience is not what we need.

Throughout this book, Chemaly (author of Rage Becomes Her), explores why dismantling oppressive thinking and systems and building supportive community structures will make us more resilient. Taking the focus off individual resilience will increase both individual and community resilience if these systems are acknowledged and adjusted.

Why does this book beguile? Soraya Chemaly explores why our systems are set up to encourage us to fail. Systems of grit, tenacity, and perseverance perpetuate ableism and isolation. As we evolve into a global organism with microcosms, we must all figure out how to support one another, how to help ease the burdens of others (and let them help us), while tackling the oppressive and patriarchal systems that have gotten us where we are.

It’s not easy, but through The Resilience Myth, Chemaly breaks down some of the issues into manageable chunks, allowing readers to digest the information and apply it to their direct communities. I love this book because it gives me hope for the future!

Rating: 4/5

Link*: The Resilience Myth: New Thinking on Grit, Strength, and Growth After Trauma by Soraya Chemaly

If you’re interested in this, read*: Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya Chemaly