With groundbreaking research on the psychology of resilience, the leading expert in human trauma argues that we significantly overestimate the community of PTSD cases and fail to recognize how resilient people can be. In the days following 9/11, psychologists from everywhere flocked to New York City to address what everyone believed would be a flood of traumatic incidents. However, the flood never came.

In the book The End of Trauma, pioneering psychologist George A. Bonanno argues that most of the ideas we have about trauma are incorrect. For starters, it is not as common as we think. In fact, people are overwhelmingly resilient in the face of adversity. What we often interpret as PTSD are signs of a natural learning process on how to handle a particular situation. We can cope more effectively if we understand how this process works. Drawing on four decades of research, Bonanno explains what makes us resilient, why we sometimes aren't, and how we can better manage traumatic stress.

Hopeful and humane, The End of Trauma challenges what we thought we knew about people's reactions to difficulties.