George Bonanno

George A. Bonanno, PhD
At Columbia University, May 2010
Born	Chicago, IL, U.S.
Residence	United States
Nationality	United States
Fields	Psychology
Institutions	Columbia University Teachers College
Alma mater	Hampshire College Yale University
Doctoral advisor	Jerome L. Singer (Yale University)
Known for	The Idea of Resilience. Resilience Defines the Experience of Human Loss and Trauma The Science of Bereavement and Trauma The Four Trajectories of Grief Coining the term "Coping Ugly" The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After Loss

George A. Bonanno is a professor of clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, U.S.A. He is responsible for introducing the controversial idea of resilience to the study of loss and trauma. He is known as a pioneering researcher in the field of bereavement and trauma. The New York Times on February 15, 2011, stated that the current science of bereavement has been "driven primarily" by Bonanno.Scientific American summarized a main finding of his work, "The ability to rebound remains the norm throughout adult life."

An article in Lingua Franca described Bonanno as resembling "the Grim Reaper himself, albeit in tanned, rested form."

Bonanno's contributions to the field, summarized in his book, "The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After a Loss," include the following:

Bonanno's research found psychological resilience to be at the core of human grief and trauma reactions. Bonanno's finding of resilience overturns what has been the status quo assumption of a person's experience of grief and trauma in the West since Sigmund Freud nearly a century ago. Bonanno's contribution to the field is to have found resilience through rigorous research and not through anecdotal evidence, theorizing, or simple but unreliable methodology.

Controversy. Many in the field of bereavement have found Bonanno's finding of persistent resilience in the face of potentially traumatic events controversial. Many therapists and psychiatrists, who tend to treat the chronically affected, find it hard to imagine that no treatment is needed for most people who have experienced a loss or even an extreme stressor event, such as during 9-11 or childhood sexual abuse. Further, in contrast to Freud's and his followers' ideas and prevailing popular theories, it is difficult for many people to accept laughter as a healthy response. Another difficult concept, especially in the face a potentially traumatic event when people feel pulled to help in some way, is to realize that offering treatment to otherwise well people can cause harm, by producing the symptoms they hope to avoid.