A number of years ago, I wrote a book – You’re Stronger Than You Think – which explores the surprising resilience of people with chronic illness and disability. I’ve done a bunch of research on the topic, but in the book I wrote not only about such research, but also about real people, who overcame…
It is an awful irony that Ludwig van Beethoven, who I consider the greatest composer in the history of the world, experienced deafness from an early age, a disability that did not seem to interfere with his musical productivity one whit. But it certainly cost him a great deal of suffering, as is quite apparent…
I remember one time having a conversation with Daniel Kahneman, one of the founders of behavioral economics, about the topic of happiness and emotional adaptation, in the context of chronic disability. We were discussing emotional impact of experiencing a limb amputation. Kahneman pointed out that it is the loss of the limb that is really…
People often show an amazing ability to emotionally recover from difficult circumstances. I devoted my second book, You’re Stronger Than You Think, to this topic. Now comes some really cool research, showing that people’s ability to bounce back from adversity depends, not all that surprisingly, on their underlying personality traits. Although this result is not…
I have done a fair amount of research exploring people’s ability to adapt to a wide range of illnesses and disabilities, too emotionally recover from these difficult circumstances more than the could have imagined. But chronic pain is one of those health conditions that many people find very difficult to adapt to emotionally. One reason…
Lance Armstrong cheated and bullied. These are not shocking revelations. Oscar Pistorius had a history of altercations with his girlfriend and is now accused of murder. More shocking, by far, but hardly the first athlete to be accused of such wrong doing. Should we be so thoroughly shocked to find out the Armstrong and Pistorius…