The Resilience Myth

“Thoughtful and well-argued, this book offers a humane vision of the ways people must adapt their ideas of what it means to thrive to a radically changing world… . Provocative, necessary reading.” —Kirkus “Ambitious… using a feminist and anticapitalistic framework to interrogate notions of resilience… this is sure to spark conversation.” —Publishers Weekly “Resilience is an ideology—comprising elements of individualism, bootstraps, and even victim-blaming. With characteristically brilliant arguments and meticulous research, Chemaly demolishes this ideology in The Resilience Myth and shows us how to build something so much better for everyone facing adversity. A must-read book for our age.” —Kate Manne, author of Down Girl “A vital, life-saving must-read for anyone who has been force-fed the word ‘resilient’ when they feel anything but. The book I wish I’d had when I was neck-deep in trauma.” —Nora McInerny, author of Bad Vibes Only and the host of It’s Going To Be OK “A tender, sensitive meditation on the supposed virtue of resilience in the face of trauma and adversity. Through counterintuitive insights and observations, Soraya Chemaly reminds us that it is in fact far healthier to be human.” —Angela Saini, award-winning journalist and author of The Patriarchs and Superior “Chemaly has once again written the book we desperately need. In The Resilience Myth, Chemaly skillfully weaves science, anthropology, and history with poignant personal stories teaching us not only what real resilience looks like, but also why a new definition is more urgent than ever.” —Dr. Pooja Lakshmin MD, psychiatrist and bestselling author of Real Self-Care “Soraya Chemaly has written a searing indictment of one of the most pernicious fictions in America: that self-reliance can save us. With her signature clarity and penetrating mind, she subverts the ideologies of isolation that keep us divided and dissociated from ourselves and other people. Deeply informative and inspiring, The Resilience Myth is an urgent corrective to the mind/body and self/other ruptures at the heart of our collective crises. It’s a groundbreaking road map to true strength: shared struggle.” —Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger “Getting back on one’s horse after a personal catastrophe feels evermore challenging—and Chemaly has, with clarity, patience, and rigor— illustrated why it’s not just you, when all of us are asking, ‘Is it just me?’ She makes sense of what exists in our culture that isolates us from one another during times when we need each other most, providing a guiding light toward strength and interdependence, and ultimately, love.” —Soraya Nadia McDonald, award-winning cultural critic and journalist

Soraya Chemaly is an award-winning author and activist. As the former executive director of The Representation Project and director and cofounder of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project, she has long been committed to expanding women’s civic and political participation.

As a cultural critic and leading feminist thinker, she writes and speaks about gender, free speech, sexualized violence, technology and media, and the politics of supremacy. Ms. Chemaly has also spearheaded several successful global campaigns challenging corporations to address online hate and harassment, restrictive content moderation and censorship, and institutional biases.

She is the author of Rage Becomes Her, The Resilience Myth, and All We Want Is Everything. A prolific writer and speaker, her articles appear in Time, The Verge, The Guardian, The Nation, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic.

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