← Home
Hidden Brain · August 25, 2025 · 52m

The Trauma Script

George Bonanno — Columbia professor, world's leading resilience researcher. The counterintuitive finding: most people are naturally resilient after trauma. The PTSD narrative is overblown — it applies to a minority, not the majority. Expecting trauma to break you can actually make it worse.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Highlights

Most people are naturally resilient — PTSD is the exception, not the rule
Bonanno's research: 65-70% of people exposed to potentially traumatic events show minimal lasting psychological impact. Natural resilience is the norm.
Expecting trauma to break you can make it worse
Bonanno: the 'trauma script' — the cultural expectation that terrible events will damage you — can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Was this useful?