Page 39 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

8 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

to accomplish various tasks. When associative capacity starts to fray or
break, information cannot be processed by individuals and systems, and
emotions cannot be contained or adaptively expressed, leading to indi-
viduals feeling overwhelmed and group conflict and communication
breakdown, impairing function and distracting from focusing on the
task. This may concretely be seen as a cascading series of misunderstand-
ings, which lead not only to poor work quality and deviation from desired
outcomes, but also rancor and rupture of formerly good relationships,
along with the weakening of already tenuous work arrangements via the
magnification of existing conflict. Once ruptured, collaborative relation-
ships are difficult to repair, though they may grow from the process of
rupture and repair via mutual negotiation of needs, expression of feel-
ings, and the potentially transformative experience of being understood
and responded to by a caring other (Winnicott, 1992). It is important to
note, however, that there is a time and a place for “processing” traumatic
experience, and that attempting to do so when the circumstances are
not right may lead to further trauma. In fact, not explicitly addressing
troubling issues may at times be the most effective, diplomatic, and tact-
ful approach. Lastly, there are times of heightened vulnerability in which
communication is needed for systemic function, but individual partici-
pants are not ready to do so effectively.
In addition, for various reasons in the presence of dissociation and
trauma, repetitive maladaptive enactments (Danieli, Chapter 14; Howell,
2008) may occur. An example is when an organization keeps making
the same mistake, such as sending inexperienced people into a hazard-
ous situation and their failing to learn from prior destructive repetitions,
as a result of cognitive and emotional distortion, and frank dissociation,
resulting in poor decision making and maladaptive behaviors. The above
horror show is what happens when trauma caused by disaster is not han-
dled well and spins out of control. Fortunately, systems and individuals
generally can sustain a lot of stress, and crisis enhances the sense of com-
munity, creating the necessity to work together, which in turn leads to
positive experiences and good functional outcomes that coexist with, and
may offset, tragedy and loss (Walsh, 2007).
To the extent that traumatic experience for individuals and groups
passes their particular tipping points, fragmentation will occur. To use
a whimsical analogy, when baking certain confections, sometimes a hot
liquid must be slowly and smoothly incorporated into a cold liquid. If
this is done too quickly, if the proportions aren’t right, if the tempera-
ture changes too fast, or if the batter is jostled too much, the batter may