Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Vulnerability and resilience: a critical nexus

  • Published:
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Not all forms of human fragility or vulnerability are unavoidable. Sometimes we knowingly and intentionally impose conditions of vulnerability on others; and sometimes we knowingly and intentionally enter into and assume conditions of vulnerability for ourselves (for example, when we decide to trust or forgive, enter into intimate relationships with others, become a parent, become a subject of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, and the like). In this article, I propose a presently overlooked basis on which one might evaluate whether the imposition or assumption of vulnerability is acceptable, and on which one might ground a significant class of vulnerability-related obligations. Distinct from existing accounts of the importance of promoting autonomy in conditions of vulnerability, this article offers a preliminary exploration of the nature, role, and importance of resilience promotion, its relationship to autonomy promotion, and its prospects for improving human wellbeing in autonomy inhibiting conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In writing this article, I would like to pay tribute to the late Doris McIlwain, whose personal capacity for resilience, as well as for building and supporting resilience in others, have had and will continue to have an immeasurable impact on me.

  2. The example given by Mackenzie, Rogers, and Dodds [9] is that of risks involved in childbirth: all women of childbearing age are dispositionally vulnerable to those risks, but only those who are presently pregnant are occurrently vulnerable to them.

  3. It might be assumed here that only someone who is unjustly detained is rendered vulnerable by the incarceration. However, I would argue that the vulnerability of being detained or incarcerated does not depend upon there being injustice (or lack of adequate justification, which amounts to the same thing) but is, rather, an unavoidable (and perhaps justified) aspect of loss of freedom of the kind that one is subject to with incarceration. Thanks to Steve Matthews for motivating this clarification.

  4. Russell himself states that ‘[t]here is no philosophical literature on the concept of human psychological resilience’ [10].

  5. There are clear and interesting implications here for parenting and children’s education, but a full exploration of them lies outside of the scope of the present article.

  6. Other mentions occur in Mackenzie’s work (at pp. 114, 123, 126, and at footnote 9) and resilience is also referred to by Margaret Urban Walker (p. 233) and Jackie Leach Scully (p. 320) in the same volume. But in all cases, the references are brief rather than developed.

References

  1. Kittay, E.F. 1995. Taking dependency seriously: the Family Medical Leave Act considered in light of the social organization of dependency work and gender equality. Hypatia 10(1): 8–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kittay, E.F. 1997. Human dependency and Rawlsian equality. In Feminists rethink the self, ed. D.T. Meyers, 219–266. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Goodin, Robert E. 1985. Protecting the vulnerable: a reanalysis of our social responsibilities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Butler, J. 2004. Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Butler, J. 2009. Frames of war: when is life grievable?. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Fineman, M.A. 2008. The vulnerable subject: anchoring equality in the human condition. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 1(20): 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Fineman, M.A. 2010. The vulnerable subject and the responsive state. Emory Law Journal 60: 251–275.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Rogers, W., C. Mackenzie, and S. Dodds. 2012. Why bioethics needs a concept of vulnerability. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 5(2): 11–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Mackenzie, C., W. Rogers, and S. Dodds. 2014. Introduction. In Vulnerability: new essays in ethics and feminist philosophy, ed. C. Mackenzie, W. Rogers, and S. Dodds. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Russell, J.S. 2015. Resilience. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 42(2): 159–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Harper, D., and W. Speed. 2012. Uncovering recovery: the resistible rise of recovery and resilience. Studies in Social Justice 6(1): 9–25.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Ho, S.M.Y. 2011. Resilience, growth, and distress after a traumatic experience. In Healing trauma: a professional guide, ed. K.K. Wu, C.S. Tang, and E.Y. Leung. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Robertson, I., and C.L. Cooper. 2013. Editorial: resilience. Stress and Health 29: 175–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Youssef, C., and F. Luthans. 2007. Positive organizational behavior in the workplace. Journal of Management 33: 774–800.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Haglund, M.E., P.S. Nestadt, N.S. Cooper, S.M. Southwick, and D.S. Charney. 2007. Psychobiological mechanisms of resilience: relevance to prevention and treatment of stress-related psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology 19: 889–920.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Robertson, I., and Cooper, C.L. 2015. I-Resilience tool. http://www.robertsoncooper.com/iresilience. Accessed April 8, 2015.

  17. Lyons, D.M., and K.J. Parker. 2007. Stress inoculation-induced indications of resilience in monkeys. Journal of Traumatic Stress 20(4): 423–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Meichenbaum, D. 1993. Stress inoculation training: a twenty year update. In Principles and practices of stress management, 2nd ed, ed. R.L. Woolfolk, and P.M. Lehrer, 373–406. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Seery, M.D., E.A. Holman, and R.C. Silver. 2010. Whatever does not kill us: cumulative lifetime adversity, vulnerability, and resilience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 99: 1025–1041.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Neff, L.A., and E.F. Broady. 2011. Stress resilience in early marriage: can practice make perfect? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101(5): 1050–1067.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Schnurr, P.P., S.D. Rosenberg, and M.J. Friedman. 1993. Change in MMPI scores from college to adulthood as a function of military service. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 102: 288–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Masten, A.S., and M.J. Reed. 2002. Resilience in development. In Handbook of positive psychology, ed. C.R. Snyder, and S.J. Lopez. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gunnar, M.R., K. Frenn, S.S. Wewerka, and M.J. van Ryzin. 2009. Moderate versus severe early life stress: associations with stress reactivity and regulation in 10–12-year-old children. Psychoneuroendocrinology 34: 62–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. DiCorcia, J.A., and E. Tronick. 2011. Quotidian resilience: exploring mechanisms that drive resilience from a perspective of everyday stress and coping. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 35: 1593–1602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Seery, M.D., R.J. Leo, S.P. Lupien, C.L. Kondrak, and J.L. Almonte. 2013. An upside to adversity? Moderate cumulative lifetime adversity is associated with resilient responses in the face of controlled stressors. Psychological Science 24: 1181–1189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Hughes, V. 2012. The roots of resilience. Nature 11(490): 165–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kirsch, P., C. Esslinger, Q. Chen, et al. 2005. Oxytocin modulates neural circuitry for social cognition and fear in humans. Journal of Neuroscience 25(49): 11489–11493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Morgan III, C.A., S. Southwick, G. Hazlett, et al. 2000. Plasma neuropeptide-Y concentrations in humans exposed to military survival training. Biological Psychiatry 47(10): 902–909.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Binder, E.B., R.G. Bradley, W. Liu, et al. 2008. Association of FKBP5 polymorphisms and childhood abuse with risk of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in adults. Journal of American Medical Association 299(11): 1291–1305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Ponder, C.A., C.L. Kliethermes, M.R. Drew, et al. 2007. Selection for contextual fear conditioning affects anxiety-like behaviors and gene expression. Genes Brain and Behaviour 6: 736–749.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Cooper, C.L., J. Flint-Taylor, and M. Pearn. 2014. Building Resilience for Success. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Anderson, J. 2014. Vulnerability and autonomy entwined. In Vulnerability: new essays in ethics and feminist philosophy, ed. C. Mackenzie, W. Rogers, and S. Dodds. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Dodds, S. 2014. Dependency, care and vulnerability. In Vulnerability: new essays in ethics and feminist philosophy, ed. C. Mackenzie, W. Rogers, and S. Dodds. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Howell, A., and J. Voronka. 2012. Introduction: the politics of resilience and recovery in mental health care. Studies in Social Justice 6(1): 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Smail, D. 2004. Psychotherapy and the making of subjectivity. In Between Psychotherapy and Philosophy, ed. P. Gordon, and R. Mayo. London & Philadelphia: Whurr.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Building W6A, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Mianna Lotz

Authors
  1. Mianna Lotz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mianna Lotz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lotz, M. Vulnerability and resilience: a critical nexus. Theor Med Bioeth 37, 45–59 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-016-9355-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-016-9355-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation