Michael Ungar - Looking Beyond Self-Help to Understand Resilience
Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
Mad in America
4.7 • 212 Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2021
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
Michael Ungar is the founder and director of the Resilience Research Centre at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is also a family therapist and professor of social work. He has received numerous awards, such as the Canadian Association of Social Workers National Distinguished Service Award (2012), and has authored around 15 books and over 200 peer-reviewed articles.
Dr. Ungar's work is globally recognized and centers on community trauma and community resilience. In particular, his work explores resilience among marginalized children and families, especially those involved with child welfare and mental health services, refugees, and immigrant youth.
His research is spread across continents and challenges our traditional notions of trauma and resilience. Analyzing people's risks and available resources, he scrutinizes simplistic ideas of individual perseverance and grit in the face of trauma. Instead, he implicates the role of context, circumstances, and ill-suited services in contributing to people's psychological suffering.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice. |
| 0:12.7 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode of the Mad in America podcast. |
| 0:17.7 | This is your host for today, Ayyrdedhar, assistant professor of psychology at Mount |
| 0:22.5 | Mary University and a science news writer at MIA. If you've ever wondered what helps people survive |
| 0:29.3 | and sometimes thrive despite abject adversity, even trauma, today's podcast is for you. |
| 0:36.3 | Our guest today is Dr. Michael Unger. Dr. Unger is the founder |
| 0:40.6 | and director of the Resilience Research Center at Dalhousie University in Canada. He's also a family |
| 0:46.2 | therapist and professor of social work, has received numerous awards for his work, has written |
| 0:51.4 | and edited nearly 20 books, around 180 peer reviewed articles. |
| 0:56.4 | His work is very well recognized across the globe and expands cultures and centers on |
| 1:02.5 | studying resilience amongst marginalized children, families, and adult populations involved |
| 1:08.1 | with child welfare, mental health services, refugees and immigrants, etc. |
| 1:14.3 | Dr. Runger, welcome to Mad in America. |
| 1:16.9 | A real pleasure to do this. Thank you for the invitation. |
| 1:20.0 | All right. So let's get into this. So the dominant view of resilience in the side disciplines, |
| 1:25.8 | I remember from my time, has been that resilience is something, you know, similar to grit and |
| 1:30.7 | perseverance. |
| 1:31.5 | It's inside people. |
| 1:33.0 | But you have written extensively about this sociological and ecological view of resilience. |
| 1:38.7 | Could you tell us what it is and maybe give us an example? |
| 1:42.8 | Yeah, sure. |
| 1:44.0 | Well, if we think about resilience so often, |
... |
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