ABSTRACT
The notion of resilience has had an enduring influence on the practice of social work over the last 30 years or so, and like attachment theory, it has been compromised by misrepresentations and over-simplifications along the way. In spite of this, resilience remains an ultimately useful and optimistic concept for thinking about human behaviour and experience. In our choice of reading to present this, we have gone back to the work of Michael Rutter, one of the foremost psychologists in this field. In this paper, as well as outlining the history of the idea of resilience, he reminds us of the need for caveats and qualifications in using this concept.
