Lives through time: an ideographic approach to the study of resilience

The authors describe and illustrate an ideographic method for the study of resilience. The method assumes that resilience is an unfolding and dynamic process in which the individual and the social environment interact to produce a life course over time. Using retrospective and prospective data, the authors present a case study of a profoundly troubled boy, first seen as a preschooler and then followed up in early adulthood with a battery of clinical interviews. The methodology presented provides a way to study resilience as a dynamic process and to reveal and make sense of counterintuitive findings. In contrast to historical or epidemiological methods, the approach also permits exploration of the role of intrapsychic processes in facilitating change.