The article focuses on the people who are resilient in the face of loss or potentially traumatic events. The articles notes that almost everyone experiences some type of traumatic event at some point of their life, and then notes that some people deal with these problems effectively and experience very little upheaval. Bonanno notes that resilience is generally seen in children and that most of the adult studies deal with individuals who have developed significant psychological problems. Based on this, resilience in adults is often considered as something rare. Bonanno argues against this, stating that resilience is more common than expected and that there are multiple pathways to resilience.

             The next section of the article describes the difference between resilience and recovery. Bonanno notes that recovery is a process where normal functioning gives way to symptoms of depression as the individual deals with the trauma. Most importantly, these depressive symptoms are not a sign that individual does not have resilience. This is true because resilience does not refer to this process, but to the ability to maintain a stable equilibrium during the process. The article goes on to describe how resilient individuals can experience symptoms for short periods of time, but exhibit a stable and healthy level of function over time. After making this distinction between recovery and resilience, Bonanno argues that the failure to make this distinction has led to failures in how people are treated for grief. This issue is dealt with in the next section.

             In this next section, Bonanno describes how grief has been traditionally understood as a process where individuals work through their memories and emotions about the loss. The article then notes that despite this generally accepted view, there is little evidence to support it. Bonanno also notes that studies have shown that this process of leading people through memories and emotions may actually be harmful to them.