When we're enjoying spring and summer we don't imagine that they'll last forever. The same
should be true for our own lives. A psychiatrist who has dedicated her life to treating
global survivors of unspeakable horrors shares the three keys to resilience for weathering
stress loss and trauma in our own lives. Some survivors are unflappable yet it's not their
optimism or grit that carries them forward but their acceptance of life's inherent
instability. In her debut book Harvard- and Stanford-trained child and adult psychiatrist Dr
Suzan Song draws from her clinical practice patient stories and research to help readers
release their unrealistic longing for stability using the three tools that allow us to weather
life's stormiest seasons: narrative ritual and purpose. Dr Song draws on the visual motifs of
the 'three friends of winter' in Korean art - pine bamboo and plum blossoms - plants that
thrive even in the harshest of winters. For all humankind the universal 'three friends of
winter ' are narrative rituals and purpose. Why We Suffer and How We Heal will open us up to a
new heathier mindset and teach us to transform life's challenges into opportunities for growth
and resilience.
