Psychological 'resilience' refers to the differences between people in how they respond to and cope with difficult or stressful experiences. People who are highly resilient would be less affected recover more quickly and/or might actually find such events to be growth experiences. For people low in resilience the opposite would be true.

Gail Gazelle, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, is a practicing physician, a part-time Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an executive coach for physicians and physician leaders. A specialist in physician and physician executive burnout and resilience, Dr....