- I enjoyed The Ghost in Your Genes video and wondered if any new information became uncovered in the decade since it was published. So I searched for recent projects by Professor Pembrey, and came across his editorials that peer beyond the PTSD-like symptoms in children of Holocaust survivors, stress levels of children born to 911 victims or incidence of diabetes in Sweden. Pembrey references studies pointing to fear, muscle memories, social cohesion and cultural continuity, and even choice of friends as but a few of many evolutionary legacies best explained by epigenetics.
In the context of resilience, epigenetics fill an important gap between what we know to be biological, hereditary risk factors and the effects of protective environmental factors, including therapies and interventions. If risk factors can be explained objectively by the patterns and sequences in the molecular chains of nucleotides, then many protective factors are conceptually separated from the risks: until recently, genetics were approached with determinism, while interventions, by definition, work against this view.
Epigenetics bridge the divide because they illustrate how little is determined. If famines can be measured by both the amount of available food and prevalence in diabetes in grandchildren (and vice versa), then we should perceive anxiety, depression, alcoholism, aggression, or any other factor that threatens well-being in the context of generations, and not just family history but looking forward.
On the macro level, the knowledge of epigenetic mechanisms spells the need in policy and even cultural changes on the global level. We should continue to invest money and effort to combat the mental health epidemic of NOW, but knowing what we know about epigenetics, we also must be proactive. For example, we must examine our policies and cultural values and beliefs. It should no longer be just the question of what demands we place on our teachers and students when we ask them to perform at or above certain academic standards; it should also be the question at what price (paid both in currency, as well as physical, and mental health) and who will pay this price for how many generations.
However, I cannot help but wonder: will learning to control genetic switches bring us the happiness we yearn for? Will mental health problems mirror the history of leprosy or say, typhoid fever, as epidemics extinguished by the discovery of effective treatment? Is genetic manipulation the panacea, or a gateway to more problems? Our understanding of resilience came a long way from seeing it as the ability to “pull oneself by the bootstraps” (Daugherty Write, Masten, & Narayan) to discovering risks and protective factors, to creating interventions, and finally, to learning about the genetic factors. With so much more to discover, we certainly have enough to stay busy and to keep imagining what-ifs. Meanwhile, I think resilience is the matter of personal responsibility to self and to others-we are all connected deeper than we think.
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2. 1:
The subject of resilience fascinates me particularly because I discovered a parallel between the resilience studies and autism research, my personal topic of interest. ASD often co-occurs with anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems that are also present in the resilience discourse. During my recent epigenetics reading escapade, I came across the idea that autism should not be viewed as a disorder, but as a set of risk factors that can either develop further or diminish, depending on the environment and support. Thus, the module devoted to epigenetics in the context of resilience opened new horizons for my academic development, and I plan to read about this topic further.
2. 2:
I appreciated the overview of resilience field development, and was very interested in the types of studies and designs that informed each stage. For example, longitudinal designs that helped extract the list of protective and risk factors and provide an eagle view of developmental timeline for a more comprehensive understanding of the resilience phenomena. Similarly, I enjoyed reading about experimental studies that guide the design of interventions. The lesson on epigenetics pointed out the need for phenomenological designs. If our biology can change in response to what is happening around us, then our lived experiences are important sources of clues to how these genetic switches operate. I think the key here is not just what is happening, or when, or where, or for how long, but our subjective experiences of these events.
2.3:
I thought the discussion of various definitions of resilience was interesting and helpful. I admit I started with a view of resilience as a personal quality that is either present or absent in each individual. I think I perceived resilience as the ability to “suck it up and keep going.” This view was nurtured by my native culture because growing up, I felt the burden of personal obligation to persevere for the greater good of the society. Our class discussions and readings helped me evaluate alternative views and to expand my understanding of resilience beyond my culture-informed defaults. Therefore, our last class, when we discussed individualistic/collectivist societies in the context of resilience, was a natural reinforcement of what I now perceive resilience to be. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the topic of individualism/collectivism because I have experience living in both cultures, so class materials helped me externalize some of the