Aging with trauma across the lifetime and experiencing trauma in old age: Vulnerability and resilience intertwined

This chapter addresses the intertwinement of vulnerability and resilience among individuals who age while still bearing past experiences of trauma, or otherwise facing trauma that typically occurs in old age. We review apparently contradictory results available in the literature on older adults exposed to such experiences. Particularly emphasized are coping mechanisms that are available to older adults facing trauma. In order to advance the understanding of these perplexing issues, we present the model of the pursuit of happiness in a hostile world (Shmotkin, Review of General Psychology 9:291–325, 2005), which delineates the dynamic interplay between positive systems that induce a favorable psychological environment (subjective well-being and meaning in life) and the personally perceived image of life adversities (the hostile-world scenario). The chapter suggests that certain adaptational and developmental processes may enlarge, rather than restrict, the options of older adults to cope with trauma.