The young man experienced grief: his brother and father died in a car accident. A few years pass, and he himself gets hit by a car. And after a while — he became one of the most sought-after stuntmen in Hollywood.
His left foot was broken, and he lost his right leg forever. Whatever assumption we make about his future fate, most likely, it will be wrong.
Two psychologists have collected many documentary stories that I would like to call unusual. Although their heroes insist that they are the most ordinary people and everyone in their place could do the same. These are people who met with losses of various kinds (with a severe diagnosis, with the loss of loved ones), but did not become depressed and did not give up. Where do their internal resources come from? How do they cope with trials, why don’t they break? This book is about this, in which the stories of people who have overcome trauma are interspersed with comments by psychologists and research data. Interestingly, we are not at all encouraged to think positively. Moreover, the authors state: “When people are honest with themselves and are not afraid to acknowledge the consequences of trauma, preferring realism to the self-deception of positive thinking, they have real hope. Thanks to her, they can set and achieve goals, ultimately making their lives better.”
And the man with one leg — Casey Pieretti — became one of the most sought-after stuntmen in Hollywood, deciding: «No one else will ever tell me what I can and what I can’t.»
Alpina non-fiction, 320 p., 2015.