Adaptation Is Not Submission

"Before became the dominant lens through which we interpret human suffering-and before resilience became the preferred word for recovery- adaptation was one of the central concepts used to understand how human beings survive, change, prepare, and continue developing under pressure. In early psychology, psychiatry, ethology, and evolutionary biology, adaptation was not a moral term. It was descriptive, not prescriptive. It referred to the organism's capacity to reorganize itself-biologically, emotionally, cognitively, and socially-in response to changing conditions."

"Jean Piaget spoke of adaptation as the continuous dance between assimilation and accommodation. Kurt Goldstein described the organism as striving toward a new equilibrium after injury. Even early psychoanalytic thinkers understood symptoms not as failures, but as adaptive solutions to internal or external constraints. Adaptation was about preparing oneself to better survive and face life. Over time, the language shifted."

"As trauma studies expanded-rightfully drawing attention to the lasting impact of overwhelming threat-adaptation quietly receded into the background. Later, resilience emerged as a more palatable term: hopeful, forward-looking, and more easily aligned with recovery narratives. Trauma explained why people suffer. Resilience explained why some people recover. What is often overlooked, however, is that adaptation is an intrinsic mechanism of biological and psychological systems."

Adaptation originally described organisms' capacity to reorganize biologically, emotionally, cognitively, and socially in response to changing conditions. Early thinkers like Jean Piaget, Kurt Goldstein, and psychoanalytic clinicians portrayed adaptation as ongoing reequilibration, assimilation versus accommodation, and symptom-driven solutions rather than moral failures. Adaptation focused on preparing oneself to survive and continue development under pressure. As trauma studies expanded, the concept of adaptation receded while resilience emerged as a hopeful, outcome-focused construct. Resilience functions as an interpretive label for successful adaptive outcomes rather than a causal mechanism. In some social-justice contexts, adaptation acquired negative connotations of submission or internalized oppression.

Read at Psychology Today