| Summary: | Contemporary models of resilience in traumatic circumstances emphasise coping in the face of adversity and positive outcomes. However, the coping and outcomes generally envisaged tend to be narrowly conceived. They do not acknowledge that paradoxical, complex, or painful outcomes may sometimes represent the true nature of resilience better than measures of psychological wellbeing. St John of the Cross's 'Dark Night of the Soul' poems, by contrast, suggest that it is precisely within the places of adversity, the 'dark nights' in which it is difficult or impossible to find meaning, that growth and creativity may be found. They represent ontological boundaries, leading to new states of understanding and vision. The pre-Cartesian thought world of the medieval period, with its assumption of the interconnectedness of body and mind, the role of affect in cognition, and a spiritual world view, rendered such ideas particularly powerful. Traumatic experience was fearful but could be sought after, effecting extremes of feeling affecting both body and mind that led to profound changes in understanding. This is most obviously exemplified in visionary writing, but it is also an underpinning pattern in romance - though a less studied one. Romance has more often been treated in terms of accretive action, and the related movement through penance to grace. This essay will focus on the ways in which traumatic or 'dark night' experiences lead to changed perceptions and shifts in world views, reflected in the interconnected psychological, physical and emotional responses of its protagonists. Thinking and feeling are shown to be interdependent. A range of Middle English romances in which the protagonists experience episodes of extreme trauma and loss that transform their ontological perspectives and ideas of self is considered
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