A new concept of resilience for good clinical practice. A retrospective study on bariatric surgery candidate

This thesis originates from the interest to investigate the individual virtues of resilience that leads a person to resist stressful situations and evolve positively despite the complexity of life circumstances. This process allows maintaining a good level of well-being that is functional to the constant achievement of an optimal relationship with reality. It is a reflection on the concept of resilience and therefore on the common elements that characterize those who manage to persevere in a development perspective, while experiencing the adversities of life. Therefore, the first chapter of this thesis describes the historical evolution of the concept of resilience from its origins and the main studies investigating resilience in different areas of application. The second chapter reviews the definitions of the term "psychological resilience", aimed at identifying shared elements of the construct across the examined literature. Findings were used for proposing a broad definition of psychological resilience that takes into account various theoretical background. In the third chapter, the systematic literature review on the concept of individual resilience was applied to the clinical area of bariatric surgery. In particular, an observational retrospective study was carried out on a sample of patients candidates for bariatric surgery during the psychological assessment phase, which was necessary to assess the patient's suitability for the operation, according to national and international guidelines. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of those resilience resources that are hypothesized to be useful for the psychological assessment and represent a reference parameter for the purposes of the patient’s eligibility for bariatric surgery.