The Invulnerable Child explores the intriguing and sometimes baffling phenomenon of children's capacity to deal with adversity. Survivors, strivers, and thrivers make up the unusual population of children who respond so unexpectedly to the onslaughts of calamity. Integrating the rapidly expanding body of knowledge about these children and focusing on the patterns of recovery that emerge, this groundbreaking volume thoroughly examines the determinants of risk, the development of competence in the midst of hardship and the nature of stress-resilience under conditions of extreme vulnerability.

This book assembles a diverse group of scholars working within a new, pathbreaking paradigm of sexual science, fusing perspectives from history, sociology, and psychology. The contributors are united in their commitment to the idea of "narrative" as central to the study of sexual identity, offering an analytic approach to social science inquiry on sexual identity that restores the voices of sexual subjects. The result is a rich examination of lives in context, with an eye toward multiplicity and meaning across the life course. Central to the chapters in this volume is the significance of...