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Nietzsche's 100-year-old hypothesis does not stand up to scientific study.

What doesn't kill you still hurts.

Adding positive assets and resources to your life is what really makes you stronger.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” That was Friedrich Nietzsche’s idea, way back in his 1888 book Twilight of the Idols.

As someone who studies trauma and resilience, I hear this idea all the time, and people often repeat it to me as if it is fact.

But 1888 was a long time ago. Some readers of Psychology Today might know that was before psychology truly took off as a scientific discipline, which didn’t happen in earnest until the second half of the 20th century.

This was a data-free hypothesis. It’s been a........

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