Masten, A. (2001) | References | Narcissus and the Child

Core Concept

The Paradigm Shift in Understanding Resilience. Ann Masten's 2001 article "Ordinary Magic" fundamentally transformed how developmental science understands resilience. For decades, researchers had observed that some children thrived despite exposure to severe adversity—poverty, parental mental illness, abuse, community violence, war—while others facing similar challenges struggled significantly. Early investigators characterised these thriving children as "invulnerable" or possessing rare, exceptional qualities that immunised them against risk. This framing, while capturing the phenomenon's surprising nature, implied that resilience was exceptional—a special gift available only to a fortunate few. Masten's paradigm shift proposed something radically different: the most striking finding from four decades of resilience research was not how extraordinary resilient children were, but how ordinary the phenomenon of resilience itself is.

The Nature of Ordinary Magic. Masten's core insight is that resilience emerges from the operation of basic human adaptive systems rather than rare or special qualities. When children develop in conditions that support fundamental adaptive capacities—attachment relationships with caring adults, adequate cognitive development, emerging self-regulation abilities—positive adaptation is the expected outcome, not the exception. The "magic" lies not in exceptional children but in the everyday workings of human development itself. Human beings evolved with remarkable capacities for connection, learning, adaptation, and recovery that operate continuously unless damaged or blocked. When these ordinary systems function adequately, they buffer development against significant risk. When they're impaired or prevented from developing normally, vulnerability to adversity increases dramatically. The magic is ordinary because it relies on normative human processes, not extraordinary individual qualities.

Basic Human Adaptive Systems. Masten identifies several interconnected systems that underlie resilient development. The attachment system, rooted in our evolutionary heritage as social mammals, provides security, comfort, and templates for relationships. The mastery motivation system drives curiosity, exploration, and skill development, enabling children to build competence despite challenges. Stress response systems allow physiological adaptation to threats, though chronic activation can become dysregulating. Self-regulation capacities manage attention, emotion, and behaviour—the executive functions that enable goal-directed action despite distraction or distress. Intelligence and cognitive systems support problem-solving, learning, and the meaning-making that allows children to understand their circumstances. Family systems provide caregiving, guidance, protection, and material resources. School and peer systems offer additional relationships, learning opportunities, and belonging. Each system supports the others, creating cascading effects across development.

Implications for Intervention and Hope. The "ordinary magic" reframing carries profound implications for intervention, prevention, and recovery. If resilience required rare qualities, intervention would be largely hopeless—we couldn't install exceptional gifts in ordinary children. But if resilience depends on ordinary adaptive systems, protecting and restoring those systems becomes a viable strategy. We need not produce extraordinary children; we need only ensure basic human adaptive systems function well enough. This means ensuring children have access to protective factors: at least one stable, caring adult relationship; opportunities for cognitive development and learning; conditions supporting self-regulation; communities that provide structure and support. When intervention targets these fundamental systems, it harnesses the ordinary magic already present in human development. For survivors of narcissistic abuse, this reframing offers liberation: recovery doesn't require becoming exceptional; it requires nurturing the ordinary human capacities that abuse suppressed or damaged.

Original Context

The Evolution of Resilience Science. Masten's article arrived at a pivotal moment in resilience research's development, synthesising four decades of accumulated findings while proposing a fundamental reconceptualisation. The field emerged in the 1970s when researchers studying children at risk for psychopathology made an unexpected discovery: substantial numbers of children facing severe adversity developed into competent, well-adjusted adults. Norman Garmezy's Project Competence studied children of parents with schizophrenia; Emmy Werner's Kauai Longitudinal Study followed high-risk children from birth to midlife; Michael Rutter examined children raised in Romanian orphanages. Across diverse adversities and populations, researchers found that approximately one-third of high-risk children achieved positive outcomes. This finding demanded explanation.

Early Conceptualisations and Their Limitations. Initial researchers characterised these resilient children as "invulnerable," "stress-resistant," or possessing "protective armour" against adversity. While these terms captured researchers' genuine surprise, they created conceptual problems. The "invulnerability" framing implied that resilient children were somehow immune to adversity's effects—that suffering didn't touch them in the ways it touched their peers. Longitudinal research contradicted this: resilient adults from high-risk backgrounds reported more psychological distress, more relationship difficulties, and more physical health problems than peers who hadn't faced adversity. They weren't invulnerable; they functioned competently despite ongoing challenges. The framing also implied that resilience was a fixed trait some possessed and others lacked, offering little guidance for intervention. If invulnerability was innate, what could be done for vulnerable children?

The Research Synthesis Behind Ordinary Magic. Masten's 2001 article synthesised findings from Project Competence, which she directed, alongside research from labs worldwide. The converging evidence pointed away from exceptional individual qualities toward the operation of ordinary developmental processes. Across studies, the same protective factors appeared repeatedly: relationships with caring adults, cognitive abilities, self-regulation capacities, positive school experiences, community resources. These weren't rare gifts but ordinary developmental supports that most children receive in most environments. What distinguished resilient children wasn't possessing something extraordinary but having ordinary adaptive systems that functioned despite adversity. The children who struggled often faced adversity that directly attacked these ordinary systems—abuse that damaged attachment, chaos that prevented self-regulation development, deprivation that impaired cognitive growth.

The Immediate Impact on Field and Practice. Masten's "ordinary magic" reframing transformed both research and practice in the years following publication. Researchers shifted from seeking to identify exceptional qualities in exceptional children to understanding the operation and protection of normative adaptive systems. Intervention programs began explicitly targeting basic adaptive systems: early childhood programs supporting attachment, school-based programs developing self-regulation, mentorship programs providing alternative caring relationships. Policy discussions incorporated the understanding that resilience was achievable for ordinary children given ordinary protective conditions. The phrase "ordinary magic" itself became shorthand for this perspective, appearing in countless subsequent publications, training programs, and policy documents. What began as an academic article became a framework for how societies understand and support vulnerable children.

For Survivors

Your Survival Makes Sense. If you grew up with a narcissistic parent and you're reading this now—if you've maintained any capacity for relationships, work, meaning-making, or simply getting through each day—something protected you. Masten's research helps identify what that was. Perhaps a grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher, coach, or neighbour provided the attachment relationship your parent couldn't offer. Perhaps your cognitive abilities helped you understand, even as a child, that your parent's behaviour reflected their pathology rather than your fundamental defectiveness. Perhaps you developed islands of self-regulation despite chaotic surroundings—a creative outlet, a hidden space, rituals that provided predictability. These ordinary adaptive systems, not extraordinary personal qualities, are what enabled your survival. Understanding this can help release the mystery of why you survived when survival seemed impossible.

Resilience Doesn't Mean Being Unaffected. The narcissist may have demanded that you show no response to their cruelty, that you be impervious to their attacks, that any sign of hurt proved your weakness. Masten's research reveals the opposite: resilient individuals are not immune to adversity's effects. They carry psychological wounds, experience complex PTSD symptoms, struggle in relationships, and often report more distress than peers who never faced such challenges. What distinguishes resilience isn't being undamaged but maintaining competent functioning despite ongoing challenges. If you're managing work, relationships, or daily life while also struggling with effects of childhood narcissistic abuse, that's resilience in action—not failure to be sufficiently tough. The hypervigilance, the difficulty trusting, the shame spirals—these are evidence of what you survived, not proof that you lack resilience. You don't have to be unscathed to be resilient.

The Ordinary Systems That Protected You. Consider which of Masten's basic adaptive systems functioned despite the narcissistic environment: Did you have any relationship—with a grandparent, teacher, sibling, friend, therapist—that provided consistent care without conditions? That relationship, however imperfect, activated attachment protection. Did your intelligence help you "figure out" what was happening—recognise patterns, predict the narcissist's behaviour, understand that their treatment wasn't deserved? Cognitive systems provided protection even when they couldn't provide escape. Did you find ways to manage overwhelming emotions—through books, music, exercise, nature, imagination? Self-regulation capacities developed despite conditions that typically prevent them. Did school, a job, or any structured environment provide predictability that home lacked? These systems offered developmental scaffolding. Identifying which systems protected you helps understand your survival and guides ongoing recovery.

Your Capacity for Recovery Is Ordinary Too. Because resilience depends on basic human adaptive systems rather than exceptional qualities, and because neuroplasticity allows these systems to develop throughout life, recovery is possible for ordinary people through ordinary means. The therapeutic relationship provides attachment experiences that were missing—the consistent, attuned presence of someone who sees your authentic self without demanding performance. Cognitive approaches develop the meaning-making and problem-solving that help understand what happened. Mindfulness and body-based practices restore self-regulation damaged by chronic chaos. Building chosen family activates relational protection. Each of these recovery strategies harnesses the same ordinary magic that protects children—adapted for adult development. You don't need to become extraordinary to heal; you need your ordinary human capacities to be supported and restored.

For Clinicians

Assessment Through the Ordinary Magic Lens. Masten's framework suggests that clinical assessment should identify the functioning of basic adaptive systems, not just catalogue pathology. For survivors of narcissistic abuse, consider: Which attachment relationships currently exist or existed historically? What cognitive resources—intelligence, insight, meaning-making capacity—are available? How is self-regulation functioning across domains (emotional, attentional, behavioural)? What community and social systems provide support? Which systems were most damaged by the narcissistic environment, and which remained relatively intact? This assessment reveals both vulnerabilities and resources. Understanding which ordinary systems are functioning guides treatment toward strengthening existing capacities and repairing damaged ones rather than searching for rare therapeutic innovations.

The Therapeutic Relationship as Ordinary Magic. For patients who lacked adequate attachment relationships in childhood—and narcissistic parenting fundamentally impairs attachment—the therapeutic relationship can serve the protective function that was missing. Masten's framework clarifies what this means in practice: the therapist provides consistent, caring presence that activates attachment processes. This isn't about special techniques but about reliably being present, accurately attuning to the patient's experience, maintaining boundaries that create safety, and seeing the patient's authentic self rather than performing for the therapist's needs. Many narcissistic abuse survivors have never experienced unconditional positive regard from an attachment figure; the therapeutic relationship may be their first. The "ordinary magic" occurs not through exceptional clinical skill but through ordinary human connection offered consistently over time.

Targeting Multiple Adaptive Systems. Masten's identification of multiple interconnected adaptive systems suggests that treatment limited to one modality misses opportunities. Beyond relational work, consider: Cognitive interventions that strengthen problem-solving, meaning-making, and understanding of the narcissistic parent's pathology (activating cognitive systems). Mindfulness, DBT skills, or somatic approaches that develop affect regulation and window of tolerance (strengthening self-regulation systems). Encouragement of community connections—support groups, chosen family, religious communities, volunteer work (activating social and community systems). Practical supports for education, employment, and housing stability (providing family system functions the patient's origin family didn't). Each additional system strengthened provides incremental buffering and activates cascading positive effects across development.

Developmental Expectations and Patience. Masten's longitudinal research documents that resilience processes unfold across development—sometimes years or decades. "Turning points" can redirect trajectories even after prolonged difficulty: a supportive relationship, educational achievement, meaningful work, successful therapy. Clinicians working with narcissistic abuse survivors should expect non-linear progress. Patients may show significant improvement, then regress during life transitions or when facing triggers that activate old patterns. This isn't treatment failure; it's the normal dynamics of resilience as an ongoing process. Some patients who struggled for years achieve positive adaptation through turning points that seem sudden but actually reflect accumulated changes in adaptive systems. Patience with the recovery timeline, communicated to patients, supports continued engagement with treatment through difficult periods.

Broader Implications

Prevention Is Possible and Specified. Masten's ordinary magic framework has direct implications for preventing harm to children of narcissistic parents and other vulnerable populations. If resilience depends on basic adaptive systems functioning, prevention means protecting those systems: parenting support programs that reduce stress and increase attunement, even in impaired parents; mentorship programs connecting at-risk children with caring adults outside the family; school-based interventions providing structure, relationships, and self-regulation development; community resources that supplement family caregiving. Early intervention that targets attachment, cognition, and regulation before damage becomes entrenched can prevent later pathology. Clinicians can advocate for such programs, understanding that preventing harm to the next generation gives meaning to survivors' own suffering and breaks intergenerational cycles.

Social Policy and the Distribution of Ordinary Magic. If resilience emerges from ordinary developmental conditions, then societies have responsibility to ensure those conditions are available to all children. Currently, access to protective factors is inequitably distributed: some children receive multiple caring relationships, enriched cognitive environments, and well-resourced communities; others lack basic attachment security, attend failing schools, and live in dangerous neighbourhoods. Masten's framework reframes this inequity as a resilience gap. Policy interventions—quality early childhood education, parenting support, accessible mental health care, safe housing, economic stability for families—don't just reduce suffering; they provide the ordinary conditions that enable ordinary magic. The framework places responsibility on society to provide developmental conditions that enable human adaptive systems to function, not on vulnerable children to develop exceptional coping.

Understanding Family Variation. Why do siblings from the same narcissistic family have different outcomes? Masten's framework offers explanation through differential functioning of ordinary adaptive systems. Temperamental differences mean some children's characteristics elicit more positive responses from adults or provide better self-regulation foundations. Birth order and role assignment (golden child versus scapegoat) create different relational experiences within the same family. Differential access to protective factors means one child might connect with a caring teacher or mentor while another doesn't. Timing matters: the same parental behaviour at different developmental stages affects different emerging systems. Each child's cognitive meaning-making differs based on position and perception. Understanding this variation through ordinary systems helps survivors release comparisons and toxic shame—a sibling's different outcome doesn't mean you failed; it means ordinary protective conditions were distributed differently.

The Wounded Healer and Breaking Cycles. Many survivors of narcissistic abuse feel called to help others who've experienced similar harm—through becoming therapists, advocates, writers, support group facilitators, or informal helpers. Masten's framework validates this as activating ordinary protective factors for others while simultaneously healing oneself. By becoming the "one caring adult" for vulnerable children or fellow survivors, the wounded healer provides exactly what the research shows matters most: consistent, caring relationship that activates attachment protection. Understanding narcissism from the inside equips survivors to recognise warning signs, validate others' experiences, and model recovery. This isn't about being exceptional; it's about using ordinary human capacities—now strengthened through recovery—to provide what you lacked. Breaking intergenerational cycles becomes possible not through heroic transformation but through the accumulation of ordinary protective moments.

Educational Contexts as Protective Systems. Masten's research identifies schools as critical protective systems for children whose families fail to provide adequate development support. For children of narcissistic parents, school may be the only environment offering predictability, adults who see the child as an individual rather than an extension, and opportunities to develop competence through achievement. Effective schools aren't just educational institutions; they're developmental contexts that can compensate for family deficits. Teachers who notice struggling children, provide consistent positive regard, and communicate belief in students' potential serve protective functions extending far beyond academic instruction. Understanding schools as adaptive systems has implications for educational policy, teacher training, and how survivors understand their own histories—a teacher who believed in you may have provided protection you didn't recognise at the time.

Cultural and Community Contexts. While Masten's framework identifies universal adaptive systems, their expression and availability vary across cultures and communities. In collectivist cultures, extended family and community may provide attachment redundancy that compensates for parental deficits. Religious and spiritual communities offer meaning-making frameworks and additional caring relationships. Immigrant communities maintain traditions that provide identity and belonging. Understanding cultural variation in how ordinary adaptive systems manifest helps clinicians work appropriately with diverse survivors. It also suggests that cultural preservation and community strengthening serve protective functions—they're not merely cultural concerns but developmental resources that enable ordinary magic to operate.

FAQs

How is ordinary magic different from saying "just be positive"?

Ordinary magic has nothing to do with positive thinking, attitude adjustment, or finding silver linings. It describes the objective functioning of basic human adaptive systems—neurobiological, psychological, and social processes that operate independently of conscious attitude. A child's attachment system activating when a caring adult is present isn't about the child's outlook; it's about how human brains evolved to respond to safety cues. Self-regulation capacities develop through predictable, attuned caregiving regardless of whether anyone is "being positive." Masten's framework describes mechanisms, not mindsets. The "magic" isn't magical thinking; it's the remarkable way ordinary developmental processes buffer adversity when they function adequately. Recovery doesn't require positive thinking—it requires conditions that support adaptive systems.

Does ordinary magic mean my narcissistic parent wasn't really that harmful?

Absolutely not. Masten explicitly documents that when basic adaptive systems are damaged or prevented from developing, risk for problems rises dramatically. Narcissistic parenting directly attacks multiple adaptive systems: attachment is disrupted when the parent demands performance rather than providing unconditional care; self-regulation is impaired by unpredictable emotional chaos; cognitive development may be confused by gaslighting; family systems fail to provide consistent caregiving. The reason some children of narcissistic parents struggle severely is precisely because the ordinary conditions enabling resilience were absent or actively undermined. Ordinary magic explains what protected survivors—it doesn't minimise what harmed them. Your parent's narcissism was genuinely damaging; any resilience you demonstrated reflects ordinary systems that somehow functioned despite that damage.

Can I develop ordinary magic as an adult, or was it determined in childhood?

Ordinary magic can be developed across the lifespan because the basic adaptive systems it describes remain malleable. Neuroplasticity research confirms that brain structure and function continue changing in response to experience throughout adulthood. The therapeutic relationship can provide attachment experiences that were missing in childhood, gradually reshaping internal working models of relationships. Cognitive capacities can be strengthened through therapy, education, and deliberate practice. Self-regulation skills can be developed through mindfulness, somatic therapies, and DBT. Chosen family relationships can activate relational protection that origin family didn't provide. What Masten's research shows is that the same mechanisms protecting children operate in adulthood—they're ordinary human processes, not childhood-limited developmental windows. Building protective factors now harnesses ordinary magic regardless of when damage occurred.

Why didn't ordinary magic protect me more?

The ordinary magic framework doesn't claim that protective systems always prevent harm—it identifies what enables positive adaptation when harm occurs. If you experienced significant damage from narcissistic abuse, that reflects the severity of adversity you faced, the degree to which ordinary protective systems were unavailable or actively attacked, and the particular vulnerability of the developmental stages during which harm occurred. Not having been fully protected doesn't mean ordinary magic failed; it may mean ordinary protective conditions weren't sufficiently present to buffer the specific adversity you faced. Understanding this removes self-blame: you didn't fail to activate protection that should have worked. The conditions enabling protection were inadequate for the challenges you faced.

How do I apply ordinary magic to my own recovery?

Consider each of Masten's basic adaptive systems and ask how you might strengthen it. For attachment: Are there safe, caring relationships in your life? If not, therapy provides one; support groups provide others; building chosen family over time expands relational resources. For cognitive systems: Understanding narcissism, recognising manipulation patterns, developing insight into family dynamics—all strengthen cognitive protection. Reading, learning, and therapy that includes psychoeducation build cognitive resources. For self-regulation: Mindfulness practices, body-based therapies, DBT skills, and gradual expansion of your window of tolerance all develop regulatory capacity. For community: Support groups, religious or spiritual communities, volunteer work, and activity-based social connections provide community-level protection. Practical stability—financial, housing, employment—reduces stress that overwhelms regulatory systems. Each system you strengthen activates ordinary protective processes.

What about children I'm raising—how do I give them ordinary magic?

The most important thing you can do is provide consistent, attuned relationship. Be present without needing them to perform for your needs. See who they actually are rather than who you need them to be. Respond to their emotions with acceptance and help them name and manage feelings. Be predictable enough that they can relax into security. These attachment functions, provided consistently over time, activate the most powerful protective system identified in resilience research. Beyond this: encourage their curiosity and mastery efforts; help them develop self-regulation by co-regulating with them; ensure they have access to good schools and safe communities; support relationships with other caring adults who can provide backup attachment. You don't need to be perfect—ordinary magic requires good-enough parenting, not exceptional parenting. Your recovery work prepares you to provide what your children need.

Is ordinary magic the same as post-traumatic growth?

Related but distinct. Ordinary magic describes the normative protective processes that enable positive adaptation during and after adversity—it's about maintaining competent development despite challenges. Post-traumatic growth (PTG) describes positive psychological changes that exceed pre-trauma functioning—actually growing beyond where you were before adversity. Ordinary magic enables survival and continued development; PTG describes transformation. Someone demonstrating ordinary magic might maintain relationships, work functioning, and meaning-making despite trauma. Someone experiencing PTG might develop deeper relationships, greater personal strength, new possibilities, and spiritual depth that wouldn't have emerged without the struggle to heal. The processes overlap: the same cognitive meaning-making that enables ordinary resilience can, over time, generate genuine growth. But ordinary magic is more fundamental—it's what gets you through so that growth becomes possible.

Historical Context

Ann Masten's "Ordinary Magic" article emerged from her decades-long involvement in resilience research, beginning with her training under Norman Garmezy at the University of Minnesota. Garmezy, one of the field's founders, had started observing children of parents with schizophrenia in the 1970s, expecting uniformly poor outcomes but finding that many developed well despite genetic and environmental risk. This discovery launched systematic resilience research.

Masten directed Project Competence, one of the longest-running studies of risk and resilience, tracking children from multiple cohorts across decades of development. Her longitudinal perspective revealed patterns invisible in cross-sectional research: resilience wasn't a fixed trait but a developmental process that could wax and wane; "turning points" could redirect trajectories; the same protective factors appeared consistently across diverse adversities.

By 2001, the field had accumulated substantial findings but struggled with conceptual clarity. Terms like "invulnerable" and "stress-resistant" implied that resilient children possessed quasi-magical immunity—framing that both mischaracterised the phenomenon and offered little guidance for intervention. Masten's article provided the reconceptualisation the field needed.

The "ordinary magic" phrase brilliantly captured the paradox at the field's heart: what initially seemed extraordinary—children thriving despite severe adversity—actually emerges from ordinary developmental processes. The magic is real (human adaptive systems are remarkable), but it's also ordinary (these systems operate in all humans when adequately supported). This reframing shifted research from seeking exceptional qualities in exceptional children to understanding and protecting normative developmental processes.

The article's influence extended far beyond academia. Clinical training programs incorporated the ordinary magic perspective. Educational interventions explicitly targeted the basic adaptive systems Masten identified. Policy discussions about vulnerable children referenced the framework. The phrase itself entered common usage among professionals working with at-risk populations.

Masten continued developing the framework in subsequent decades. Her 2014 book "Ordinary Magic: Resilience in Development" expanded the concepts for broader audiences. Her research examined resilience across diverse adversities including homelessness, war, and natural disasters, confirming the generalisability of basic adaptive systems as protective factors. Her work on cascading effects documented how competence in one developmental domain (like school achievement) spreads to other domains over time.

The framework's endurance reflects its explanatory power and practical utility. Twenty years after publication, "ordinary magic" remains the dominant way developmental scientists conceptualise resilience—testament to how well the phrase captured a fundamental truth about human adaptation that researchers had been approaching from many directions.

Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development

APA Citation