Purpose: This study was done to define and clarify the concept of resilience in people who are mentally disabled. Methods: Rodgers' evolutionary approach to concept analysis was used to identify common attributes, antecedents, and consequences of the resilience of people who have mental disabilities. A literature search of the RISS, Kiss, CINAHL, PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus and PsycArticle databases from 1980 to 2016 was conducted, using the key words of ‘psychiatric disorder resilience’, and ‘mental illness resilience.’ Thirteen relevant articles and one book were finally selected and reviewed in depth. Results: The concept analysis showed that, the attributes of resilience in people with mental disabilities were ‘flexibility’, ‘potentiality’, ‘strengthening’. The antecedents of resilience were psychiatric symptoms and perceived stigma. The consequences of resilience were understood to be recovery. Conclusion: The findings in this study indicate that it is important to provide preliminary knowledge necessary for mental health nurses to reinforce resilience in people with mental disabilities. There is also a need to develop a scale to measure resilience in this population.