Convinced of hope's therapeutic benefits, physicians routinely support patients' false hopes, often with family collusion and vague, euphemistic diagnoses and prognoses, if not overt lies. Bioethicists charge them with paternalistic violations of Patient Autonomy. There are, I think, too many morally significant exceptions to accept the physician's rationales, or the bioethicist's criticisms, s...

Optimism is generally accepted by psychiatrists, psychologists and other caring professionals as a feature of mental health. Interventions typically rely on cognitive-behavioural tools to encourage individuals to 'stop negative thought cycles' and to 'challenge unhelpful thoughts'. However, evidence suggests that most individuals have persistent biases of optimism and that excessive optimism is...

T he afternoon had been very long, longer than most, because we didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Even while his grandmother was dying in the hospital, Johnny refused to accept it. Now that she was gone, his denial grew stronger. The harder I tried to console him, the more he resisted. I wanted one thing—to give Johnny hope. I tried to explain to Johnny how death happens. But this eight-year-...

It was an overcast, Thursday afternoon. The fog was rolling in across the Bay and the temperature was dropping. It was the kind of day that is more typical of summer than fall in the Bay Area. It was late in the day and I was feeling particularly uninspired about my job. When I had first started working as the Executive Assistant to Mayor Loni Hancock, I’d thought I had the best job in the City...

A couple of months ago, my 85-year old father passed away. He had a heart attack, developed pneumonia, and significant blockage of the cerebral aqueduct, probably brought on by invasive cancer that had spread throughout his body. Through all of this, and through the many trials in his life, he maintained a wonderfully positive attitude— always answering the “how are you doing” queries with a se...

Abstract Popular hope-instruments differ significantly in how they define hope. Due to their length, these instruments are rarely used large-scale surveys or combined interdisciplinary research. This study validates short versions of four hope instruments; the Adult Trait Hope Scale; Herth Index; Locus Of and spiritual dimension Comprehensive Scale. Results show that function equally well as lo...

abstract aim and background: this study aims to predict self-care behavior based on the characteristics of hardiness , hope and dysfunctional attitudes in patients with type 2 diabetes. methods and materials: study design was a descriptive correlation method. the target population was all patients with diabetes type 2 who referred to isfahan endocrine and metabolism centers. the sample consiste...