The Real Reason for Hope During Illness

Richard Sloan:

The belief that a fighting spirit helps us to recover from injury or illness…reflects the persistent view that personality or a way of thinking can raise or reduce the likelihood of illness….But there’s no evidence to back up the idea that an upbeat attitude can prevent any illness or help someone recover from one more readily.

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Such beliefs have implications for how we regard people who are ill. If people are insufficiently upbeat after a cancer diagnosis or inadequately “spiritual” after a diagnosis of AIDS, are we to assume they have willfully placed their health at risk? And if they fail to recover, is it really their fault? The incessant pressure to be positive imposes an enormous burden on patients whose course of treatment doesn’t go as planned.

True. You know, it’s almost as if the reason to be confident in in the midst of illness should have another basis than the mere hope of getting better…