When we reach the end of what we can do for the better in a situation, when nothing is moving forward and no way out left, despair arises. Despair means having no hope. - But what is the opposite - hope?
Hope is more than a feeling. It is an existential act, a life-bearing attitude of not giving way in the face of misfortune and suffering but remaining connected with what counts for oneself. The hopeful has the desire for the positive, even when a positive turn is unlikely. And they do it even despite the fact that one cannot actively contribute (any more) to the improvement. Relegated to inactivity, one thing remains: to be faithful to the faced value, to relationship, to the future - to life after all.
This attitude, which inspires people, is of great importance for life. It is a basis for resilience. In this presentation the psychological and existential background of hope will be described and light will be shed on how to deal with it.
M.D., Ph.D. (psychology), born 1951 in Austria, founder (1983) and long-term president of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (Vienna), was scholar and collaborator of Viktor Frankl. He is professor of psychotherapy at the Moscow’s HSE-university and Vienna’s Sigmund Freud University. He teaches existential coaching & leadership. For his development of modern Existential Analysis and his over 400 publications he got two honorary doctorates and six honorary professor degrees as well as the Golden Medal for Merits for the Republic of Austria and the Golden Cross of Honor for Science and Arts.
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