The Psychology of Hope and Fear

"When you feel hopeful, your body's relaxed. You feel generous and open, not only with others, but with yourself too. Your world expands with ideas for how the hope could gather even more momentum. You feel motivated forward.

If fear takes too much hold of a personality, rigidity of thought and paranoia enter. When this happens on a national level the same trend is seen. You end up with things like racism, sexism and hate."

- Joyce McFadden (Read the full article here)

McFadden is a certified psychoanalyst from Columbia University, an Obama supporter as I am. What she didn't mention in her excellent article is one funny thing about hope. How one man's hope is another man's nightmare.

In the 2008 US Presidential, 53% of American voters defined hope as Obama and 46% defined it as McCain. Yes, hope ran deep on each side. One side hopes that the world is compassionate, inclusive and progressive. The other hopes that the world is conservative, one that must be divided to maintain order.

You might be tempted to say there is "good" hope and "bad" hope, and bad hope = delusion. That would confirm my suspicion of hope as an ideological creature, where good and bad depends on which side of the ideological fence one sits on.

In McFadden's view, each hope-filled side would "feel hopeful, their bodies relaxed. They feel generous and open, not only with others (who share the same views), but with themselves too. Their world expands with ideas for how the hope could gather even more momentum. They feel motivated forward."

So what does the pacifist who hopes to unite the world and the terrorist who hopes to blow up a thousand people have in common? They are both driven by the audacity of hope. Its just that one man's hope is another man's nightmare. Which is which depends entirely on what ideology you subscribe to.

Judgementalism aside, what is clear to me is that humans cannot survive without hope, no matter how misguided we think it is. Hope is why we put our life savings on the casino table even though the chances of winning are a million to one. Hope is the reason why we seek "happy ever after" when reality says "this, too, shall pass." Hope is why we are inherently discontent, always looking for change, always pioneering new areas. Hope gives us that adrenalin. Whether it drives us to our salvation or our downfall is a different matter altogether.

"I am fearful of your hopes."

- Anon