‘I wish a happy end’. Hope in the lives of chronic schizophrenic patients^a

A Dutch version of this article was published in the Dutch journal Medische Antropologie (Medical Anthropology). An earlier English version was published in the liber amoricum Anthropology and Medicine. Essays in Honor of Professor Arie de Ruijter, edited by Els van Dongen and Selma van Londen, 1998, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The concept of hope is important for illness and healing. In psychiatry, the opposite, ‘hopelessness’ has clinical importance, because it is linked to depression and suicide. However, the clinical notion conceals the moral dimensions of the concept. By presenting anthropological data on psychiatric practices related to chronic mental illness, the author shows that hope with its western theological origins plays an important role in daily psychiatric practices. Hope has different meanings and functions for staff and patients. These are related to cultural ideas about a person, illness, social relationships, life and death. The analysis underlines the cultural construction of western psychiatry. The usual meanings of hope have to be modified because some meanings do not always have favourable effects on the course of the illness.

Notes

A Dutch version of this article was published in the Dutch journal Medische Antropologie (Medical Anthropology). An earlier English version was published in the liber amoricum Anthropology and Medicine. Essays in Honor of Professor Arie de Ruijter, edited by Els van Dongen and Selma van Londen, 1998, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.