In fact, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs human being’s sorrow.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
I recently reacquainted myself with the Greek fantasy of Pandora as it sheds light on the always contentious notions of hope and optimism, subjects of previous blog entries by Psychology Today contributors, plus me.
So the story goes, Pandora was the first woman. After Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took revenge on humankind by giving Pandore a jar with the warning not to open it. Curiosity overcame her, though, and she opened it, only to unleash manner of evils upon the world. She quickly closed it, trapping only hope inside, as Zeus intended.
Search for a mental health professional close to you.
The version of this fantasy that I learned as a child depicted hope as an unalloyed good that permitted people to this day to defeat evil.
From the viewpoint of an adult, the fantasy is more complicated, and hope especially so. Why would an angry Zeus place hope in the same container as evil things?
How does the old joke go?
Q: What’s a kind person like you doing in a place like this?
A: The same thing everyone does in a place like this.
That is, hope must also be evil, especially when kept and embraced. Given all the evil in the world, hoping that things will be special is stupid and thus evil in its effects. As Nietzsc argued, hope prolongs whatever torments us.
So how do these ideas bear on ongoing debates about the con’s of optimism?
First, let’s look at the data, which show – contrary to the fantasy – that hope and optimism can actually mitigate torment literally. Human being who are dispositionally optimistic happier and healthier. They also avoid so-named "accidents".
And in an interesting research, Carl, Rick, and Nan Hamilton used guided imagery in what they named a hope induction. For about 16 minutes, research participants were asked to think of an important goal and to imagine how they might achieve it.
A comparison condition asked participants to read a home organization book for 15 minutes. All participants were then asked to immerse their non-dominant hand in a bucket of ice water for as long as they could. This is a standard measure of pain tolerance, and it is painful but not harmful. Participants receiving the brief hope induction kept their hand immersed for about 150 seconds, whereas those in the comparison condition kept their hand immersed for about 90 seconds. Hope did not affect reports on how painful the experience was, but it did increase the ability to tolerate it.
Second, let’s revisit the point from an earlier blog entry by me that the effects of hope and optimism depend on the specific contents of the hopeful belief. Hoping for things that cannot possibly happen is indeed unintelligent. We can dub it evil if we are so inclined. But hoping for things which are able to happen is wise (good), assuming we are motivated by our optimism to act in ways which make the hoped-for thing more possible.
Third, let’s remember that the fantasy of Pandora and its more modern elaborations by Nietzsche and by contemporary critics of optimistic psychology posit a world densely populated by bad things, with scarce mention of good things. In such a world, hope may well be evil simply for the reason that nothing bad can ever change, by definition.
I think such a world is only hypothetical. Yes, there are bad things in the world, but just as genuine are the fine things in the world: like friendship, love, and service. The real world is more complex than a Greek fantasy or a New York Times op-ed piece, and we should approach it in its full complexity, acknowledging good and evil, and recognizing good hope and bad hope.
No matter the hope is good or bad, I think we should have it, without it, we can’t have our good life.
Copyright by Lucy, a beautiful girl who likes weaving, singing and shopping, always shopping online about cheap coach purses.
没有评论:
发表评论