Dostoevsky was categorical about hope, stating, "Life without hope is not life. And hopelessness is a true hell." Today, it seems that hope is intuitively felt as a necessity for life and it is impossible to live without hope. Or could we?

What is hope? Is it optimism? Faith? Desire? Have Dostoevsky been right? Is hope merely a denial of all our difficulties, a kind of wrapper? Answers to these questions can be found in psychoanalytic theories, as well as answers to all possible questions.

"The concept of hope is one of the most important, 'obvious but invisible' (as Bion said) elements of all psychoanalytic theories" (Cooper, 2000). In other words, psychoanalytic theories explain the very logic of hope.

Classical psychoanalysis explains that hopes arise from infantile impulses seeking satisfaction, while fears result from fantasies of punishment for forbidden desires.

According to other theories, "hopes, like the fears that the patient brings to the analytical situation, are based on unconscious phantasies, on one or another kind of illusion that has remained untouched throughout the patient's life and have built into his 'chronological' maturity" (Mitchell, 1993).

So, do psychoanalytic theories debunk all the "romance" of hope and pose a real threat to fragile sources of the patients’ true inspiration? This is not quite so.

The patient does not need to give up his or her hopes or fears. Instead, they need to discover, clarify, and make sense of them. Ultimately, psychoanalysis is about the patient’s journey of exploring and becoming aware of their feelings, desires, thoughts, and true self.

As a result of this exploration, the patient may naturally relinquish certain hopes, recognizing their own limitations, both mentally and physically. In the end, fantasies and hopes for the future may give way to more realistic views of what is possible.

This realization can often leave the patient either upset or, conversely, excited, as it opens up new possibilities and new sources of vitality by abandoning "old" hopes and fantasies. In the long run, the past may not be as wonderful or as painful as once thought.

However, in psychoanalysis, there are always two sides. On the one hand, the analyst is the object and subject of the patient's hope. On the other hand, the analyst, through therapeutic actions like interpretations, also holds hopes for the patient, believing that they can and should help.

"Realizing the hopes of the analyst has far-reaching consequences, as it is associated with unconscious and conscious phantasies of psychic growth and transformation for both patients and analysts that arise in the course of the problem and even successful analysis" (Cooper, 2000).

I will conclude with Winnicott’s words: "We all hope that our patients will finish therapy and forget about us and that life itself will be the therapy that makes sense to them."

Cooper S. (2000) Objects of Hope. Exploring Possibility and Limit in Psychoanalysis. The Analytic Press, London.
Mitchell S. (1993) Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis. Basic Books.