We Need a Week of Hope, Not Happy Talk, to Confront COVID-19

COVID-19 has precipitated a global hope shortage. Real hope is humanity’s emotional PPE and tantamount to a second immune system. As a clinical psychologist, I have dedicated my career to the study of hope. With COVID-19 cases peaking in many cities, I thought it would be helpful to provide a “week of hope” in a series of blogs.

Hope: Everyone’s “Essential Business”

I have been studying hope for 30 years. I have written two books on the topic and conducted a variety of empirical studies, including hope-centered investigations of the immune system in HIV patients, hope-sustaining strategies of breast cancer survivors, the health habits of hopeful young adults, and, more recently, the hope content in presidential speeches. Hope is complex but worth a lifetime of devotion, professionally but also on a personal level. Martin Luther proclaimed, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” For Goethe, hope was a “second soul.” Dostoevsky wrote, “To live without hope is to cease to live.”

I keep my citations to a minimum. If you want to fact-check my scholarship or prefer a deeper dive into hope, I recommend the book, Hope in the Age of Anxiety.

Today, I outline COVID-19-related sources of hopelessness and describe the nature of hope. Tuesday, I will discuss two primary forms of hope, both important for addressing COVID-19. On Wednesday, I cover hope and leadership. Thursday, I present suggestions for recruiting attachment hope and survival hope. Friday, I discuss mastery hope and spiritual hope.

We are experiencing a contagion of hopelessness, a syndrome of nine disrupted human needs. I will label this “virus” COVID-19-9. Trust and intimacy needs have been disrupted by conflicting “news” and social distancing requirements. Prediction and problem-solving needs have been disrupted by fragmented policy-making and slippery timetables.

Power needs have been disrupted by signs of vulnerability across age, gender, and SES levels. Inspiration needs have been disrupted by the takeover of platforms that could animate and transform, but have devolved into self-interested promotions.

In the realm of spirituality, I point to “faith leaders” who have contributed to disruptions in the needs for transcendent forms of assurance, presence, and empowerment. One pastor asked his listeners to touch the television to be healed of COVID-19. Another accused his followers of weakness if they did not follow his dictate. Which Bible guides this “prophet”? It cannot be the same Bible in which Paul writes, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians, 4:13). This same pastor labeled refusals to congregate in large numbers as “sinful.” Again, I ask, Which Bible does this prophet read? It cannot be the same version in which Mark (2:27) quotes Jesus, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

The cornerstone of hope is trust, not “alternative facts.” You cannot spin hope. In an interview with Sean Illing for the Vox website, historian John Barry reflected on the government’s misinformation and lies during the 1918 flu pandemic. “It was a disaster. People lost faith in everything… If trust collapses, then it becomes everyone for themselves”.

Can you trust hope? Yes. I can assert that hope is a trustworthy ally. However, it is crucial to distinguish the virtue of real hope from the vices of false hope, blind optimism, or denial. It is also important to understand the psychic and social foundations of hope, and where to turn when things seem most hopeless.

My “how-to” will include some personal self-help, but there is a greater emphasis on recruiting hope. The deepest reflections on hope (developmental Erik Erikson, theologian William Lynch, and philosopher Gabriel Marcel) suggest that it [hope] is not a privately incubated resource, but requires the inputs of empowerment and perceived mutual engagement. Moreover, given the massive scale of hopelessness around the globe, a broader focus is essential.

The Return of Hope

A little more than a decade ago, Barack Obama was elected on “hope and change.” In a few years, the horror of September 11^th faded, the economy rebounded, and the Ebola threat receded. References to hope diminished. Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, hope is again on center stage.

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Update on COVID-19 and How It Changes the Brain

How Political Partisanship Can Be Deadly

On Friday, March 20th, President Trump touted the benefits of a drug cocktail. Peter Alexander of NBC asked, “Is it possible that your impulse to put a positive spin on things may be giving Americans a false sense of hope?” On March 25th, a headline in the Washington Post read: “Trump is giving people false hope of coronavirus cures.” In a March 25th interview, L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti warned, "Giving people false hope will crush their spirits and will kill more people." From Geneva, Switzerland, the executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergency Program stated, “It is false hope to say, yes, that it will disappear like the flu.”

What Is Hope?

My holistic approach to hope incorporates four basic human needs: attachment, survival, mastery, and spirituality. The first three seem obvious. Why do I include spirituality? The human need for trust and connection (attachment), liberation and assurance (survival), and inspiration and validation (mastery) will always be greater than human life affords. To narrow the need-resource gap, humanity turns to various forms of spirituality, sometimes religious but not always, to garner an additional sense of presence, salvation, or empowerment.

We can expand our perspective even further to consider two forms of hope familiar to everyone, from academics to the casual consumer of popular psychology. Hope may refer to a noun or a verb. As a noun, hope is a character trait, a strength. An individual is hopeful or hopeless. As a verb, hope refers to an emotional process that emerges in times of difficulty or uncertainty. Psychologist Magda Arnold, in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas, labeled hope a “contending emotion,” evoked by threats or obstacles.

A thousand years ago, in the English language, these two perspectives were already delineated; hope is “an island in the middle of a wasteland” (hopefulness) or “a stepping stone to a higher elevation” (hoping). On Tuesday, I will elaborate on both forms of hope.