1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910460613503321

Autore

Akhtar Salman

Titolo

Hopelessness : Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms / / by Salman Akhtar

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boca Raton, FL : , : Routledge, , [2018]

©2015

ISBN

0-429-90034-1

0-367-10330-3

0-429-47557-8

1-78241-386-3

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (253 p.)

Disciplina

152.403

Soggetti

Despair

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

COVER; CONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS; INTRODUCTION; PROLOGUE; CHAPTER ONE Hope and hopelessness: an introductory overview; PART I DEVELOPMENTAL REALM; CHAPTER TWO The encounter with hopelessness in childhood; CHAPTER THREE Adolescent hope and hopelessness; CHAPTER FOUR Hopelessness and midlife; PART II CULTURAL REALM; CHAPTER FIVE Literary depictions of hopelessness: a short story, a novel, and a poem; CHAPTER SIX The illusion of a future: hopelessness in contemporary cinema; PART III CLINICAL REALM; CHAPTER SEVEN From hopelessness to despair

CHAPTER EIGHT On the edge of hopelessness and despair: an uncertain landscape CHAPTER NINE Hope and hopelessness in the couple relationship; CHAPTER TEN Hopelessness in the counter transference; EPILOGUE; CHAPTER ELEVEN The hopelessness and helplessness dyad: a concluding commentary; REFERENCES; INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Hope is the most reliable sustainer of life. It offers the promise of something good in the future, contributes to resilience, and keeps one going. However, there are circumstances when hope dries up. This



book seeks to map out such dark terrain of hopelessness. While it allows for the fact that a modicum of hopelessness might help in reducing infantile omnipotence and curtailing fixation on unrealistic goals, its focus is upon severe and clinically significant shades of hopelessness. The book opens with a broad overview of the nature, developmental origins, and technical implications of hope and hopelessness, and closes with a thoughtful summary, synthesis, and critique of the intervening essays; this summary forges both theoretically and technically significant links between the experiences of helplessness and hopelessness. Sandwiched between these opening and closing commentaries are nine essays which address the ontogenetic trajectory, phenomenological variations, cultural and literary portrayals, and clinical ramifications of sustained hopelessness.