By “hope in the clinic” I refer to a domain of life in which we deal with illness, injury and death. What role does hope play in this domain so that we can attain the kind of fulfilment that is specific to it? This is a question not only for those who suffer illness, injury or death and their families, but also for those who care for them, whether they be doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, psychiatrists or any of the many other healthcare professionals who look after people who are ill or dying. It has been established scientifically that patients with even the most dire injuries or serious medical conditions will enjoy better outcomes if they hope for such outcomes. There are said to be neuropsychiatric dimensions to hope and they can have therapeutic effects similar to pharmaceutical placebos. Hopeful patients live longer. Hope can lead not only to resilience in the face of suffering, but also to amelioration of the malady that is causing the suffering. In the field of palliative care, where patients are dying without any prospect of cure, hope is said to be an essential ingredient in the achievement of a “good death”.

Moreover, healthcare workers themselves entertain hopes for their patients. But, whereas those hopes are informed by medical and therapeutic knowledge and are therefore likely to be realistic, the hopes of their patients and clients are motivated by anxieties about illness, injury and death and may therefore be inconsistent with realistic prognoses.