The mission of the Center for A Science of Hope is to advance research-based understanding about hope and its applications. Hope is a pervasive but often ignored presence in the critical events of the times. Hope, or lack of it, has a powerful influence on outcomes in education, in health and healing, in work environments, and in political and economic activity. The Center seeks to identify applications of mature hope in a variety of fields, particularly in health and organization leadership.

History

The Center for A Science of Hope emerged as an ICIS project in the mid-1980s from a task force that was focusing on large-scale changes that ICIS International Council members thought would be necessary in order to positively influence what life could be like at the arrival of the twenty-first century. Task force members found compelling a particular factor which had been frequently mentioned by International Council members. That factor was hope. It was Robert Jungk, the international journalist and a member of the International Council who was in New York City on a visit and was attending the meeting, who urged that ICIS should focus on the idea of doing something about “a science of hope.” Thus the origin of the name, Center for A Science of Hope.

Later, David R. Schwarz wrote about some of the reactions to joining “science” and “hope” in the title of the Center and, for that matter, joining the two words in the same sentence. In his preface to the book, Aspects of Hope, published by the Center, he referenced an experience at a conference: “More than half of the participants expressed objections to applying the term 'science' to the study of hope because science is perceived to imply a reductive and limiting approach to subject matter that requires more constructive, intuitive, expansive breadth.” Furthermore, he went on to say, “Science was brought into our rubric not by scientists, but by humanists who wish to reclaim the original Latin meaning of the word, which is knowledge. Modern dictionaries take note of this origin in their multiple definitions of science... Emerging new science and mathematics will be much more harmonious with such evanescent concepts as mind, consciousness - and hope. So we remain a Center for A Science of Hope.”

The phrasing, “science of hope,” is now being found in writings, notably in the past few years in the fields of psychology and health care, most noticeably in the nursing literature of health care.

Center Activities

During the 1980-1990s the Center networked and held conferences with individuals and other organizations with similar interests, including Elpis Foundation in Argentina and Hope Foundation in Alberta, Canada. Collaboration with Elpis Foundation, held at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica, produced proceedings titled “Resurgence of Hope in a World Civilization.” These proceedings were widely distributed to UN representatives and nongovernmental organizations in support of the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations. Collaboration with Hope Foundation of Alberta resulted in the production and distribution of a two-part video series titled “This Thing Called Hope” which has been broadcast on Canadian public television and is used in graduate programs in psychology and activities in other fields.

Another Center program engages student interns periodically to search for publications on research and writings on hope. These published articles, papers, books, monographs, and presentations are compiled in a database maintained by the Center on hope-related research and concept formation.

Publications of the Center have included:

Books

• Aspects of Hope: The Proceedings of a Conference on Hope
  edited by Lamar Carter, Ann Mische and David R. Schwarz
• Hope and Vanquished Reality by the Center's Council Member, South Vietnam Ambassador Nguyen Xuan Phong
• Memory Fields by the Center's Council Member Professor Shlomo Breznitz

HopeWATCH, an occasional newsletter

Monographs

• Love and Hope by Irene Seeland, M.D.
• Playing in the Face of Danger by Steven H. Knoblauch, Ph.D.
• Hope and Organizational Leadership by Lamar Carter

Videos

• This Thing Called Hope (2000), a two-part videotape co-produced by Hope Foundation of Alberta and Center for A Science of Hope

If interested in any of the publications of the Center, please contact us.

Hope Consulting Services

Hope Consulting Services emerged in 2002 as an activity component of the ICIS Center for A Science of Hope. It is designed to serve the health care field and other human services fields - specifically organizations, professionals and practitioners in health care, mental health, social services and education. Its programmatic features provide a deeper understanding of the vital role hope plays in:

• Helping people successfully overcome difficulties and challenges - in the fields of health care and other human services
• Organizing and directing health and human services
• Enhancing practices that add to quality of life for both service providers and recipients

HCS consultants provide technical assistance to client organizations which includes strategic change initiatives, education and training workshops and seminars and other organization effectiveness consulting drawing on their in-depth expertise and research-based learnings about hope.

HCS' current priorities are focused in two major area of activity: (1) monitoring research and concept development about hope as a human condition or dynamic along with maintaining a database on hope, and (2) offering consulting and educational services to organizations and agencies in fields where hope is of a unique nature to their purpose - the most obvious ones being health care, human services and education. These are interdependent activities of the mission.

Hope Consulting Services draws on the growing body of literature coming from the health care field regarding hope. Notable among contributors are Kay Hearth, Ph.D., Associate Dean, School of Nursing, Mankato State University, Judith Fitzgerald Miller, RN, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Marquette University College of Nursing; Carl Simonton, oncologist; and Jerome Groopman, M.D., Dina and Raphael Recanati Chair of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Groopman, for example, has devoted particular attention to the biology of hope.

Hope, unlike optimism, is rooted in unalloyed reality. ... Hope is the elevating feeling we experience when we see - in the mind's eye- a path to a better future. Hope acknowledges the significant obstacles and deep pitfalls along the path. True hope has no room for delusion. ... Hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them. ... For all my patients, hope, true hope, has proved as important as any medication. ... There is an authentic biology of hope. ... Researchers are learning that a change in mind-set has the power to alter neurochemistry. Belief and expectation - the key elements of hope - can block pain by releasing the brain's endorphins and enkephalins, mimicking the effects of morphine. In some cases, hope can also have important effects on fundamental physiological processes like respiration, circulation, and motor function. During the course of an illness, then, hope can be imagined as a domino effect, a chain reaction in which each link makes improvement more likely. It changes us profoundly in spirit and in body. ... I learned ... that every patient has the right to hope, despite long odds, and it was my role to help nurture that hope. -Jerome Groopman in The Anatomy of Hope, Random House, 2004.