The Life-Sustaining Power of Hope

Survival requires more than the basic biological necessities we readily acknowledge—oxygen, food, and water. It also demands something less tangible but equally vital: hope. When hope vanishes, the human spirit can begin to falter in ways that are genuinely life-threatening.

The devastating power of hopelessness became tragically evident during major conflicts of the twentieth century. Military physicians documented a phenomenon they termed "give-up-itis" among prisoners of war in World War II, Korea, and…