The anatomy of hope.

Hope is commonly regarded as the feeling that what is desired is also possible. Today, the concensus is that this feeling can increase one's overall ability to cope with stress by reducing fears and anxieties. It is our assumption, therefore, that much of the illness of mankind can be eliminated by enhancing the hope of human individuals.To be able to enhance hope, one must first know what hope actually is and from where it comes by identifying its true determinants. We have, therefore, chosen the task of defining hope and attempting to dissect it into its relevant components so that this important health related property of the human individual may no longer remain in abstraction. This paper reports our approach to this task, the methods used, results obtained, and conclusions drawn.