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Hope and hopelessness in carers of a relative with schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Julian Leff*
Affiliation:
King's College London, email: julian.-leff@kcl.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2014

In her editorial, Rebecca McGuire-Snieckus warns clinicians against promoting optimism in their clients, since this can lead to unmet expectations and negative reactions when such expectations are not realised. Reference McGuire-Snieckus1 In his commentary on the editorial, Femi Oyebode criticises Martin Seligman for exaggerating the importance of happiness at all costs as a goal of existence, and quotes Aristotle as stating that it is the mark of a courageous man to face things that are terrible to a human being. Reference Oyebode2 I wish to illustrate this in the context of family carers of relatives with schizophrenia. In particular, I focus on the overinvolved carer who is unable to relinquish her/his hopes and expectations for the affected relative. They are readily recognised by habitually referring to their relative in the past tense, for example, ‘she was such a beautiful girl’ or ‘he was such a good student’. This form of speech reveals the fact that the carer is living in the past and has not come to terms with the reality of their relative's illness. This is particularly hard on the patient, who then feels driven to attempt to satisfy the carer's need for their success, and fails again and again. The remedy is to offer the carer grief work to mourn their losses and to accept the reality of their relative's disability and release both parties from this impasse, enabling them to develop a more realistic view. The patient will also benefit from grief work, administered separately from the carer.

References

1 McGuire-Snieckus, R. Hope, optimism and delusion. Psychiatr Bull 2014; 38: 4951.Google Scholar
2 Oyebode, F. Should psychology be ‘positive’? Letting the philosophers speak. Commentary on … Hope, optimism and delusion. Psychiatr Bull 2014; 38: 52–3.Google Scholar
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