Hope as creative adjustment: Reflections of health, disease and death processes in Gestalt Therapy

Abstract

Hope can be defined as a forward-looking expectation that can serve as a protective factor to adversity. This work sought to investigate hope in the context of health, disease and death processes from the concept of creative adjustment that originates from a phenomenological perspective developed by Fritz Perls. Through a qualitative narrative review, we sought to define what is being published about hope in addition to hospital psychology in the databases Scielo, PsycINFO and Google Scholar. Materials published from the period 2001 to 2018 were used. The materials found were described and discussed through the precepts of Gestalt Therapy. From the theoretical reflections carried out it can be understood that hope can serve as a way of creatively adjusting to a critical period of serious illnesses or terminality, since it becomes a support for facing reality. It is hoped that this work will enable the health professional to make reflections, redirecting the look to healthy workings in health and illness processes in order to strengthen the potentialities and the recovery of spontaneous and creative responses of their patients.