Why do some people find and sustain hope during difficult circumstances, while others do not? What can we learn from those who do, and how is their example applicable to our own lives? The Anatomy of Hope is a journey of inspiring discovery, spanning some thirty years of Dr. Jerome Groopman’s practice, during which he encountered many extraordinary people and sought to answer these questions. This profound exploration begins when Groopman was a medical student, ignorant of the vital role of hope in patients’ lives–and it culminates in his remarkable quest to delineate a biology of hope. With appreciation for the human elements and the science, Groopman explains how to distinguish true hope from false hope–and how to gain an honest understanding of the reach and limits of this essential emotion.

Few of us spend much time thinking about courage, but we know it when we see it--or do we? Is it best displayed by marching into danger, making the charge, or by resisting, enduring without complaint? Is it physical or moral, or both? Is it fearless, or does it involve subduing fear? Abner Small, a Civil War soldier, was puzzled by what he called the "mystery of bravery"; to him, courage and cowardice seemed strangely divorced from character and will. It is this mystery, just as puzzling in our day, that William Ian Miller unravels in this engrossing meditation. Miller culls sources as varied as soldiers' memoirs, heroic and romantic literature, and philosophical discussions to get to the heart of courage--and to expose its role in generating the central anxieties of masculinity and manhood. He probes the link between courage and fear, and explores the connection between bravery and seemingly related states: rashness, stubbornness, madness, cruelty, fury; pride and fear of disgrace; and the authority and experience that minimize fear. By turns witty and moving, inquisitive and critical, his inquiry takes us from ancient Greece to medieval Europe, to the American Civil War, to the Great War and Vietnam, with sidetrips to the schoolyard, the bedroom, and the restaurant. Whether consulting Aristotle or private soldiers, Miller elicits consistently compelling insights into a condition as endlessly interesting as it is elusive.

William Miller details our anxious relation to basic life processes; eating, excreting, fornicating, decaying, and dying. But disgust pushes beyond the flesh to vivify the larger social order with the idiom it commandeers from the sights, smells, tastes, feels, and sounds of fleshly physicality. Disgust and contempt, Miller argues, play crucial political roles in creating and maintaining social hierarchy. Democracy depends less on respect for persons than on an equal distribution of contempt. Disgust, however, signals dangerous division.

The story of a recovery from a crippling disease and the physician patient partnership that beat the odds by using the patient's own capabilities.

Courage refers to the willingness for risk taking and to move ahead in the presence of difficulties. The purpose of this book is to present courage as the main foundation of understanding and training for mental health in the three life task areas described by Adler: Work, Love, and Friendship. It explores the meaning of each life task and problems of fear, compensation, or evasion, as well as Adlerian insight on socially useful attitudes of approaching the task under discussion. Socratic dialog boxes are included throughout each chapter to encourage the interactivity between the text and readers’ thought processes. Also included is a set of twenty-two helping tools that were creatively designed for self-exercise or to be used to help others uncover or acquire courage. For those in the helping professions, this text will be a unique and valuable handbook for not only working with and helping their clients, but also for their own personal development.

In The Anatomy of a Calling, Lissa Rankin, MD, makes a simple yet revolutionary claim: We are all, every single one of us, heroes. We are all on what Joseph Campbell calls "a hero's journey;" we are all on a mission to step into our true nature and fulfill the assignment our souls were sent to Earth to fulfill. Navigating the hero's journey, Dr. Rankin argues, is one of the cornerstones of living a meaningful, authentic, healthy life. In clear, engaging prose, Dr. Rankin describes her entire spiritual journey for the first time--beginning with what she calls her "perfect storm" of events--and recounts the many transformative experiences that led to a profound awakening of her soul. Through her father's death, her daughter's birth, career victories and failures, and an ongoing struggle to identify as both a doctor and a healer, Dr. Rankin discovers a powerful self-awareness. As she shares her story, she encourages you to find out where you are on your own journey and offers wisdom and inspiration in the form of "Hero's Guideposts" along the way. Dr. Rankin weaves in lessons on trusting intuition, surrendering to love, and learning to see adversity as an opportunity for soul growth. Much more than a memoir, The Anatomy of a Calling guides you to make a powerful shift in consciousness and reach your highest destiny.

From one of the boldest voices in the world of personal growth and motivation, a guide to moving past inner struggle to discover the power of relinquishing control. Too often we limit our lives by putting conditions on them. We think things should go a certain way, and when they don't, we hold on to what isn't working, reinforcing what is causing us pain and affirming our lack of trust in the universe. There is another way: We can harness the power of relinquishing control and discover more purpose and meaning in our lives. After the passing of Kute Blackson's mother in 2017, he discovered that the powerful lesson his mother had been modeling her whole life had always been at the heart of his own teachings--he just hadn't realized it. What was that keen insight? Surrender isn't passive. It isn't giving up. It's strong and courageous. It's about tapping in. In this inspiring book, Blackson traces how surrender was a key factor in the lives of so many great people throughout history, and shows readers how they can move past self-imposed barriers in their lives to discover the freedom and possibility on the other side of surrender.

Set in a world of iron lungs, the Great Depression, and a World War, Courage to Heal is based on the true story of a young surgeon who, along with the twentieth century's boldest industrialist, changed the face of American medicine forever. History is brought to vivid life in this novel of an intransigent physician, his fight to provide health care to all, and his undying love for a beautiful nurse who marries the man determined to defeat him. At the height of the Great Depression, Doctor Sidney Garfield saw the thousands of men involved in building the Los Angeles Aqueduct as an opportunity to provide quality affordable health care for workers. He built Contractors General Hospital: a 12-bed hospital in the middle of the Mojave Desert, six miles from the tiny town of Desert Center, California, and began treating sick and injured workers. With the start of WWII, the need for health care¿for shipworkers¿was even greater. Working with industrialist Henry Kaiser, Garfield created the first true health care system in the Richmond shipyards, then opened a hospital in Oakland, still the headquarters of what is now Kaiser Permanente. When WWII was over, the doctor¿s private war began, when the AMA tried to shut down Kaiser (calling it ¿socialist¿) and take away his medical license. Through it all, Garfield persisted in his vision of affordable health care. Kaiser Permanente is the largest HMO in the U.S., serving over 8 million people.ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Paul Bernstein, MD, is a practicing Head and Neck Surgeon, Chair of the Head and Neck Division of the American Cancer Society, and founder of the Kaiser Permanente Historical Society. His novels have won awards at the San Diego Book Awards and the Asilomar Writers¿ Conference. He has appeared as a medical expert on Good Morning America, San Diego television, and was featured on the cover of MD Magazine.