Recent developments in the understanding and assessment of hope and psycho-emotional expressions of illness for people with Multiple Sclerosis

There is a need to consolidate recent developments in the area of hope, psychological adaptation and emotions as factors which are central to understanding the experience of illness. One-way research has achieved this is through a deeper understanding of illness narrative master plots (common stories of illness). This chapter provides an overview of the most recent developments in the concept of hope, psychological adaptation and illness narratives master plots for people who have a clinical diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The chapter introduces; (1) understanding generalised hope for chronic illness, (2) the factors that influence hope, (3) the model of emotional adjustment and hope (MEAH) and (4) illness narrative master plots and how they are mapped on to the MEAH.