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Pathological Optimism
What Is Pathological Optimism?
A commentary by Victor Perton, that Optimism Man
“Pathological optimism.”
That expression caught my eye while I was reading an interview with Dr Selwyn O. Rogers Jr. It is how he describes his outlook on life and leadership.
Dr Rogers is a distinguished trauma surgeon, public health leader and the new chair of the Lown Institute. Working on Chicago’s South Side, he sees the consequences of violence, inequality and barriers to healthcare. Yet he also sees people caring for their families, doing good work, supporting their communities and rebuilding their lives.
“I actually have pathological optimism,” he says. “And everyone can be redeemed.”
His optimism does not deny suffering or structural injustice. It grows from witnessing human courage, goodness and the capacity for redemption in the midst of them. He sees goodness generating more goodness: one helpful act encourages another until, as he puts it, “It just snowballs.”
Read the Lown Institute interview.
What does pathological optimism mean?
“Pathological” is normally a clinical term suggesting disease or abnormality. Here, it is being used playfully to describe optimism so persistent that other people might regard it as excessive.
In my earlier essay on pathological optimism, I explored others who have adopted the description.
Mayo Clinic cancer specialist Dr Rafael Fonseca calls himself a pathological optimist as he works towards a future in which multiple myeloma can be described as curable.
Lawrence W. Reed told me that he had always been “an optimist at heart, perhaps a pathological one”, an outlook he believes has served him well.
Australian economics writer Ross Gittins has also described himself as a pathological optimist, emphasising that optimism is not merely inherited. It can be a conscious choice.
Despite their different fields, they share a strong and persistent belief in possibility.
Is pathological optimism dangerous?
Taken literally, pathological optimism could suggest wishful thinking, denial of evidence or confidence detached from reality. Those forms of optimism can be dangerous, especially in medicine, public policy and leadership.
That is not the optimism Dr Rogers describes.
He faces brutal realities directly. He acknowledges structural violence, barriers to care and the failures of the American healthcare system. His optimism gives him the confidence and energy to work on those problems rather than accept them as inevitable.
This is realistic optimism at its most determined. It faces reality, sees possibility, believes in human potential and strengthens purposeful action.
Optimism grounded in people
What makes Dr Rogers’ account especially powerful is its source.
His optimism is not based on a prediction that everything will turn out well. It is renewed by observing what people already do: love their children, care for their neighbours, work, pray, persevere and offer thanks even after terrible experiences.
It is also grounded in the possibility of redemption. People are not permanently defined by the worst thing they have done or endured. They can choose to help others, and their actions can reverberate through families and communities.
Pathological optimism, understood this way, is not blindness to suffering. It is a refusal to let suffering have the final word.
Is your optimism persistent enough to be called pathological? How might you put it to work today?
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