The late Harold G. Wolff, a deeply insightful physician, wrote an article in the Saturday Review of Literature more than a decade ago called "What Hope Does for Man." In it he commented,
... prolonged circumstances which are perceived as dangerous, as lonely, as hopeless, may drain a man of hope and of his health; but he is capable of enduring incredible burdens and taking cruel punishment when he has self-esteem, hope, purpose and a belief in his fellows.
Wolff's statement is called to mind by a communication in a recent issue of the Archives of Environmental Medicine,1 in which Levinson, of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, points out that a person's work environment can be "emotionally toxic." Every human being must cope with four major feelings: feelings of love and hate, feelings about being dependent, and feelings about one's self-image. Each person evolves consistent ways of managing