[Surprising ability to handle bad news. A study of how cancer patients create hope]

The article discusses findings in a study where malignant glioma patients were serially interviewed to determine how they constructed new perceptions of reality when confronted with the diagnosis. Although most of the patients were aware that the tumour posed a grave threat, they were also able to find refuge and hope by using various cognitive strategies. The process, that draws on various resources (the body, supportive relationships, cognitive schemata, and information processing), is discussed in relation to adjacent psychoanalytic theory, and is regarded as an expression of the 'intermediate area' of mental life, which is proposed as theoretical point of reference in discussing How to tell cancer patients.