H. Herrestad & S. Biong attempt in the earlier versions of the International Classification of Diseases, and this category covers self-harm both with and without suicide intent. Therefore, we chose to study patients hospitalized for intentional self-harm. Our pre-understanding of hope was influenced by Day’s (1991) philosophical analysis of hope; a person hopes for something when he/she wants a future state of affairs to be realized, and he/she believes it is possible but not given that it may be realized (Herrestad, 2009). We were inspired by Dufault and Martocchio’s (1985) distinction be- tween a belief in future beneficial but indeterminate developments (generalized hope) and a concern with a particular valued outcome or goal (particularized hope), and cutting across this distinction the follow- ing dimensions: Affective: Feelings related to the goal, feelings related to uncertainty of the goal. Cognitive: Identification of goals, assessment of probability of reaching goals. Behavioural: Planning, decisions and actions taken to reach goals. Affiliative: Relational goals, relational ways to fulfilling the goals. Temporal: Time (un-)specific goals, short/long term, memory access. Contextual: Circumstances occasioning activation of hope, testing of hope. hope, The aim of this study was to interpret the lived experience of hope in some patients hospitalized for intentional self-harm. The central research question was how meaning is constructed in the narratives of hope by persons that have recently engaged in suicidal behavior. We chose a phenomenological hermeneutic approach in order to capture the manner of narration of these patients of their thoughts and experiences rather than attempting to fit their narratives to pre-structured categories. Therefore, we used semi-structured interviews, where the interviewer pursued a phenomenological approach to listen carefully to what was said and ask follow up-questions rather than use diagnostic categories. In the analysis, we have chosen an inductive interpretation process in order to let the words of the patients speak for them. We were looking for what common theme could be found in their narratives. Methods Participants In a general hospital (Aker University Hospital in Oslo), 12 patients, two men and 10 women, were interviewed after being admitted for ingesting an overdose of medication. The patients were selected during the psychiatric interview done by a psychia- tric liaison officer. The inclusion criterion was that the patient was diagnosed as having done an act of intentional self-harm according to the International Classification of Diseases version 10. Patients under 18 years or above 60 years, unable to give informed consent, or in need of an interpreter, were excluded from the study. Data collection The interview guide was designed in a semi-struc- tured format to ask about the patient’s reflections on the various dimensions of hope described above (Dufault & Martocchio, 1985). We asked about the hopes they entertained during the crisis and at present. After the first six interviews we made a preliminary analysis. We learned that much of the narratives gathered so far were about hopes during the crisis and less about hopes at present. We then changed the interview guide asking more about their hopes in the present situation. The first author conducted all interviews one to seven days after submission at the hospital. The first author has a background in philosophy and philoso- phical inquiry, and he did not keep diagnostic categories in mind during the interviews. The temporal proximity to the suicidal crises was sought in order to overcome recall bias, and because of the common clinical experience that patients are more willing to talk openly about what happened imme- diately after the event. Each patient was interviewed once for approximately 1 h. Interviews were taped with a digital recorder and transcribed by a research secretary. Interviews 1 6 were made in February and March 2006, interviews 7 12 between October 2006 and June 2007. As we were researching the patients lived experiences, the only data available to this project were the recordings and interview transcripts. Ethical considerations This study was approved by the South Norway Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics (S-05329, 30 November 2005). Person-identifiable data have been deleted from all stored transcripts. The patients included in the study were informed about the project orally and in writing. They were 2 (page number not for citation purpose) Citation: Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being 2010, 5: 4651 - DOI: 10.3402/qhw.v5i1.4651