Biographical Sketch
Viktor Frankl was a man who survived the concentration camps during the Second World War. Before he was a prisoner of these camps he was a psychotherapist, and during his stay at these camps he came to analyze pretty much the idea of ‘mind over matter’. As he was stripped of his lifelong works, research, clothing, belongings etc. his brutal and dreadful experiences at the camps drove him to recreate these works. His overall beliefs were described by one word, logotherapy. After his experiences he wrote this book about them and what he witnessed. He made it clear however, that he wasn’t sharing this for the publicity, to relive it, or even for consolation but instead to really emphasize his views about the power our minds
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Some of the content of this book really makes your stomach turn. The picture of shared suffering is very vivid and Frankl describes three stages that he watches every prisoner experiences one way or another. These stages are 1) the shocked stage as they arrive 2) some type of mental protection where they took on natural survival and learned how to react to camp life and 3) freedom, where they’ve gotten so used to camp life that being released seems a bit unreal. After Frankl mentions being let out of the camps, he then uses this to emphasize the second part of the book; logotherapy. Logotherapy is explained as a practice used to find meaning within ones’ life and taking responsibility for it. According to Frankl it’s hard for many to find their true meaning because too many variables come in to play. Some people don’t have the will to have meaning, as were others make up their meaning based off personal desire (usually materialistic; money, for fun, etc.). He says that there are 3 main ways to find meaning. 1 is by giving back to the community, or world by expressing yourself. 2 is pretty much experiencing something or someone (loving them) and 3 is our mindset when we experience inevitable hardships. Frankl’s overall perspective is that everyone has a meaning. It may not jump …show more content…
(Especially this ‘YOLO’ generation, pathetic.) We’d like to think that we’re living life for the moment and all, but is that really something you’ll look back upon from your deathbed and say “doing these things gave me a sense of purpose”? Or are you going to say “that was all meaningless and it was pretty much time wasted”? It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and want the money, the power, the fame etc. but it’s important to look at the long run. Putting it into perspective of years down the line is one thing, but years down the line from a deathbed that’s a big game changer. If today I asked myself that and thought that maybe I wouldn’t be fond of my choices looking back on them, then I’d change them. I wouldn’t want to be like the lady from the example who recognized my life was a
The insight of Frankl’s ideas and meaning, have helped the other inmates physically and psychologically survive under the inhumane abuse. This is why the author and main character Viktor Frankl affected me the most during my reading of these torturous experiences. Whether he was curing ones typhus, or causally giving advice to the other prisoners, he was always thinking of others, and was seen as a courageous figure to the other individuals at the camp. For example, on page 58 Frankl talks about how he will be escaping the camp with his friend. He states how he checked on his patients one last time before his freedom and saw the sad look in one of his deathly patients eyes. He felt unsatisfied with leaving his hopeless patients and then began to tell his friend that he could not leave camp. He stated, “I did not know what the following days would bring, but I gained an inward peace that I had never experienced before. I returned t...
This demonstrates that the prisoners are part of a system where the needs of the collective are far more important than the needs of the individual (in both communism and in the prison.) It also reveals the corruption of the Soviet Union because it while it claims that everyone should be equal, the life of the prisoners in the camp are not valued at all. This could be due to the fact that prisoners in the camps aren’t viewed as people, but rather as animals that are being worked to their death.
The unimaginable actions from German authorities in the concentration camps of the Holocaust were expected to be tolerated by weak prisoners like Wiesel or death was an alternate. These constant actions from the S.S. officers crushed the identification of who Wiesel really was. When Wiesel’s physical state left, so did his mental state. If a prisoner chose to have a mind of their own and did not follow the S.S. officer’s commands they were written brutally beaten or even in severe cases sentenced to their death. After Wiesel was liberated he looked at himself in the mirror and didn’t even recognize who he was anymore. No prisoner that was a part of the Holocaust could avoid inner and outer turmoil.
In The Meaning of Lives by Susan Wolf, she states, “They [people] want to be important, to have an impact on the world, to make a mark that will last forever. When they realize that they cannot achieve this, they are very disappointed. The only advice one can give to such people is: Get Over It”(846). Which is a statement I do not agree with. Many people are determined on making a difference in this world, whether it is small or large. Although, of course, every journey isn’t easy and it consists of many bumps along the way, which, in one of those bumps, could easily bring one down to think one cannot achieve our goal. That we cannot make a difference in this world. But no one should simply say to them “get over it” and make them think this.
Logotherapy focuses on the unique situations a certain individual is facing, as each person responds to psychotherapeutic treatment differently. In fact, logotherapy itself is not a traditional form of psychotherapy. Logotherapy extends far beyond what traditional psychotherapy is able to treat (Costello 7). Rather than looking into the psyche of an individual, logotherapy looks deeper: It peers into the patient’s soul. In the book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl describes logotherapy as a “meaning-centered psychotherapy” (98). By this, Frankl means that rather than emphasizing the patient’s inner desires and thoughts, logotherapy seeks to help the individual find purpose in life.
In his book This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tadeusz Borowski shows how the conditions and situations that the prisoners were put through made them make a choice that most humans never face. The choice of compassion and concern for ones fellow man or only loving and caring for one’s self. This may sound harsh people, but after seeing, hearing, smelling and feeling the things they did in camp, it was the only way to survive physically and mentally. The narrator in the book makes the decision numerous times and suffers from these choices as he
It gives facts and real life story living on this camp. This is actually someone real life story. When Jeanne dad left the family, the family could not bear. Living on the camps it was dusty, cold and windy. Jeanne states at the end that, “Even though her dad was a drunk, the way he drives—like a madman—actually inspires Jeanne with confidence to get past her fears of what life might be like outside of camp”. Growing up with all the racism remarks and surroundings was not easy and it has not been easy learning to remember and talk about her experience at the camp, but she overcame her fear. Jeanne has finally let it be free and be known. She now feels more better than ever about this. Also, even though Americans did not like Japanese she still married a
Although our past is a part of who we are nowadays, we will never be happy if we can never let go of the painful feeling attached to our suffering. In addition, “suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us” (Wiesel 96). We should not be afraid to let go of our haunting past and grow closer to others because “man carries his fiercest enemy within himself. Hell isn’t others. It’s ourselves” (Wiesel 15). The wise advice this book gives its audience is one reason it won a Nobel Peace Prize. The books are also part of a very famous Holocaust trilogy, which is one reason it has been so widely read. In addition, it blends everyday stories with Holocaust stories.Therefore, readers are very compassionate towards the narrator and readers create a bond with this character due to his hardships and the similarities he shares with us. Lastly, Day speaks to the needs of the human spirit by intertwining a love story. Readers wonder if his girlfriend will change his attitude towards life because he tells the doctor, “I love Kathleen. I love her with all my heart. And how can one love if at the same time one doesn’t care about life” (Wiesel
Through segregation, loss of identity, and abuse, Wiesel and the prisoners around him devolve from civilized human beings into savage animals. The yellow stars begin separation from society, followed by ghettos and transports. Nakedness and haircuts, then new names, remove each prisoner’s identity, and physical abuse in the form of malnourishment, night marches, and physical beatings wear down prisoners. By the end of Night, the prisoners are ferocious from the experiences under German rule and, as Avni puts it, “a living dead, unfit for life” (Avni 129). Prisoners not only revert to animal instincts, but experience such mental trauma that normal life with other people may be years away.
I’ve known so many people who have had their lives cut short unexpectedly. You never can really know when your last day is, so why waste it doing things that don’t make you happy? So many people settle for less, just because it is easier and more comfortable. Life is short to begin with, and it can be cut even shorter at any possible moment. I think people should take risks and aim for the things that will ultimately leave them satisfied with their life.
Bullying has had a major increase over the past years, resulting in a lack of sense of self-importance in many children. This can cause a multitude of problems such as suicide, psychological disorders like depression, and increased school dropout rates. Logotherapy is a psychotherapy, based on helping one find purpose in everyday life. By helping one find self-importance in life, it could potentially help people continue to push through tough times with issues like depression or bullying. Victor Frankl a neurologist and psychiatrist developed Logotherapy while in a nazi concentration camp observing many other slaves. Frankl took notice that the slaves around him that survived did not focus on what was happening to them at that moment but was focusing on the future and there purpose in life to continue to push through there troubles. Frankl survived through the camp by obtaining his meaning in life and focusing on life outside the camp. Thus came Logotherapy.
What I found is that if one were to sit down, and think of their future realistically, they could certainly find an approach on life that will not cause one to regret the...
Sigmund Freud is one of the most influential people of the twentieth century for exploring the human mind more thoroughly than anyone before his time. His contributions have become embedded within the vocabulary of western society not only influencing psychology, as well as literature, art, and the parenting mechanisms of everyday people. He is the founding father of psychoanalysis which is often known as the talking cure, a method for treating mental illness and a theory which is intended to explain human behavior. He articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression, and he proposed a theory of the minds structure. Freud’s innovative treatment of human actions, dreams, and cultural artifacts has had
... both sides if an issue, because there are usually two sides to every story. But by looking at Frankl and examining what he has to say about the meaning of life, suffering, love, frustration, boredom, tension, etc, I have rally gained a lot of knowledge that almost is common sense. If you sit and take the time to read the material through thoroughly you can see exactly where he is coming from. He’ll take a difficult situation, such as suffering, and turn it completely around. As far as suffering goes I try to do the same thing, in a way. When Mark Felice died last October it crushed me. But I tried to look at the positive side and say well, his suffering is over and he was here to teach us how to live to be stronger and better people. Through our suffering, over the loss of his life, we ended his suffering. This is kind of what Frankl does, he turns things around and makes you view things from a different perspective. I like his way of thinking because it’s not always something that I would think of off the top of my head. Overall, I enjoyed the book although it was difficult at times to read, but I think I gained knowledge from it and see different ways to look at things now.
I feel that if you have a life that is acknowledged by other people, you have taken the full opportunity of living and made an impact on the society in which you are a part of. That impact could be viewed as positive or negative, but still continues to leave behind some form of an impression. There are many ways to look at how one could make an impact on society. To me, this could be possible by viewing how your society operates, and seeing what the purpose of that livelihood is. I feel that a lot of people go through life following the normal routines of the sociocultural norms, and spend their time doing something they have no personal interest in. This relates back to Socrates accepting death rather than imprisonment or exile, as there is no self-purpose to either of those penalties. It can be seen in many societies today, including America. There are many people who relinquish their dreams to live a more practical life. In my opinion, Socrates would be disappointed in some of today’s generation for not taking the time to dedicate themselves towards their aspirations. Humans today have seemed to lose a lot of the pioneer aspect of their personalities. My general view is that people early in age are raised on the concept that any of their dreams are attainable and that they should strive for them. As people start to develop into young adults they are encouraged to