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proplems of motivation
proplems of motivation
The power of motivation
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Why do people choose to live in the past rather than pursue a possibly greater future? This can occur due to a fear of the coming days, months, and years ahead that await. People would rather think and engross themselves in memories then have any sense of direction for the the inevitable passing of time. While every age is unique, “The Collective Neurosis” states the problems that can arise from not believing that people can escape, improve, or adapt to their environment. A person’s environment can be described by where they live and grew up, their socioeconomic status, and even their current mental state. These conditions can have dramatic effects on one’s personality, beliefs, and overall outlook on life itself. This potential nihilism that …show more content…
A excruciating pain, like the loss of a family member or close friend, may cause a person to lose faith for better times in life. This particular source of pain was seen all too much during the Holocaust. Between eleven and seventeen million people lost their lives in concentration and work camps all across Europe including Frankl’s own family. For the ones that this tragedy directly affected, their past occasionally became their present and future: “To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is free to take a stand towards the conditions” (Frankl 130). Frankl explains that while people have the ability to change their outlook on their surroundings, it’s often difficult to escape the aftermath of horrific events from the past. Humans cannot control when, where, and how they were raised. All these factors play a crucial part in the development of one’s personality and behaviors. Your view on life can either help you progress or halt your success in finding your meaning. A person who is lost in their past will not glimpse into the possibilities of what the future hold for them. Instead they will only be in a continuous state of nihilism and lack the motivation to have any type of future at
When in America, Helen found that it was hard not to talk about past and the stories of her imprisonment. “Some survivors found it impossible to talk about their pasts. By staying silent, they hoped to bury the horrible nightmares of the last few years. They wanted to spare their children and those who knew little about the holocaust from listening to their terrible stories.” In the efforts to save people from having to hear about the gruesome past, the survivors also lacked the resources to mentally recovery from the tragedy.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness,” Desmond Tutu once said (“Desmond Tutu Quotes”). During the Holocaust, the Jews were treated very badly but some managed to stay hopeful through this horrible time. The book Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer shows how Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck who had two very different stories but managed to stay hopeful. Helen was a Jew who went into hiding for awhile before being taken away from her family and being sent to a concentration camp. Alfons was a member of the Hitler Youth where he became the youngest member of the German air force. To him, Hitler was everything and he would die any day for him and his country. As for Helen, Hitler was the man ruining her life. The Holocaust was horrible to live through but some managed to survive because of the hope they contained.
“Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” (Wiesel 2006, p. 34) Elie Wiesel is a humanitarian but better known as a holocaust survivor and the author of the book Night. Elie recounts the horrors of his experience throughout the book and revisits times which he had not touched upon in years. His book initially only sold a few copies but later on through this renewed interest, Elie Wiesel’s book skyrocketed to fame and he started his journey in his humanitarian activities which in turn earned him a Nobel peace prize and resulted in his famous speech, Hope, Despair, and Memory. In Elie Wiesel’s speech, Hope Despair and Memory Elie Wiesel reminds us through his use of pathos and ethos as a speaker of the despair that humankind can create, but through our recollection and memories obtained from such despair we can summon the future with hope of change.
Elizer’s personal account of the holocaust does not merely highlight the facts of the holocaust: millions suffered and the event was politically and religiously motivated, but provides an in depth investigation to what a person endured mentally, physically, and emotionally. Beginning as a teenager, Elizer thought highly of God and of his own beliefs, however, that quickly diminished when he was put into a system of sorting and killing people. During the holocaust, Elizer was not the only person to change; almost everyone suffered and changed differently. The stressful and harsh times affected Elizer just as they affected the person working next to him in the factory. Elizer quickly began to question everything “I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?” (Wiesel 32). Although Elizer forms this mentality, he also finds the will to survive, to protect his father, and to not turn into the people that were aro...
In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, narrates his experience as a young Jewish boy during the holocaust. The Jews were enslaved in concentration camps, where they have experienced the absolute worst forms of torture, abuse, and inhumane treatment. Such pain has noticeable physical effects, but also shows psychological changes on those unfortunate enough to experience it.These mutations of their characters and mortality showed weaknesses of the Jews’ spirit and mentality, leading them to act vigorously and being treated like animals. However, these actions proved to Jews that the primary key to surviving their tortures was to work selfishly towards one another.
Having a grasp of mental transcendence can aid all people to survive great personal grievances. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Dr. Frankl discovers that this method of coping with the pain and horror of the Holocaust is the only way to survive such a traumatic event. One scene has Dr. Frankl trying to sleep in his bunk with the other prisoners when a man next to him started to scream in his sleep. Frankl is about to wake him up from the nightmare but, at the last second, does not. This is because he realizes that no dream or nightmare can be worse than their current reality. As awful as that sounds, Frankl is correct in thinking that anything co...
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
Some people say that living through hard times can make you stronger. It is a crucible that you come out of with a more powerful soul. In the memoir Night, by Eliezer Wiesel, Elie and his family are sent to concentration camps throughout Germany. Eliezer is employed to do very taxing jobs in these camps, and he is rarely given any ration of food or rest. This essay is meant to evaluate these horrific events and how they affected the author, Eliezer Wiesel. Throughout the Holocaust Eliezer matured faster and more than anybody should.
How can one keep hope in the darkest of nights? Eliezer Wiesel found and lost hope throughout his life during the Holocaust in a traumatic and heartbreaking story. The chance that he would end up in Auschwitz was beyond his control, but he quickly learned how to make decisions while in camp: keep quiet, eat the soup (even if you don’t like it), and do everything in your power to stay with who you came with. Elie wanted to believe that he could control the events happening around him, but he ended up losing his childlike view of the world in an instant. Survival was the game, anything to stay alive was the play.
Freedom, is part of the human nature that we all seek to gain. Whether it be because of political reason or some other factor, human beings do are obliged to do things such as moving to a different country or hide to gain their most deserved freedom. Every human being has their natural born rights. However, some people believe that any freedom is conditioned and limited by a different and certain situations. In the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktore E. Frankl, the narrator, Frankl dreams of the day he was going to be free again. After being taken to the Auschwitz Jewish camp by the Nazi, Frankl found himself dreading his existence. Along with many others, Frankl experienced one of the most horrific experiences that existed in human history.
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
Viktor Frankl, the author of the novel Man’s Search For Meaning, a holocaust survivor and also known for his theory of locotherapy, explains the hardships that the holocaust brings while living in a concentration camp. Throughout his experience, he confesses that it is hard to have hope and faith in order to live. He gave strongly worded advice to other inmates and was also a doctor to the victims. He is seen as a powerful, bold, and courageous character towards everyone he meets. His stories and incidents that occur throughout the novel portray locotherapy, which is described as the search for meaning in life. By setting goals and looking toward the future can help to push through hardships such as the holocaust.
The essay is somewhat of a short autobiography of Frankl’s life, accomplishments, and the affects the holocaust had on him. However, the biggest part of this essay is Frankl’s position on pursuing happiness. To paraphrase he states the pursuit of happiness is pointless and to do so prevents one from accomplishing the very thing they’re in pursuit of. He expressed that obtaining happiness has more to do with having a meaningful life than the immediate happiness or enjoyment one can have from obtaining materialistic items, money, and fame. Frankl further states “happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue”. Translation, happiness happens or occurs afterward as a result of an action. This passage further supports my position on the relationship between death, wisdom, and happiness as it illustrates the need to get from start to the end in order to manifest meaning thus obtaining
a past when things were better, or, paradoxically, infinitely worse. Finally, there is the vision of the future along with the denial of the present: the hope that
The hindsight bias, as defined in the article Hindsight Bias and Developing Theories of Mind by Andrew N. Meltzoff and Geoffrey R. Loftus, occurs when “people armed with advanced knowledge of an outcome overestimate the likelihood of that particular outcome, in essence claiming that they ‘knew it all along’” (Meltzoff). People who are victims of this very common bias can be drawn to the idea of going to the past to fix all of their problems because they live in the present. Knowing what the present holds, people believe that if they went back in time, they could change the future and, in turn, have a better