Frankl 

Frankl

Have you ever read Viktor E. Frankl?

My therapist recommended his groundbreaking work on "Man's Search for Meaning". The book is written in two parts, the first a look into the mind of concentration camp prisoners. Frankl himself was detained and kept in several camps including Auschwitz where he developed a modern psychiatric approach called logotherapy.

The second part of the book deals with a lecture of logotherapy.

The essence of logotherapy is this: no matter the constraints, no matter your situation, no matter what freedoms have been removed from you, you (humans) have the ability to always choose your attitude in any given situation.

A quote from Frankl:

"A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understand how a man who has nothing in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievment may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way - an honorable way - in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory."

I find this theory fascinating. I try to use it and adapt it my situation. When I feel empty, rejected, alone or sad, I use this. I visualize 'us' together in that park on that warm fall day. I think about giving her the fresh sunflowers, sharing in complete bliss with her. I use this technique and it works. I hope you, the reader finds value in this man's work. I have.

Viktor E. Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning
ISBN: 0-671-02337-3

-dave