2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 16:05
Many of us, yes, have heard something about the outstanding psychotherapist, the founder of logotherapy (therapy for the search for meaning) Viktor Frankl, a man who, by personal example, proved about the existence of "inner freedom" inherent in every person.
Freedom, which no one can take away or strangle, since a person is a creature who constantly makes decisions, including about whether to submit to circumstances, become a victim of chance or preserve "stubbornness of spirit", having found his own meaning of life, his own "Lighthouse" illuminating the path …
I learned about V. Frankl in the first year of study at the Faculty of Psychology, I got acquainted with his theory and personal history in the second, but I read his greatest creation, the thoughts and hopes of writing which so warmed his soul in those inhuman, cruel conditions through which he had to go through, being just - only 119104 in a concentration camp - a machine aimed at destroying humanity and humanity in each case, only now.
And I realized - this book is incredible! The story set out in it is terrifyingly amazing, no matter how paradoxical it may sound!
The meanings inherent in each line are incredibly life-affirming!
It is definitely about vital for life, pardon the tautology!
There were many feelings during the reading: empathy, pain, sadness, admiration, and even love …
Some phrases, sentences evoked insights, detached from further reading and made you think, withdraw into yourself and be with what the reading brought with it …
There were moments when I wanted to highlight, write out, post some thought on social networks, I wanted to create a separate quotation book based on Frankl. Although, for sure, someone has already done this (I admit, nevertheless, and I did it while writing the article).
Therefore, I decided to write this text, highlighting the main "bricks" or come up with your own name, in one word, supports that allow a person to find himself, preserve and LIVE, namely to live, not survive, exist or imitate this very life that V. Frankl offers !
Here they are, and a number of quotes from the author himself, of course:
1. Spirituality, which includes:
- « Withdrawal into oneself »- the opportunity to return to inner life, introspection and self-reflection;
- Faith;
- Love - "that final and highest that justifies our existence here, that can elevate and strengthen us!"
"A person who no longer has anything in this world can spiritually - even for a moment - possess the most dear to himself - the image of the one he loves!"
Ability to perceive the beauty of nature or art;
“When we moved from Auschwitz to the Bavarian camp, we looked through barred windows at the peaks of the Salzburg mountains, illuminated by the setting sun. If there were someone at this moment our admiring faces, he would never have believed that these are people whose lives are practically over. And in spite of this - or is it precisely why? - we were captivated by the beauty of nature, the beauty from which we had been torn away for years"
Strength of mind, dignity and dedication.
As you can see, in order to live a person needs to believe in something, hope for something and love someone. Frankl puts these concepts into the concept of spirituality, as well as the strength of the spirit, which grows on the basis of spirituality and thereby enriches it!
2. Humor - "a weapon of the soul in the struggle for self-preservation"
"Humor, like nothing else, is able to create a certain distance for a person between himself and his situation, to put him above the situation, even if … and not for long."
3. Loneliness - as an opportunity to be alone with yourself, with your thoughts. As Ulyana Shubko, the author of one radio program, once said wonderfully about her loneliness: to perform "… priesthood with your soul!"
4. Inner freedom - "freedom to relate to circumstances, either one way or another." Freedom as an opportunity to choose your attitude to what is happening, your thoughts and feelings about it.
4 … Confronting fate - not as resistance, but as overcoming, striving for something greater, for the desired, for the vital!
"Man always and everywhere opposes fate, and this opposition gives him the opportunity to turn his suffering into an inner achievement"
5. "Attempts to look into the future" - visualization and presentation of what you want as if it has already happened, as if you already have what you are dreaming of!
"This technique helps me to rise mentally above reality, considering it as if it is already in the past, has already passed …"
6. Purpose: “Whoever has a“Why”will be able to withstand any“How”(F. Nietzsche)
6. Installation to the fact that "even the most difficult situation gives a person the opportunity to internally rise above himself"
7, Understand that life asks us questions, not we ask her and our task is to give answers to them.
"The specific situation requires him to either act and try to actively shape his destiny, then take the chance to realize (in an experience, for example, in pleasure), value opportunities, then simply accept his destiny."
8. Responsibility to others or to deeds
“A person who has realized his responsibility to another person or to a deed, it is on him, is entrusted, will never give up life. He knows why he exists and therefore he will tolerate any how."
And finally, I would like to quote such a capacious definition given by V. Frankl:
"Man is a being who always decides who he is!"
And, in general, read "Say to life" Yes! " and perhaps find your meanings in what you read, learn more about Frankl and his experiences during his stay in a concentration camp, maybe something else …
But, this book will not leave you indifferent for sure!
