| Genre: Non-fiction Summary: Viktor E. Frankl (1905 – 1997) was a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School. Between 1942 – 1945 he was one of the many prisoners of Nazi labor camps — that’s where he developed his theories about suffering and how people can endure more if only they have some meaning to their lives, something they still need to do. Frankl has established a new branch of psychiatry, one that he called logotherapy, and that had as an object helping people find their own purpose and meaning in life. |
While this is not the first book that details life in concentration camps, I was nevertheless shocked to find out about the Capos — some prisoners that enjoyed more rights than others, sort of guardians appointed from amidst the detainees. Thing is, these Capos were often more harsh and more brutal than the actual guardians, and this sort of gives me the creeps. I mean, they (the Capos) were in the very same boat as the other prisoners, they knew exactly what they went through daily… and then they act just as savage as the rest? Sort of painful to think about.
Actually, Frankl himself observes that in order to remain alive in a concentration camp one had to give up humanity shred by shred:
On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were prepared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles -whatever one may choose to call them -we know: the best of us did not return.
This “feelinglessness” installed itself little by little. It is perhaps worth noting that while at first Frankl (and the others) suffered when hit not only because of the pain but most of all because of the sheer injustice of it, in a few months’ time he ends up finding all the atrocious crimes around him as something that just is, something that does not shock, does not scare, does not impress in any way.
Luckily though life, not even the one in concentration camps, is not that bleak. The prisoners still had the part of them that enjoyed art and beauty very much alive. Albeit their art was rather grotesque (as obviously they had no access to real art, they had to improvise all sort of things), it was still art and made them forget their “frightful circumstances”. Also, a very important role in the fight for survival was humor’s (“It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.“). To me it seems like a very impressive feat, to be able to laugh in the midst of death and starvation — but people did it, and people kept sane.
While studying the behavior of the other inmates, plus (of course) his own feelings, Frankl has reached the conclusion that later had as a result the creation of logotherapy:
There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.
It is worth noting that there is no actual recipe for finding one’s meaning in life — everything varies according to a person’s temperament, surroundings and capabilities. That meaning can involve people (someone wanting to live to raise his kids, someone looking forward to being reunited to a loved one), or even things (wanting to finish a masterpiece, for example). In other words, it can be rephrased as a person setting tasks for himself and then fighting to fulfill it (the tasks, of course, being something very important to the person who chose them, nothing trivial like say “buy bread” or “clean the house”).
To keep the previous analogy, the role of logotherapist is to help a person find that task worth fighting and worth living for. As Frankl himself puts it:
A painter tries to convey to us a picture of the world as he sees it; an ophthalmologist tries to enable us to see the world as it really is. The logotherapist’s role consists of widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the whole spectrum of potential meaning becomes conscious and visible to him.
What I liked most: The book has some really thought-provoking ideas. One of my favorites was something along the lines of “the richer a man’s inner life, the happier that man is”. I have also liked this very much (and yes, I’m pretty certain I heard it before):
[...]everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
What I liked least: Frankl says that the term “logotherapy” comes from the Greek “logos”, which he says means meaning. I myself did not know “logos” to mean “meaning”, but something related to speech (which is why all through the book everytime I read about logotherapy I imagine some branch of psychiatry related to talking not meaning). I’ve looked it up on Wikipedia and here’s what it says there:
Logos (pronounced /ˈloʊːgɒs/) (Greek λόγος, logos) is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion. It derives from the verb λέγω legō: to count, tell, say, or speak.[1] The primary meaning of logos is: something said; by implication a subject, topic of discourse, or reasoning. Secondary meanings such as logic, reasoning, etc. derive from the fact that if one is capable of λέγειν (infinitive) i.e. speech, then intelligence and reason are assumed.Its semantic field extends beyond “word” to notions such as “thought, speech, account, meaning, reason, proportion, principle, standard”, or “logic”.
So, while obviously Frankl was correct in using “logos” with the sense of “meaning”, that is a bit far-fetched and I would really have preferred he had named his branch of “brain science” something else. A silly thing to say, I know, but that’s how I feel. Well, who am I to criticize anyway? :)
Recommend it? Yes. It’s not very long and it’s quite interesting.
Yet another quote I liked:
From this one may see that there is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past-the potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized -and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.
The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.
Popularity: 7% [?]
