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Viktor Frankl Biography

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“A man's suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative.”

SufferingRelativity
Book:Man's Search for Meaning
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“Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. Now, how could I help him? What should I tell him? Well, I refrained from telling him anything but instead confronted him with the question, 'What would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive you?' 'Oh,' he said, 'for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!' Whereupon I replied, 'You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering—to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her.' He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left my office. In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

SufferingSacrificeMeaningMourning
Author:Viktor Frankl
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“Not every conflict is necessarily neurotic; some amount of conflict is normal and healthy. In a similar sense suffering is not always a pathological phenomenon; rather than being a symptom of neurosis, suffering may well be a human achievement, especially if the suffering grows out of existential frustration... Existential frustration is neither pathological or pathogenic. A man’s concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease. It may well be that interpreting the first in terms of the latter motivates a doctor to bury his patient’s existential despair under a heap of tranquilizing drugs.”

Mental HealthExistentialismAnti Psychiatry
Book:Man's Search for Meaning
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“What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life--daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. “Life” does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simple to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand. When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.”

Man S Search For Meaning
Author:Viktor Frankl
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“We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—hourly and daily. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the task which it constantly sets for each individual.”

ExistentialismHolocaustCounselingMan S Search For Meaning
Author:Viktor Frankl
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“Delle altre sorprese su quanto ognuno di noi poteva sopportare, ricordo solo che per tutto il tempo passato nel Lager non ci lavammo i denti e, nonostante la grave carenza di vitamine, le nostre gengive furono più sane di prima (anche di quando ci nutrivamo di cibi sanissimi). Oppure: per sei mesi portavamo la stessa camicia finché non la si riconosceva più, neppure con la migliore buona volontà. Non fu possibile lavarci, neppure sommariamente, per giorni interi, perché la tubatura dei bagni ea gelata, ma nonostante le ferite alle mani, sporche per i lavori di sterro, nessuno ebbe piaghe purulente (salvo quando si facevano sentire gli effetti dei geloni). E ancora: un uomo che prima si sveglia per il lieve rumore proveniente dalla stanza vicina e non poteva riaddormentarsi, qui dormiva accanto ad un compagno dal cui naso, a pochi centimetri di distanza dal suo orecchio, risuonava un potentissimo russare, e cadeva in un sonno profondo non appena si sdraiava. Comprendemmo presto quanto fosse vera la frase di Dostoevskij che definisce l'uomo come l'essere che si abitua a tutto. Qualcuno potrebbe chiederci se e fino a che punto è vero che l'uomo può abituarsi a tutto; la risposta è affermativa, ma non chiedete come...”

AuschwitzEsistenzialismo
Book:Man’s Search for Meaning: Postscript - The Case For Tragic Optimism
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