Book ‘‘ The man in search of meaning ’’
Not everything that textbooks say is true, this is something the psychologist Viktor and. Frankl learned in the worst possible way.
During World War II, thousands of people were sent to concentration camps against their will, psychologist Viktor and. Frankl was one of them, although fortunately he can survive to tell a little about his history, his experiences and what he learned and observed from the human being when he is in such difficult conditions as the one that the thousands of thousands ofprisoners who for several years passed through these fields. The author considers three great mental stages through which the prisoners had to pass: the first was his internment, the second was his life in the field and the third his liberation. Although many could not even reach the second.
First phase: Internment in the field.
For people who have never had to go through a similar situation, it is difficult for us.
The symptom that characterizes this first phase is shock: people were forced to get out of their homes with only a few belongings and make them climb to wagons where they could not even sit and without knowing what expected them in the following hours.
The first selection: when they arrived at the station I think the most technically difficult stage began ceased to be recognized as individuals and simply became a number. They began to separate them first by gender and then separated them as they saw that they could ‘serve them’ ’to work, the people who no longer could be able to work only arrived at this stage and were sent to the gas or cremation cameras.
At that time the psychologist Viktor and. Frankl that the human being begins to take mental protection measures such as humor and curiosity. Humor realizing that although they are in a horrible situation at least they were not worse like the gas cameras and a curiosity that became anxiety to know what would happen next.
Seeing the “ Capos ” tried to think that it would not be so bad since these men did not look so careless but shortly after they realized that they were wrong that these men looked in a better condition because compared to the rest ifThey had better living conditions although they were also prisoners, these were selected for how cruel they could become, they are usually said that these men came to occupy that position was because they had already lost their principles in the fight to try to survive,In other words, they didn’t care about anything or anyone, they were willing to resort to any means in order to save themselves. And in one way or another they were looking for a new attitude towards this new life that had to live, and this is something that all being human does, regardless of the circumstances in which it is either in a concentration camp or in theCurrent daily life will always present circumstances that remain out of our reach and we only have to choose what attitude we will take to face it.
Until that time they had taken away their name, their profession, their belongings, their clothes and even their hair, the only thing they possessed from that moment and throughout their internment was their naked existence.
They just had a few days to realize that textbooks lie, they were able to endure more than they said, for example the sleeping hours that the human being needs to survive, the energy that is needed to cope with some heavy physical activity (which provides food), the temperature that the human body can withstand with just a few garments, these people endured much more than the books had planned.
Another of the first psychological reactions suffered by the prisoners after several days in the field was to think about suicide, which I think was something very normal that every human being in those circumstances would think or at least the idea would happen to him by the mind, since they were so exposed to death, at any time they could touch a selection or it was enough to make a small mistake that made a guard disturb but as the exposure to death was so preferred to let it simply pass since thelikely to live were not many.
Second phase: life in the field:
The main symptom that characterized this second phase was apathy: there were a few days for reactions to begin to change, since the human being adapts to the conditions presented. At first the first reactions were sad to believe that they were in a nightmare, now realizing that it was not so and that this was their new reality began as a disgust or courage to wonder why is this happening to me tomy? And it begins to become indifferent to not find answers, it begins to make it normal for the guards to hit the prisoners for the minimum error, that partners die daily, that colleagues pass out of exhaustion.
This reaction is something that we can see daily we do not need to be in a concentration camp to create that indifference and the worst thing is that it happens without realizing, for example in Juarez something similar happens we have suffered so much violence in the city that without realizing it andIt is normal for us to kill people every day, it is already normal to assail us, it is already normal for women to disappear or be harassed in the street just by bringing a dress and we do not realize that this should not be normal, at first weIt gave sadness that these things happened now we see it as if nothing as if it were not a human being and we even blame the victims and all for indifference and custom.
The prisoners began to lose their humanity, that is, and what happened around them did not move it at all. But not everything that the apathy provided was bad, at least not in the concentration camp since they gave them a very necessary protective shell since somehow helped them cope with the daily blows that were presented to them.
There came a time when physical blows were no longer what hurt the prisoners if not the emotional ones, I suppose that living constantly with that they tell you that they are worth nothing comes a time when you come to believe that it istruth and that mental agony tires more than physical exhaustion. This is another reaction that we can see in today’s life, how many children and young people who suffer from bullying do not comment violent acts against themselves or against other people because they get tired and not so much of physical blows but of emotional strokes, they reach exhaustionmental that makes them commit those acts.
The psychologist Viktor and. Frankl that is easily understood that in a state of constant tension, tiredness and uncertainty of knowing if the prisoner will survive at a primitive mental level for example the desire to seek food, the prisoners resorted to that primitive instinct due to the malnutrition they suffered. This malnutrition was such that the body began to devour itself, the organism would digest its own proteins and the muscles disappeared leaving only skeletons. From this of this the author describes two schools of thought one that preferred to eat the bread rocion immediately after they were given this had the advantage of satisfying the worst turning of hunger and prevented them from stealing the portion and the second group preferredDivide the bread ration to give up all day.
Due to the hunger suffered by the prisoner came to a total abandonment of anyone that did not serve to fulfill the purpose of feeding, the only exceptions that is, other things that at least mostly interested prisoners was politics and religion. Politics because everyone is eager to know what happened with war if it was already ending and would be released and religion because it was like a way of being able to cope with the situation they lived. Here we can see another example of man’s behavior without having to be exposed to a field, in daily life it is said that people who are believers of some religion are easier to cope with a difficult situation. Either thanks to religious influences or not a man you can snatch everything except for one thing and it is the freedom to choose the attitude he will take on his way.
Although the prisoners reached a mental point of returning to their primitive instincts and that it seems that at such an extent the man only does his best to subsist adapting to what he has to do to survive in his environment is not so, even inSuch conditions Man always has the capacity for choice.
But then what is man? The psychologist Viktor and. Frankl says ‘’ is the being who always decides what it is. It is the being that has invented the gas chambers, but it is also the being that has entered them with firm step muttering a prayer ’’
With this we can say that man cannot simply be classified by something, it cannot be said that all guards in the field were bad just because they were guards or all prisoners were good because they were prisoners, simply simplyThey were men who made decisions only that some decisions were decent and others not.
Third Phase: Liberation
After several years of suffering and after having lost so many people finalend followed a state of total relaxation, they were finally free and even though they repeated it could not believe it felt it was unreal as a dream, they had already forgotten the meaning of that word, they had also forgotten the ability to rejoice but little by little they would haveto learn. One might think that when the prisoners were already released, they no longer suffered any danger but this was a mistake to have been so long under such a great mental pressure needed more care than ever. Being released did not mean that everything was going to be as before now had to face the reality that perhaps many of the people who loved were no longer and this is a very big blow since perhaps the hopes that that had thatPerson was none other than being with someone again and that it turns out that someone is no longer?, Will it have had any sense to endure all the suffering?, Does life now have a meaning?
To answer those questions the psychologist Viktor and. Frankl developed a theory called Logotherapy, he said that the man who accepted his destiny and all the suffering that he entailed will have the opportunity to give meaning to life and a meaning to that suffering.
Logotherapy:
The word logotherapy comes from the Greek term logos that means meaning, meaning or purpose.
The author developed this theory based on suffering that not only had to see but also feel during his internment in the concentration camp, after having lived this strong experience, trying to find a meaning for that suffering and so that he develops thisType of psychotherapy that focuses on the meaning of human existence, as well as in the search for said meaning by man, but has the particularity of seeking that sense through the suffering that has been experienced, that is, the logotherapy contributesTo understand the reason for suffering and dying and helps to have reasons to work, fight and love.
It also offers tools for care of existence that still remains in the seemingly more desperate situations: because the time of suffering may not be a place of darkness but can be used to reinforce love for life.
The meaning or love for life according to the psychologist Viktor and. Frankl constitutes a primary force and not a ‘secondary rationalization’ of its instinctive impulses.
Personally, I think it is a good way to see life, you do not need to be in a concentration camp to suffer or know what suffering is never suffering to have to suffer in some way that I feel that I lose the meaning of my life,But even for any daily problem I think the logotherapy could be used since it may not be able to control the problem but I can definitely control the attitude that best helps me to cope with it.
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