The book "Man's Search for Meaning" written by Victor E. Frankl, which started with the concentration camp experiences, with its descriptions of the concentration camp that reminds us of the Zimbardo experiment; It turns our eyes towards the Second World War in a striking and impressive way. The most blood-stirring part is that this is not an experiment and is about a number of experiences and experiences that can be considered almost autobiographical.
The book, which also includes a quote from Dostoyevsky such as "Human beings get used to everything, but don't ask how it is", shows many of the prisoners. It is said that they can go without sleep for hours, go without food for long hours, and still survive despite the wounds on their bodies. When a prisoner comes to warn the others and points to Frankl and says 'You are in danger, you look weak', a truth is grasped: Prisoners who are not strong enough to work can be sent to the gas chamber at any time...
The tension caused by the cold in the shoes, every time The pain felt on foot, the filth in the barracks, the sleeping of many prisoners together at night, hunger, even physical and psychological torture, none of them can be greater than the pain the prisoners feel when they think about their relatives and think about what they are doing now and whether they will ever see them again.
While talking about normal reactions to an abnormal situation, Frankl states that prisoners trying to adapt to camp life go through almost the same phases as traumatized people. The first phase is a temporary state of insensitivity and apathy that comes after the shock phase and resistance. The prisoner is no longer affected by anything; Even a twelve-year-old boy coming to the infirmary with frozen fingers, as mentioned in the book! Frankl mentions that the loss of emotion in this stage is a necessary defense mechanism and that there is a great focus on protecting one's own life. However, the desires of the camp residents appear in their dreams, which sometimes include a hot bath and a good meal, and sometimes they see the day they will leave here.
Frankl talks about the terrible contrast of dreams and reality. While some of them provide short-term satisfaction of impulses, there are emotional problems that will occur when you wake up and face the truth. He mentions that the cliff will not be good for the person's resistance level at that moment. This is similar to a dangerous action that leads to contradictions, such as prisoners giving recipes to each other.
These people, who deeply experience the feeling of hopelessness, are in a cultural hibernation, as Frankl puts it. Although individuals' ways of coping with this situation were different from each other, their common denominator was that they suffered the same pain and thought about their loved ones and their past lives in a corner of their minds. One part of the book that impressed me the most was Frankl's wife, who came to his mind one day when the prisoners were walking in the freezing cold with commands and kicks to go to work. “Truth: the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire is love.” This moment, dreamed and described by Frankl's wife, fell on the second world war as our tears.
Logotherapy with its General Principles p>
Logotherapy: Logos: It is a Greek word meaning meaning. Logotherapy is basically; “The quest to find meaning in one's own life is the fundamental motivating force in humans.” In this respect, it emerges as a meaning opposed to Freud's pleasure principle and Adler's quest for superiority. Frankl argues that the fundamental motivation in life is the search for meaning. Man claims that he has the ability to live and die for his own ideals and values.
If man's will to meaning is blocked, then logotherapy speaks of existential frustration. Existential frustration is not pathological in itself, nor is it pathogenic. A person's anxiety and despair about whether life is worth living is an existential anxiety.
The term 'existential' is used in three ways: 1) To describe oneself, that is, the state of being human; 2) For the meaning of existence and 3) As the will to meaning to find a concrete meaning in personal existence.
From Frankl's reference to Nietzsche in the book, "one who has a reason to live can endure almost any how." Based on its narrative, it describes that having a goal and a meaning in life increases one's threshold of endurance even against the tension of concentration camp conditions. (This situation exists in Frankl in the form of his deep desire to complete his scientific work.) ()
According to the theory that states that tensions are structural in humans and that mental health is indispensable: "In order for humans to find the meaning of their own lives, they must not hesitate to challenge themselves, struggle freely for their goals, and make choices on the paths of life." .” What is needed is not to relieve tension, but to discover potential meaning.
According to Frankl; Patients, who lack the awareness of a meaning worth living for, approach the concept called existential emptiness, together with the emptiness within themselves.
Existential emptiness: basically it manifests itself as boredom and causes human behavior to change due to the fact that instincts and traditions do not tell him anything about what he should do. It leads to desire what others do or to do what other people want him to do (totalitarianism).
What is the Meaning of Life?
Again, only man can answer the question of the meaning of life andThe addressee of this question is the person himself.
The Essence of Existence says, "Live as if you were living for the second time and as if you had acted wrongly for the first time, as you are about to do now!" It can be explained with the sentence: We can no longer touch the past, moments are passing by every moment. This phrase, which stimulates the sense of responsibility, confronts the patient with a choice about what to do.
Logotherapists do not impose value judgments on the patient, they leave the essence of the person's life to himself and stay away from judgments.
Logotherapy According to him, the meaning of life can be discovered in three different ways:
By creating a work or doing a job;
By experiencing something or interacting with a person;
By developing an attitude towards inevitable pain.
Frankl gave a more detailed explanation of the 2nd and 3rd articles and explained the meaning of the 2nd article. He wrote that it is related to loving a person. In the 3rd article, he talks about the meaning of pain and that human beings have the potential to turn even a personal tragedy into a victory.
People's search for meaning varies according to their value judgments and lives, and life Atta makes choices and the responsibility for these choices belongs to the person himself. Logotherapy, which argues that human existence is fundamentally temporary, follows an activist path, not a pessimistic one, on this issue. His perspective on the theme of old age: "The most definitive proof of existence is that something has happened." is happening. The facts, meanings and experiences of the past create people's meanings and save them from the warehouse of nothingness.
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