On Victor Frankl- Taken from the philosophy of mental health Copyright Robert Fullarton 2009

 On Victor Frankl-  Taken from the philosophy of mental health

Copyright Robert Fullarton 2009

Viktor Frankl, survived the monstrosities of Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, was made a mere dehumanising number, left to bury the dead and to work to his extinction.  He was also left to starve in the squalor for the human will to hate. He indeed contemplated the force by which humans can act and perpetrate when they focus their tiny little minds on the narrow thoughts of hatred. The greater potential to love is rid, the sight of nature is banished, as the concrete constructs, walls, watchtowers, the grey prosaic sculptures built by human hands for the hideousness of human civilisation went up when hatred is actively at work for the destruction of other peoples. Creativity is banished, individuals become mere numbers, humans burn in the furnaces that belch the charred remains of entire families into the air, that is the setting for Frankl’s greatest test, his long drawn moment for self revelation, for courage and determination. He simply wanted to live, had accepted the fact the possibility of immanent death and yet he surrendered to the memories of his beloved wife, his days as a psychologist before the war and his observations from camp life and how one had to adopt or simply die to the camp routine. 

Perhaps it is true that when life seems close to us, it is clear that it is waiting to be shattered or driven from us, all the same the irony is known to us, the invidious acceptance, is the warmest embrace as childhood memories, coming flooding back and feelings of love and gratitude come into being, we have a worthy perspective that all the petty products, accessories and possessions for which we showed our malice and insatiable lust for, have been removed, we have been cleansed of sloth and pride and now we are content to merely live for the basic reasons of wonderment and happiness. In such cases an individual becomes a child and the arrogance of the ego is humbled forever more.  His story is one of accepting fate, a story of how he had through his own mind, to readjust himself, to set goals on a daily basis –however small or mighty they may be and how he stated that he wanted to find meaning, even in these bleakest moments, to find meaning and reason for survival. Despite the acknowledgement Frankl made, that both his wife and parents had been murdered, while was still incarcerated, he still affirmed to life, to the notion of surviving the most horrific experiences one can possibly experience, he still sought meaning and sought for hope in any way possible.

Frankl was one of the blessed one’s, truly blessed indeed, his camp was liberated in 1945 by the advancing American army in Germany. He kept his head down, he laboured and he examined his own experiences and his own life. His greatness as a psychologist came in this case study, and this was the case study of his own existence and the universal sense of human suffering and how one individual can fight, can accept and nourish their mental capacity in a state of turmoil and immediate suffering. The transitory state of pain and suffering can be escaped by a momentary search for the cathartic meaning of self-assertion. Frankl’s meaning came with his psychology,

His power to transcend momentary disorder and his ultimate longing, to tell his story for the inspiration and the courage of others –who may be imprisoned in a state of misery and pain- to overcome their struggle and assert their meaning. 

With the work of Frankl, one sees with an omnipotent awareness, when one has survived the train wreak, ventured past the wilderness of pettiness, to see the grander picture. In such examples human society comes full circle or perhaps it is elongated and it evolves beyond the human notion of strength and weakness. The tiniest of things become luxuries and blessings when one craves to simply live. Then life itself is the art within the process.

 Frankl himself stated that one chooses one's thoughts and that is the foremost freedom and perhaps can be the final and only freedom we have when we are condemned and hated for being ourselves for the unreasonable beliefs of madness and murder -which make all notions of logic go out the window- then we have our thoughts and our beliefs tucked up in our heart, they can come out in moral choices and commitments.