A serious matter – but one worth understanding: Frankl’s Logotherapy – in the search for meaning and the self.
In the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo laments to old Gandalf that the mission he has undertaken is beyond his strength.
Frodo: “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish it need not have happened in my time,”
Gandalf: “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
This short dialogue of the two Tolkien heroes shows how the perspective on difficult situations, which are experienced in our lives, affect the experience of the crisis and the motivation to overcome it. For Frodo the past is difficult to accept because there is linked to it a feeling of guilt for situations which didn’t go his way. This weakens his motivation to fulfil the task entrusted to him, which he took on of his own free will. Gandalf rectifies the false belief of Frodo about the necessity to control the reality surrounding us, showing the events in which we participate, especially those bringing inevitable suffering, often does not depend on our will or choice. We do have an influence on this, how we use time which is given to us, and we therefore make a decision: to run away or to fight.
According to logotherapy, a person always has the possibility to pierce every failure and tragedy with victory. Yet, between pathological masochism and escaping from suffering, there is one other way – to discover its meaning. So states Victor Frankl:
“ . . . . can life retain its potential meaning in spite of its tragic aspects? [. . . ] And this in turn presupposes the human capacity to creatively turn life’s negative aspects into something positive or constructive. In other words, what matters is to make the best of any given situation.”
Frankl speaks of tragic optimism (Latin: optimum – the best), that is optimism in the face of tragedy – in spite of the tragic trinity: pain, guilt and death – when human potential is able to: a) change suffering into success and accomplishment; b) to discover in guilt a change for the better; c) to see in transient and passing life the motivation to act responsibly.
Every situation of life has a hidden meaning, which gives it value, even if it seems tragic in its consequences. The Concentration Camps and events of World War II often proved to be a context for Christian radicalism and heroic attitudes which revealed the victory of the spirit over matter, the heart over reason, eternity over mortality. Acceptance of everyday experiences without this in-depth perspective makes the experience of pain unbearable, the feeling of guilt takes away the will to live, and the fear of death paralyses the functioning of the person.
Kazimierz Popielski, a priest and psychotherapist, notes that the lack of sense in life manifests itself in:
- A lack of commitment to values;
- Treating the world in an immature, reductionist and selective way;
- A lack of purpose and responsibility;
- Understanding suffering as failure of life, or its negation;
- Accepting an attitude of masochism or resignation;
- Loss of hope.
These factors can give rise to a noogenic (spiritual) neurosis whose cause is an existential conflict, and which has the same symptoms as a psychological neurosis (resulting from physical conflict). A person experiences anxiety, physical and emotional disorders, as well as behavioural disorders, but their source is existential. Failure in life, a is state of unfulfillment, inappropriate experience of suffering, and consequently abandonment of effort and struggle. “What matters,” noted Frankl, “is to make the best of any given situation.” To make the best of pain is to “transform a personal tragedy into a triumph” by facing it with dignity and honour. “In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” To make the best of guilt is to welcome it as an opportunity to change for the better by making different choices in the future. To make the best of death is to embrace the challenge it poses and to make the most out of every moment of our lives.
