Reading should be an adventure, a personal experience full of serendipitous surprises. It always has been for me. Some days I will be just reading away and a sentence almost jumps off the page and smacks me in the face. And I wonder 'how did the author get inside my head?'Sometimes there will be a truth, a great truth, something so obvious I wonder how no-one in my life ever mentioned it before. They did of course but I hadn't dipped into that particular honeypot, or wasn't tuned in to that particular wavelength. I have already blogged about Viktor Frankyl and his wonderful book, my new bible, 'Man's Search for Meaning'. I've bought twelve copies of the book at this stage and am giving it to everyone who crosses my path and appears to need it. Slightly odd perhaps (what Evelyn? you? odd?!) but there are weird and wonderful forces out there around this book. Jemser says its all coincidence and I'm reading meaning into random shit. Perhaps.
Today I called into my sister Aisling - who tells me I'm an intellectual ( I'm not -in fact I had to check the dictionary before I wrote it down). Ais reckons anyone who can understand algebra with or without the aid of milk bottles (don't ask- it's a story worthy of an entire blog)is an intellectual-I'm not. However I have realised lately that for some reason I do dwell on the meaning of life rather more than is healthy for one, but I think it's better than wondering who is going to win X Factor or 'I'm a twit...get me out of here' or any of the other 'reality' shows cranked out by TV companies intent on keeping the masses in ignorance. If Karl Marx were about he would change his saying to 'TV is the opium of the people'.
I've digressed, mea culpa.
Back to serendipity.
As I left Aisling's house and headed for the M1 I passed a group of young people collecting at traffic lights for funds to help tackle youth suicide. I had no cash in the car but I handed the young woman the book. I hope she reads it, I hope it helps her or someone close to her, for I said it before and I'll say it again, it is a life changing book. And if in handing that book to a pretty girl at a traffic light I have helped comfort her or helped dry her or someone else's tears it will be another blessing on Viktor Frankyl and his work.
If I drew you in Kris Kindle (don't you just hate that fella!) you know what you're getting for Christmas.
Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Man's Search For Meaning
Read a great book last week. A powerful, life-changing book.
It's written by a man called Viktor Frankyl and titled ‘Man’s Search for Meaning.’ A slight little book, only about 160 pages. The first half is an account of the time the author spent in Auchwitz during the Second World War. A survivor’s story. I have read many such books, from the poignant, powerful non-surviving Anne Frank, to ‘Sophies Choice’ to Elie Weisel and Fania Fenelon.
But for some reason Viktor Frankyl’s book hit a deeper chord with me than any of these other terrible, wonderful books. I think it is because it is not so much an account of his time in the camps but an account of the philosophy that got him through such terribleness. He survived because he quite simply accepted everything that happened to him. Tried not to baulk and despair. A sort of ‘Que Sera’ attitude, although not quite as trite as that. It’s a wonderful story, a story of the resilience of both the human body and spirit. In it he talks about all the things people thought were not possible before the camps. Things like, under no circumstances could people sleep in the cramped conditions they were forced into, they did. People could not survive on the tiny amounts of food they were given, they did. People couldn’t survive in the bitter cold and under the excessive hard labour they were forced to perform. They did.
Viktor Frankyl is a psychiatrist and after the war he went to America where he practises and teaches. He used his experiences to develop a therapeutic system called logotherapy and the second half of his book is a brief description of this therapy. It is basically the same message all great men have given us since time began. Live in and for the moment. Do not look forward or back. Accept what Life throws at you and try to enjoy where you find yourself in each moment that you live. It is not unlike the ‘Mindfulness’ that Jon Kabaat-Zin advocates, trying to be aware of oneself in each moment that we breathe
.
Mr Frankyl is an interesting man and his therapy is an interesting premise. A highly recommended read.
It's written by a man called Viktor Frankyl and titled ‘Man’s Search for Meaning.’ A slight little book, only about 160 pages. The first half is an account of the time the author spent in Auchwitz during the Second World War. A survivor’s story. I have read many such books, from the poignant, powerful non-surviving Anne Frank, to ‘Sophies Choice’ to Elie Weisel and Fania Fenelon.
But for some reason Viktor Frankyl’s book hit a deeper chord with me than any of these other terrible, wonderful books. I think it is because it is not so much an account of his time in the camps but an account of the philosophy that got him through such terribleness. He survived because he quite simply accepted everything that happened to him. Tried not to baulk and despair. A sort of ‘Que Sera’ attitude, although not quite as trite as that. It’s a wonderful story, a story of the resilience of both the human body and spirit. In it he talks about all the things people thought were not possible before the camps. Things like, under no circumstances could people sleep in the cramped conditions they were forced into, they did. People could not survive on the tiny amounts of food they were given, they did. People couldn’t survive in the bitter cold and under the excessive hard labour they were forced to perform. They did.
Viktor Frankyl is a psychiatrist and after the war he went to America where he practises and teaches. He used his experiences to develop a therapeutic system called logotherapy and the second half of his book is a brief description of this therapy. It is basically the same message all great men have given us since time began. Live in and for the moment. Do not look forward or back. Accept what Life throws at you and try to enjoy where you find yourself in each moment that you live. It is not unlike the ‘Mindfulness’ that Jon Kabaat-Zin advocates, trying to be aware of oneself in each moment that we breathe
.
Mr Frankyl is an interesting man and his therapy is an interesting premise. A highly recommended read.
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