Viktor Emil Frankl (March 26, 1905, Vienna, Austria-September 2, 1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, founder of logotherapy. He survived from 1942 to 1945 in several Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau...
Blah blah... but let's go to the point:
"Everything can be snatched from a man, minus the last of human liberties: choosing his attitude in a given series of circumstances, choosing his own path. Can not we change the situation? If it is not in your hands to change a situation that causes you pain, you can always choose the attitude with which you face that suffering ".
A deep conclusion, right? For a person like me, who is absolutely in agreement with the fact that feelings can not be avoided, this statement represents a colossal philosophical clash. I remember that the first time I heard about this man in the psychoeducational talk in the psychiatric unit, I felt resentment. And now they do not come to my mind, but I have vague memories about the ton of excuses I used to counteract his argument, expressed by the psychiatrist who tried to give comfort to all the crazy and not so crazy people in the room. About that a while ago; One year, maybe two.
Today in physiology, at the beginning of his last class, one of the professors (there are several) became a philosopher before beginning with the functioning of the digestive system and he left us this sentence: "custom makes us live in a cage even knowing that the door is open". I do not remember who the author is and I honestly did not care too much, but in the middle of the tirade he related it to Viktor Frankl and his teaching of freedom and at that moment I understood the real meaning of "seeing things in a different light".
The self of about one or two years, angry with life, with the world, with people, could not understand how anyone could even conceive the idea of being right when you are wrong, you can decide! That seemed aberrant to me; For me, even now, what feels is felt, feelings can not be avoided. They are there, they come spontaneously, nobody invites them, they burst into your life and make it what they want. When I heard, at the end of the talk and after all the motivational phrases and "cheap psychology", that this man had been immersed in the concentration camps, that he had lost all his family there and that he had been left alone ... when the doctor made note that although in his life there was no sense left, he had the freedom to decide; I rebelled, I got angry, I felt that he made fun of people like me, sitting there, suffering the unreasonable, with nothing relevantly painful to tell, but still depressed and unmotivated. In my mind was the idea that we should not compare ourselves with others; one more excuse.
Today I realized that Viktor Frankl never left my mind, today when I heard the teacher ask if we had a habit of something
I realized that I was used to the idea that I was born to suffer for insignificant things. I realized that my anxiety and my depression more than neurotic diseases were a habit. And I did not want to leave them even though the door was open.
What makes us live in a cage even when the door is open?
Custom. The habit of complaining about everything, the habit of suffering, the habit of being alone or accompanied. The habit of not leaving our comfort zone. The habit of not deciding the attitude with which we want to face situations because if we let ourselves be carried away by the current, everything is much simpler. I have a reason to victimize myself and not do anything about it. I am afraid to admit that in all this time I have been mistaken and stumbling over the same stone over and over again. Afraid to discover that nothing works for me because I decide to suffer the facts and not for the facts themselves. I'm afraid of freedom. Afraid to recognize that I am the inalienable writer of my own history, although the arguments are given by life and not by me.
Today I realized that I do not want to continue in the cage. I do not want to keep complaining. I realized that I want to see everything from another perspective; the perspective that I decide to give it. I realized that I am tired of letting myself be overcome by the adversities that life has while I blame a kind of psychophysiological illness and I do nothing to remedy it.
Today I want to tell my exaggerated and obsessive feelings "enough". you are not going to tear me down anymore. Today, or perhaps for a long time without realizing it, I decide that I am responsible for myself. I am not responsible for the feelings I may have, but I am responsible for the impact they may have on my life.
Viktor Frankl is a kind of hero, an incredible person that people like me can not help but envy. It was envy that I felt that day. He was right. You can not help but feel the pain, but you can decide that suffering will not dominate you. Because you want to continue living above all things. Today I discovered that the life of Viktor Frankl did make sense, after all the pain that had to happen, his sense was to continue living, he wanted to continue living because he decided it was him, and not some psychopathic sons of bitches, the only one who had the right about his own life. Although they took away everything, absolutely everything, they never took away the freedom to decide that he wanted to continue living. And he wanted to live with an attitude that was worth it. It makes no sense to live between complaints and constant depressions, if you are going to live to suffer, then death is better.
I want to live happy, always mistress of my own will. Always mistress of me.
Thanks Viktor Frankl.