“You can recognize the dominance of the ego by the need for control. For example, when you want certain people to behave in a certain way. To make this happen, you use specific patterns of behavior. For instance, you are compliant, pleasant, and you try never to hurt anyone’s feelings. Behind such behavior lies the […]
“Among the things that seem to deprive human life of meaning is not only suffering, but also dying. I never tire of repeating that the only truly transitory aspects of human life are its potentialities. But at the moment they are realized, they become realities; they are preserved and handed over to the past, where […]
“Certainly, the human being is finite, and his freedom is limited. It is not freedom from conditions, but freedom to take a stand toward the conditions. As I once formulated it: ‘As a professor in two fields – neurology and psychiatry – I am fully aware of the degree to which the human being is […]
Here are more reflections shared by the founder of logotherapy, Viktor Frankl, from his book Man’s Search for Meaning. This time, the theme is the choices we make in difficult situations, because it is precisely then that we discover whether we live what we preach. “Sigmund Freud once claimed: ‘Let someone try to subject a […]
Viktor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy, was once asked by an American physician what the difference between psychoanalysis and logotherapy was – in a single sentence. Realizing how impossible it was to answer such a complex question in one sentence, Frankl replied that he would tell him, but only if the doctor first told him, […]
“The existential vacuum manifests itself primarily in a state of boredom. We can now understand Schopenhauer when he says that mankind is apparently condemned forever to vacillate between the two extremes of excitement and boredom. It is a fact that today boredom causes, and certainly confronts psychiatrists with, more problems to solve than excitement. These […]
Logotherapy is a method of psychotherapy created by the Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor Frankl. According to him, the search for meaning is the primary motivation in human life, and when this need is not fulfilled, human beings suffer. In order to describe the specificity of this form of suffering, and to distinguish it from […]
“It is easy to hate and difficult to love. This is how the world is structured, and how things within it work. All good things are difficult to achieve, and bad things are very easy to obtain.”— Confucius The opposite message is just as valid. Osho, for example, writes that striving toward difficult things is […]
“If you do not align yourself with God, you cannot perceive Him.” — Unknown Author The opposite is also true—one must bow very low to be able to see the face of God. However, if this is your thought for the day, do not bow down, but stand tall. Feel with every cell of your […]
When I speak of faith as a source of inner strength that helps us endure the greatest pain in our lives, I do not mean religious faith. I mean spiritual intelligence, which arises from inner knowing rather than from belief in rules imposed by an external doctrine to be followed. Perhaps this was best […]
“Pain purifies; suffering gives understanding.”— Osho “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.”— C. G. Jung In the world of the Spirit, pain is sacred because it has meaning – it brings understanding and purifies the heart. A spiritual teacher – Osho – and a psychiatrist – Jung – are saying the same thing: […]
A primary characteristic of a mentally healthy person is the successful integration of the “shadow” side of their psyche and the achievement of inner wholeness. The defining trait of an enlightened person is exactly the same—they are whole. And the glue that binds our fragmented parts together is called love. Thaddeus Golas: “There is no […]
