{"id":150974,"date":"2011-06-27T08:38:01","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T05:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/espirited.com\/the-challenge-of-joining-the-minority\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T16:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:00:06","slug":"the-challenge-of-joining-the-minority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/espirited.com\/en\/the-challenge-of-joining-the-minority\/","title":{"rendered":"The challenge to join the minority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are more reflections shared by the founder of logotherapy<\/a>, Viktor Frankl, from his book Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSigmund Freud once claimed: \u2018Let someone try to subject a number of very different people to hunger under identical conditions. As the imperative drive of hunger increases, all individual differences will be effaced, and in their place will appear the uniform expression of the one unsatisfied instinct.\u2019 Thank God, Sigmund Freud was spared the experience of getting to know the concentration camps from the inside. His patients lay on couches made in the plush style of Victorian culture, not in the filth of Auschwitz. There, \u2018individual differences\u2019 did not \u2018disappear\u2019; on the contrary, people became even more different; they took off their masks \u2013 both the swine and the saints\u2026<\/em>\u201d
\u2014 Viktor Frankl, Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Frankl gives the example of a man who was later canonized as a saint for everything he did for others during his time in the concentration camp \u2013 a priest named Maximilian Kolbe. When I read about him, I think of life in \u201cdifficult\u201d countries \u2013 such as Bulgaria. We sometimes complain about life here and dream of living in some other \u2013 clean, wealthy, and well-ordered \u2013 country. And although the difference between life here and the life in the camps Frankl writes about is incomparable, the principle is the same: life under difficult conditions gives us the opportunity to take off our masks and make our choice.<\/p>\n

I know of foreigners who, after coming to Bulgaria, begin to throw rubbish in the street \u2013 something they would never do in their own clean and orderly country. And I know Bulgarians who pick up the rubbish left by others because they choose to live in cleanliness. This is a small example of practicing choice in accordance with one\u2019s deepest inner values, rather than in accordance with external conditions. If we look at our life in this way when it is difficult, we may more consciously choose who we want to be and whether to join the minority<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Frankl continues:<\/p>\n

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\u201cPerhaps you are inclined to reproach me for referring to examples that are exceptions to the rule. \u2018Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia rara sunt\u2019 (\u2018But everything noble is as difficult as it is rare\u2019) is the last sentence of Spinoza\u2019s Ethics. You may, of course, ask whether we really need to call them \u2018saints.\u2019 Is it not enough simply to call them decent human beings? It is true that they are a minority. More than that, they will always remain a minority. And yet it is precisely here that I see the challenge to join the minority. For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become even worse unless each one of us does the best he is capable of.<\/em>\u201d
\u2014 Viktor Frankl, Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is evident that to make the difficult choice in a difficult situation is the hardest way to create oneself by embodying the values one has chosen. That is why Frankl\u2019s account of the heroism of people in the camp is such a powerful source of inspiration.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAustrian researchers in public opinion recently reported that those held in the highest esteem by most of those surveyed are neither great artists, nor great scholars, nor great politicians and athletes, but those who meet a harsh fate with heads held high.<\/em>\u201d
\u2014 Viktor Frankl, Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is all for today \u2013 a small reminder from V. Frankl to hold our heads high and, if we are in a difficult situation, to give the best of ourselves. To make the difficult choice by finding meaning even in suffering.<\/p>\n

Kameliya<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are more reflections shared by the founder of logotherapy, Viktor Frankl, from his book Man\u2019s 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. \u201cSigmund Freud once claimed: \u2018Let someone try to subject a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[646],"tags":[653,698,673,699],"class_list":["post-150974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-intelligence","tag-how-changes-happen","tag-logo-analysis","tag-various-psychotherapies","tag-viktor-frankl"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t