F Read 0 17 "Living the Meaning of Life"

This is a book about the meaning of life.

Frankl, a famous psychologist, is a miracle in the 20th century. During the Nazi period, as a Jew, his family was put into Auschwitz concentration camp. His parents, wife and brother all died in the gas chamber, and only he and his sister survived. Frankl not only transcended this purgatory-like pain, but also combined his own experience with academics to create a meaningful Liao method, which found the meaning of rebirth for people and left the most glorious witness in the history of human nature.

Frankl was full of great enthusiasm for life all his life. At the age of 67, he still began to learn to fly a plane and got a driver's license a few months later. He climbed the Alps until he was 80.

It is difficult for us to experience the life in the concentration camp, but our spirit is often tortured by the concentration camp. On the contrary, some people have entered concentration camps and suffered from hell physically, but their spirits are still noble, independent and calm. There must be some secrets about life.

The author was taken to Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, where he experienced torture that ordinary people could not understand. What finally kept him alive was the meaning of life given to him in his heart.

As Nietzsche said, "People who don't hit you will make you stronger!" Frankl transformed Auschwitz's experience into psychotherapy.

When you feel that life has lost its direction, purpose and meaning, complaining, drinking and traveling may not solve your problems. What you need most at this time is to read this book and think about the meaning of life.

For those who have never experienced life in a concentration camp, it is easy to have a wrong sympathy mentality for those who have experienced it. Outsiders know nothing about the cruel struggle for existence among prisoners. This is a struggle for daily bread, for life and for friends. Every transfer (the end point may be the gas chamber) is a struggle. The most important thing is to cross out the names of yourself or your friends from the transfer list, although everyone knows that their victory means the death of another life. To the guards, prisoners are just a number. People have no time to think about ethical issues. Everyone has only one idea, and that is to live. Therefore, we will try our best to let another number take his place in the list.

When I saw the stop sign of Auschwitz concentration camp, almost everyone's heart suddenly stopped beating on the train. This means death. The prisoners filed past a casual SS officer, pointing casually to the left and right. The author tried to straighten up and look like a ghost when he passed in front of him. The officer hesitated and pointed to the right. Later, I learned that 90% of the people were pointed to the left that day, and everyone walked into the "bathhouse" with a bar of soap in their hands. It is actually an incineration chamber.

I took off my clothes, shaved my hair and took a shower. The author also tried to keep a scientific manuscript, which was called "nonsense" by the old prisoner. In the bathroom, everyone looked at the shower head anxiously, and when they found that it was real water, everyone relaxed. Make fun of each other and fight. Everyone found that only the naked body still belongs to them. At this time, a sense of humor was born.

What followed was curiosity. This cold curiosity is very strong. For example, the author often imagines himself standing naked in the cold wind and wet after taking a shower. What is the result? In the next few days, curiosity turned into surprise, surprised that I didn't catch a cold. A doctor even exclaimed: "The textbook is lying!" Because according to the definition of textbooks, we should have died a long time ago, but we are still alive! Many people who used to sleep very well, but now people who don't take a shower, brush their teeth, snore and thunder are crowded together, and they sleep soundly with mud shoes on their pillows.

Almost everyone wants to commit suicide, and the easiest way is to run to touch the power grid. Although it is not difficult to make a decision to commit suicide, suicide is meaningless. Therefore, after the first stage of panic, the prisoner is no longer afraid of death, even after a few days, the gas chamber is not afraid. Because the gas chamber can at least save them the trouble of suicide.

An old friend (who entered the concentration camp earlier than the author) said to the author: "If possible, shave every day, whether you want to use sharp glass or the last piece of bread for shaving tools. Only in this way can you look younger, and shaving will make your face rosy. The only way to survive is to look like you can work. If you limp with blisters on your heels, you will be sent to the gas chamber the next day. Shave, stand at attention and exert yourself, so you don't have to be afraid of poison gas. "

At first, prisoners couldn't bear to see others punished in public. This situation will change in a few days or weeks. Entering the second stage of psychological reaction, the prisoner's eyes will no longer avoid all this. Because his feelings are numb, he will stand still when he sees anything. Even when a 12-year-old child's toe was severely frostbitten and the doctor pulled out the black and necrotic part with tweezers, the onlookers felt numb.

When a person is dying, other prisoners will approach the corpse that is not cold yet. Someone took the rest of the mashed potatoes from the deceased and changed his shoes and coat; Even those who only get the strings will be complacent.

These symptoms will eventually make them indifferent to the frequent torture every day. It is because of this cold shell package that prisoners can really protect themselves.

When the subcutaneous fat is exhausted, prisoners, like skeletons, constantly feel that their bodies are beginning to consume our lives. Muscles gradually disappear and the body's resistance becomes worse. Several people in the hut died one after another. Everyone can accurately judge who will be next and when he will die. One day, when I saw a man who was usually very self-respecting and brave crying like a child, I knew that he would not live long. The reason why he cried was that his shoes were worn out.

Sometimes people who do heavy work get a piece of bread. The prisoners argued endlessly about how to deal with the bread given only one slice a day, mainly two factions. One school is in favor of immediate consumption. This has the advantage of not being hungry for a while at least once a day and preventing bread from being stolen. The other school holds a different view. They advocate dividing the bread into several parts. Finally, the author joined the team of the second school.

The prisoner showed unimaginable devotion to religion. The depth and vitality of religious belief surprise and move beginners. You can see the scene of temporary prayer together everywhere. These tired, hungry and ragged people huddled together and muttered to themselves.

People with rich spiritual life will have much less inner harm. They can turn the harsh external environment into a spiritual life with rich inner freedom. Only in this way can they show that the weak people in the concentration camp have stronger survival ability than those who look strong.

The author often thinks of his wife when enduring all kinds of strange torture. "Whether it is true or not, I firmly believe that her appearance is brighter than the rising sun in Ran Ran." Love is the highest goal pursued by human beings. The author understands the true meaning of the great secret conveyed by poetry, thoughts and beliefs: to save mankind is to love and be loved. People who have nothing in the world can understand the true meaning of happiness as long as they miss their lover for a moment.

The inner life of prisoners may be extreme, and they can experience artistic beauty and natural beauty that they have never experienced before. These beautiful women can even make people forget their present environment. Everyone enjoyed the sunset glow in Bavaria like a saint, and a prisoner sincerely lamented: "What a beautiful world!" " Prisoners who break the rules and individual officers will organize parties for everyone, and those who can make everyone smile will get some rewards. A guy who sang an Italian aria even got pea soup at the bottom of the bucket. Once, the head of the notorious "evil ghost" prisoner was invited to recite his own poem. The author bit his lip to prevent himself from laughing, which may have saved his life. The author took the lead in applauding, and was later really assigned to evil spirits. Fortunately, applause left a good impression on him.

Humor is another weapon for the soul to preserve itself. Humor can make people ignore hardships and get rid of any situation, even if it is only for a few seconds. The most common joke people tell is to assume that they still have the habit of living in a concentration camp after they are free. For example, if you attend a party and forget your free state, ask the hostess to "scoop a spoonful from the bottom of the pot!" " "

Prisoners in concentration camps dare not make decisions or take any initiative. This is because they strongly feel that everything has a destiny, so they should not try to influence it, but should follow it. Sometimes you have to make a decision that means life and death in an instant, sometimes it means death on the transfer list, and sometimes it is easier to die if you stay. The prisoner is more willing to let fate make this decision for him. Especially when deciding whether to run away.

There were not many people in the concentration camp, so the author was assigned to bury three bodies. They tried to escape. But just as he was preparing to transport the third body, the gate of the concentration camp was knocked open. A car painted with the red cross logo slowly drove to the playground. A lot of medicine boxes were unloaded from the car, cigarettes were distributed to everyone and photos were taken. Everyone is very happy. The guard suddenly became easy-going and tried to win our favor. But just when everyone felt free, a group of people were gathered and burned to death. Previously, the author and his friends complained that they did not get on the truck in charge of transshipment.

The most important experience for the prisoner who goes home is that after so much suffering, he is no longer afraid of anything except God, and that experience has an unparalleled wonderful feeling.

Prisoners in concentration camps generally show indifference, inferiority, jealousy and irritability. Distributing food often leads to group fights. Even the author often wants to hit people. In the face of this environment, do people still have a choice?

It turns out there is. We all remember those people who walked through every room to comfort others and gave their last piece of bread to others. Although there are not many such people, it is enough to prove that there is one thing that you can't take away from others, and that is the most precious freedom: people always have the freedom to choose their own attitudes and behaviors in any environment.

People are faced with a choice every day, either to keep their inner freedom or to give up their freedom and dignity and become standard prisoners. As Dostoevsky said, "I'm just afraid-that is, I don't deserve the pain I have suffered."

The author once witnessed the death of a young woman. She told the author, "Thank you for the heavy blow from fate ... I ruined my previous life, and I never seriously thought about spiritual perfection." She pointed out of the window: "This tree is my only friend in loneliness."

One day, trumpeter F told the author, "I had a strange dream, in which a voice told me that we would be liberated on March 30, 1945." F is a famous musician. He told the author hopefully that he firmly believed that he would be liberated on March 30th. As the days approached, F began to get sick and had a high fever. He fell into a coma on March 30 and died of typhoid fever the next day. The highest death rate in concentration camps is around Christmas. Not because of the epidemic, but because most prisoners naively think they can go home before Christmas. With the despair, the prisoners lost their courage and became depressed. This severely weakened the body's resistance and led to death.

To restore the prisoner's inner strength, he must be shown a future goal. Nietzsche said, "Only those who know why they live can survive." This can be the motto of all psychotherapists. These tasks (meaning of life) are different for everyone, so it is impossible to make a general definition. If you find that suffering is predestined, then you should take suffering as your unique task. Even when you are suffering, you are a unique and lonely person. For us, the meaning of life includes a broader cycle of suffering from birth to death. When a prisoner first arrived in a concentration camp, he reached an agreement with heaven: save his loved ones from suffering with his suffering. For this man, suffering and death are both meaningful.

Compared with psychoanalysis, logotherapy is less introspective and retrospective. On the contrary, meaning therapy focuses on the future and the meaning that patients should accomplish in the future. Logotherapy made the patient face up to and re-recognize the meaning of life, and made him realize that this meaning would greatly enhance his ability to overcome neurosis.

In a poll in France, 89% people admitted that people need "something" to live. 6 1% people admit that there is something in their life or they have given their lives until they want to. The result in Germany is only 2% different from this.

People's pursuit of meaning will lead to inner tension rather than balance. However, this kind of tension is a necessary prerequisite for mental health. In concentration camps, those who know that their lives have a mission to complete are most likely to survive. Mental health depends on a certain degree of tension-that is, the tension between completed and unfinished tasks, or the gap between current state and ideal state. This kind of tension is crucial to mental health. What people actually need is not a state without tension, but efforts and struggles to pursue a freely chosen and valuable goal.

The main manifestation of nothingness is boredom. Now we can understand Schopenhauer's words: people are doomed to wander between the poles of anxiety and boredom. In fact, boredom brings more problems than anxiety. Automation will lead to more and more leisure time for workers, and many people don't know how to use this large amount of leisure time.

Meaning therapy holds that responsibility is the essence of human existence. Meaning therapy tries to make the patient aware of his responsibility, so he must decide why he is responsible, what he is responsible for and who he is responsible for. Instead of asking the doctor. Meaning therapy is neither preaching nor praying, nor moral persuasion, nor logical reasoning. The role of the therapist is to broaden the patient's horizons and make him aware of all the potential significance of his life.

According to the meaning therapy, we can find the meaning of life in three different ways:

1. By creating a job or undertaking a career;

2. By experiencing something or facing some people (pursuing truth, goodness and beauty or falling in love with someone);

3. Have an attitude when enduring the inevitable suffering.

An old man came to frankl for consultation. He was in great pain and felt that he could not bear the pain of his wife's death. Frankl asked him, What will happen to your wife if you die before her? The old man said that she would be very painful. "So," frankl said, "your pain now is meaningful because it saves your wife from the same pain."

1. This is a book about psychological therapy. When you feel that life is at a loss, aimless and meaningless, complaining, drinking and traveling may not solve your problems. At this time, what you need most is to read this book and think about the meaning of your life.

The author often thinks of his wife when enduring all kinds of strange torture. "Whether it is true or not, I firmly believe that her appearance is brighter than the rising sun in Ran Ran." Love is the highest goal pursued by human beings. The author understands the true meaning of the great secret conveyed by poetry, thoughts and beliefs: to save mankind is to love and be loved. People who have nothing in the world can understand the true meaning of happiness as long as they miss their lover for a moment.

3. Nietzsche said, "Only those who know why they are alive can survive." This can be the motto of all psychotherapists. These tasks (meaning of life) are different for everyone, so it is impossible to make a general definition. If you find that suffering is predestined, then you should take suffering as your unique task. Even when you are suffering, you are a unique and lonely person. For us, the meaning of life includes a broader cycle of suffering from birth to death. When a prisoner first arrived in a concentration camp, he reached an agreement with heaven: save his loved ones from suffering with his suffering. For this man, suffering and death are both meaningful.

4. Meaning therapy focuses on the future and the meaning that patients should accomplish in the future. Logotherapy made the patient face up to and re-recognize the meaning of life, and made him realize that this meaning would greatly enhance his ability to overcome neurosis.

The more selfless a person is-dedicating himself to a certain cause or loved one-the more humane he is, and the more he can realize his own value.

6. An old man came to frankl for consultation. He was in great pain and felt that he could not bear the pain of his wife's death. Frankl asked him, What will happen to your wife if you die before her? The old man said that she would be very painful. "So," frankl said, "your pain now is meaningful because it saves your wife from the same pain." The meaning of frankl's life lies in "helping others find the meaning of life."