Tags
7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Holocaust Survivor, Stephen Covey, Torture, Trauma, Viktor Frankl
Today I’ve been handed a fresh perspective on all the trauma etc that I’m dealing with.
Note: Apologies in advance if this comes across as advertorial in any way. I promise its not! Believe me, I’m just as surprised as anyone reading this, that I’m writing a post on this topic.
Through my work, I was sent on a course called “7 Habits of Highly Effective People“. There are a series of courses based on a book of the same name by a guy called Stephen Covey. As a point of interest – apparently Mr Covey is something like 85 years old!!
I’ve been sent on a number of different ‘self improvement’ courses over the years throughout my career. They have always seemed rather tacky, or lacking in any real power to help you work your shit out. So I wasn’t overly enthused when I was ‘volunteered’ to attend something that was going to take me away from my job for three whole days.
Whilst I’m writing this after day one of a three, so far I’m quite impressed with what has been presented.
One of the many points we discussed today was around the choices we make in our lives. The fact that we can’t control what other people do, but we can control how we respond to their actions.
For those who, like me, are dealing with mental health issues… this is a very interesting proposition. I didn’t get the chance to question the facilitator in more detail today but I plan to. I mean, this course was aimed at a group of people working in the corporate world. Sure, we looked at how the principals of the course apply to both our personal and professional lives, but not, say, how you apply them to an incident of trauma or abuse. Or when a flashback appears. You know.
Anyway, this post is actually about one of the stories used to illustrate the ‘choices’ point. And this is when we were introduced to a man called Viktor Frankl. I’d never heard of him before and I wondered how many other people are also in this boat? In summary, he:
- was born in 1905
- was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist
- was a Holocaust survivor
- was an author of numerous books on mental health
- died in 1997
His wife and family were tortured (as was he). At the end of the war, only Viktor and his sister survived.
Viktor’s work on psychotherapy evolved out of his death camp experiences based on observations like:
“If a prisoner felt that he could no longer endure the realities of camp life, he found a way out in his mental life – an invaluable opportunity to dwell in the spiritual domain, the one that the SS were unable to destroy. Spiritual life strengthened the prisoner, helped him adapt, and thereby improved his chances of survival.”
~ From wikipedia
As I said, I haven’t had the chance to question the course facilitator yet – on exactly how far they think this idea of choices can extend when dealing with mental health. And whether they’ve done any work in the mental health field. But I will.
Yet – hearing about Viktor Frankl was both inspiring and humbling. This man survived Nazi death camps, torture and the death of his loved ones. Apparently, he survived all of this by keeping a vision of how he was going to help others when he finally got out. Oh, and doing his utmost to support his fellow prisoners whilst still imprisoned himself.
Ofcourse, there’s nothing I’ve ready so far that mentions his state of mental health – how he handled what must have been some really intense shit!! You know what they say about therapists being the ones who need the most help? Well, he can’t have come out of that situation completely okay, right??
Assuming my last point is true, then we can see that just because a person is suffering from depression, PTSD or other related issues… doesn’t mean you can’t live a full and happy life. A useful life. One in which you help others.
I’ve been making new acquaintances in this blogosphere, and realising that there are many of you out there who are in that same boat and do try to make a difference. I guess in Viktor’s case, the higher the stakes, the higher his motivation – or something like that?
I’m inspired, and I just thought I’d share. And I’ll keep you posted on anything else I uncover on my course.
~Svasti
Svasti: A Journey From Assault To Wholeness 
I am a big fan of steven Covey’s works and in fact own both the Seven Habits and Living the Seven Habits books. As well as have the audios of his talks somewhere.
One of my most valued lessons I learned from the Seven Habits is that between action and reaction, that is between a stimulus and your response, there is a time – no matter how small it may seem – in which you can choose your response. I will be blogging on this soon when I talk about “Zen And The Enlightened Response”, a post detailing two times in my life where I have gone against not only my first knee jerk reaction but even my (negative side of my) own nature and reacted in a way that was mature and conducive to growth.
~Shiv
Ok now I feel silly! Dug out my book and flipped to the section that dealt with the “Between Stimulus and Response” theory, and guess what story was there illustrating it? That’s right, Victor Frankl! Doh!
~Shiv
The thing I most remember about Viktor Frankl is the work he did after the Holocaust with the most severely afflicted survivors. They are the ones that lost EVERYTHING! They lost their spouses, children, homes, property, neighbors, friends, extended family, town, country, their work, careers, self respect… everything! Many of these people were suicidal, felt that there was nothing to live for. For sure they all had PTSD, of the worst kind.
Viktor Frankl started with these people by identifying ONE thing, any one thing, that was of value in that person’s life. That one thing became the “foothold” on which to start the climb out of depression and hopelessness, the first stone on a new foundation.
Over the years, I have occasionally thought about that. Usually I think about how I have hundreds of things that are of value in my life. I allow those thoughts to turn my negative thinking into a more positive, grateful attitude. It’s all relative of course, but I can always find some positive to weigh against the negatives.
Victor Frankl was an amazing individual and a very powerful writer. His most well-known book which I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding is called Man’s Search for Meaning, and it talks about his experiences of surviving a concentrations camp and how he developed his theory of existential analysis. Frankl’s mental health work is termed logotherapy and is still practiced today.
Frankl made a point, after the war, to explain that while he was influenced greatly by Friedrich Nietzche, he did not feel that the Will to Power would offer man any real hope for growth beyond his miserable existence, or the possibility of real happiness, or real change in the world. He instead wrote about the Will to Meaning, and his therapeutic work with depressed patients and other mentally ill patients began not with breaking them down to find out the core thing that happened to them in their lives that made them unhappy, but with speaking them to discover the core thing in their lives that made them happy, that gave them meaning. He found among most of his patients and among Holocaust survivors that most people can only break the cycle of mental illness if they can latch on to their reason to live.
Thank you so much for visiting and commenting 🙂 … I’ve actually been blogging since Aug 2004. I totally agree with the advice you have given me about structure and about how making a list of things to say would be very beneficial. It has crossed my mind more than once to do so.
Blogging is kind of a funny thing to me though. Right from the very beginning in the blogs I’ve maintained it’s always been about sitting down and writing whatever comes to mind when I sit down. It’s kind of a reflection of my life in that way. When I look back at when my life used to be more structured and simple it came through in the quality my blogging. Now that my life is in disarray that too is showing through. I think of abandoning this hobby quite frequently because of that.
A little while ago I made a comparison between blogging and landscaping. If you drive by a house and the lawn is covered in weeds and waste high grass you form an impression of the owners of the house. I would like to think that my blogging is similar to that… like, I have my thoughts, and the blog is the parts of them on display like the front lawn, and it forms somewhat of an impression of who I am inside. I’m appearing to be a totally out of control basket case… because that’s what I am. I don’t even know if that makes sense, or why I’m leaving such a long comment that’s totally unrelated to your post! LOL
Anyway, I’ll be visiting quite frequently. I’ve been wanting to comment here since my first visit. Wanted to say that I can relate to the things you have written here, and to thank you for sharing your story here like this. It’s always helpful to know that there are other’s winning similar battles.
Have you ever read the book …
The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness.
by Epictetus(Greek Stoic philosopher),
translated by Sharon Lebell
I’ve known about Victor Frankl and his writings, his history and his influence on psychology for many years. He and other psychologists were the foundation of theory of Existential Philosophy/Approach/Therapy. One of the best quotes that sums up what he learned, “the last of human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” He believed that the essence of being human lies in searching for meaning and purpose. It is grounded on the assumption that we are free and have choices that make us who we are. It focuses on the present and acknowleges that death is inevitible which gives significance to living. He was focused on the present. It sort of runs along the line of mindfulness.
Wow, so it seems I’m in the minority then? At least in this crowd of bloggers who seem to have much more knowledge about psychology than I do?
Thanks for all the comments folks!
I don’t think that psychology has all the answers, otherwise I wouldn’t be a yogi as well. But its definitely helpful, especially Frankl and also the 7 Habits stuff from Covey.
Jonathon (a.k.a. Victor) – I had to laugh at myself during the final day of my course today, in which we talked about empathic listening. It really is a most excellent course. One which Shiv also has attended apparently! I must write more about it soon…
Empathic listening (in short) is all about listening to understand, not listening to reply. And most of the time we are replying with “Autobiographical” responses. As in, we speak from our frame of reference, thinking something we’ll say will be an answer or a ‘fix’ for the other person. And usually this just has the effect of annoying/alienating the other person.
Ofcourse, there is nothing wrong with the way you blog. Its just that my interpretation of your post was that you were complaining about your lack of structure and that ‘I open a can of worms every sentence’. So there I was, ready to provide you with the relatively suspect benefit of my experience. Clearly, however you enjoy writing your blog is entirely up to you. 🙂
I guess in this bloggy world, we’re all just seeking to be understood.
I haven’t read the book you mention. This blog has been very handy for picking up book recommendations. Altho… for every recommendation, I am in danger of adding to the already long list of books sitting in my bookshelf waiting patiently for their turn to be read. Sigh! So many books, no where near enough time.
Hey, you have a great blog here!
I’m definitely going to bookmark you!
IT IS AMAZING and GREAT post .. PLEASE Keep BLOGGING …
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Thans & Regards
Salem