this video sponsored by the great
courses plus what does suffering mean to
you for Viktor Frankl and other
unfortunate souls in mentem prison in
Nazi concentration camp these counts
were disgusting places full of torture
pain and suffering chances of surviving
were at most one in twenty eight
prisoners found themselves rejoicing at
the sight of a few peas and an otherwise
watery bowl of soup if that's a happiest
part of someone's day it says a lot
about how much they're suffering
prisoners often worried about the
well-being of their family and friends
who had been separated from them it's
hard to even imagine the suffering that
the prisoners went through amidst their
suffering many prisoners contemplated
and many performed suicide by running
into the electric fences these prisoners
see stab hope they saw no future for
themselves they felt that their lives
had become meaningless and they'd lost
the will to live on the other hand some
prisoners like Victor were able to find
meaning in their suffering in a world
where people will commonly say why me
whenever something bad happens I wanted
to find out how someone could persevere
through one of the darkest periods in
humankind and find an answer to that
question for themselves
prior to World War two essentialism was
a fairly standard belief this was the
idea that we were born with an essence
an essence can be considered as a part
of a person or thing that defines them
without that defining quality they would
no longer be that thing for example the
specific sperm and egg that made me are
a part of my essence if it were a
different sperm or a different egg I
would no longer be me some philosophers
believe that is a part of our essence we
were born with a purpose the trophy's
witness during World War two really made
humanity question this it's
understandable to question whether life
really has a predestined meaning if all
someone experiences is suffering after
World War 2 the concept of
existentialism became much more
widespread existentialism is the idea
that we are born without a purpose and
that we are left to define our own this
is often stated as existence precedes
essence we are born first into a
meaningless world and then we define our
own meaning some people think that
existentialism is a depressing view of
the world because it says the world has
no ultimate and objective meaning others
disagree they may see it as a beautiful
and liberating philosophy one that
allows them to find a potentially
infinite amount of meaning in the world
and gives them the freedom to define
that for themselves every second every
minute every hour of every day they have
the ability to define a new meaning for
themselves a new reason to live
existentialism is the key philosophy
that allowed Viktor Frankl to find
meaning in a suffering during his time
in concentration camps to quote them
when we are no longer able to change a
situation just think of an incurable
disease such as inoperable cancer we are
challenged to change ourselves
existentialists have the ability to take
an adversity and overcome it or empower
themselves by giving it meaning as
circumstances change they give
themselves the freedom to change their
meanings and attitude they don't ask
life what its meaning is but they're
constantly being asked by life how they
choose to live is their answer Frankel
argues that humans do not seek attention
with state in fact attentional estate
can result in another problem the Victor
called the existential vacuum a complete
lack of purpose or meaninglessness in
life Victor argues that it's within this
vacuum
that depression aggression and addiction
can ride I believe that Victor were
argued that in order to overcome this
dilemma a certain amount of tension is
required but this tension must be worth
overcoming for the individual so it's
not about avoiding suffering or stress
at all costs the finding meaning and
suffering or finding something worth
suffering for I think this quote by
Victor beautifully summarizes the key
takeaway between stimulus and response
there's a space in that space is our
power to choose our response in our
response lies our growth and our freedom
think of someone being cut off in
rush-hour traffic
in between the impulse that mean cut off
and their reaction there's a space in
this space they have the ability to
choose the reaction to that impulse in
the same way there's a space between our
suffering and our reaction to it we have
the ability to choose our reaction and
give new meaning to our suffering in a
way we become worthy of our suffering
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one's own mind I actually watched a
lecture on existentialism and the
Frankfurt School from the course on
modern intellectual tradition from
Descartes to Derrida by Lawrence Cahoon
in preparation for this video I'll
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you
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