My apologies. I should not have ended Part One saying I’d post Part Two in July.
I spent longer than expected working on my CPD this summer. Then I’ve had lots of distractions since. Now I’m slowly getting back on track.
We began looking at how Logotherapy has nothing to do with designer labels and everything to do with meanings. Soul II Soul summed it up nicely. Click here to listen to what they say. We also looked at Frankl’s meaning of “free will”, “spirit”, and what he called “Existential Vacuum”.
Let’s look deeper at meanings.
Existential Frustration
This happens when someone’s will is denied freedom. More to the point, the meaning to their life (and what represents its meaning – the thing(s) the person decides they need here-and-now) is unfound or taken away. Brain injury obviously causes such frustration. And the loss of meaning is spiritual, without cognitive realisation. The person’s cognition is in despair as it fails to work as their long-term memory recalls sense of perpose. When meaning was found in the role of child, sibling and / or friend, coleague, and so on.
Meanings
(Meaning of Life)
To do what?
Being personally responsible. It’s not freedom from; it is freedom to.
To “be” the potency within them. To be that, the person needs to be aware of their spirit and their capacity to choose which personal potential they want to achieve. In ” The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy “ (1955:85) Frankl says no-one can “escape the mandate to choose among possibilities”. Life constantly presents potentialities, even in the face of adversity. Despite brain injury’s cognitive hurdles, the spirit will still strive.
Frustration motivates towards acceptance and rehabilitation. It’s a process of submission and conquering – in a word, “adaptation”.
(Meaning in Suffering)
Oooh, I feel another metaphor arising.
Imagine we are inside a damaged brain. Imagine that inner landscape as a road network of spaghetti junctions, B roads and country lanes. A car is “free willing” so far, but suffering an exhausting, boring journey of delays and stopages. The person’s unconsciousness is the driver, their consciousness, the navigator. The pair are bickering over which one of them is responsible for getting them lost, and whether the navigator’s map is up-to-date.
Meaning comes with reminding themselves why they set out in the first place, the need to find where they are “now”, learning to suffer the point of no return and how far it is to the next service station.
At the service station is the therapist manning the petrol pump. While the driver takes the opportunity to nip to the loo and stock up on crisps and sausge rolls, the navigator considers the pump attendant’s info’. The driver returns relieved and with, as the phrase goes, “something to fill a hole”. The consciousness bravely reflects on the choices for the journey ahead. Back inside the free willing car there can be cause of renewed sense of adventure. The suffering has been a revelation.
(The “Supra-Meaning”)
The over-all meaning of life and suffering is beyond human understanding. We can only conceive a personal definition of the Divine. Frankl himself does not advocate the existence or non existence of God. He uses “supra-meaning” to label that which cannot be proven by our level of science – the meaning of life and suffering that comes by experience.and faith alone. The true supra-meaning is personal to the individual, defined by their own use of words and reasoning – their logos.
On that note, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a fulfilled New Year.
Take care,
Sean
Neurolations 