March 27, 2022
The Psychology of Purpose
I finally read Manās Search for Meaning andĀ lovedĀ it. Viktor Frankel, a psychoanalyst, experienced the Holocaust and afterward shared his observations.
Before he was sent to the camps, he had worked with patients who had lost their sense of purpose. He wondered: what accounted for meaning, and what resulted in people losing their senses of meaning?
Then, while in the camps, he witnessed extreme conditions that allowed him to develop his thoughts on the psychology of purpose.
While reading, there were two specific things that interested me.
The first was the concept of purpose as linked to willpower and identity.
The second was the Holocaustās influence on personal morality.
Identity and Will
The goal of the camps was dehumanization, and it was achieved in many cases through the destruction of identity.
First, through the destruction of material goods, a physical representation of value.
Then, through the gradual destruction of the self — societal and personal.
Interior Castle
Frankel explained that the camps didnāt define people, rather the camps stripped everything bare, and illuminated what was underneath.
Vulnerability for some, and an interior castle for others.
Amidst the death entrenched, cruel, and drab external reality of the camps, the only real superpower was a strong inner life.
That inner life afforded respite, even liberationā¦if only for a moment.
Morality
The holocaustās influence on personal morality has always intrigued me. Some walked away, horrified by their actions, while others became martyrs and saints.
Why? What characteristics had amounted to each end?
The best conclusion I have come to is ā personal standards.
Like Frankel explained, no one was made by the holocaust.
They were only unmasked.
Conscious and Unconscious Standards
While life was normal and easy, each of these people had consciously or unconsciously chosen a standard.Ā
Unconscious standards were assumed. They were chosen by someone else (usually an institutional figure), accepted by the majority, and assumed as a means to an end.
The conscious standards, on the other hand, were deliberate, tested, gradually established, and thus, firmly rooted.
The saints and martyrs had consciously chosen standards and they did not deviate.
Intention + Deliberation + Commitment = Standard