Viktor Frankl on Freedom
“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance.”
- Viktor Frankl
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Silvian Guranda (ROmania) Said,
November 11, 2008 @ 5:10 am
MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING
But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings?
…The experiences of camp life
show that man does have a choice of action.
…We who lived in concentration camps can remember
the men who walked through the huts comforting
others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may
have been few in number, but they offer sufficient
proof that everything can be taken from a man but one
thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose
one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to
choose one’s own way.
And there were always choices to make. Every day,
every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision,
a decision which determined whether you would
or would not submit to those powers which threatened
to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom;
which determined whether or not you would become
the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom
and dignity to become molded into the form of the
typical inmate.
…Dostoevski said once, “There is only one thing
that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.” These
words frequently came to my mind after I became
acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in
camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the
fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can
be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the
way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner
achievement. It is this spiritual freedom – which cannot
be taken away – that makes life meaningful and
purposeful.