Logotherpy is Frankl's brain child; yet the more I read about it, it appears to be Stoicism rebranded to modern terms, well 1945 terms. In severe cases we have only control of our thoughts, choices, attitudes, beliefs, values, ideals, principals, etc. In Epictetus terms, our ability to assent, desires, aversions, motives... so what is the difference? One was a slave, the other a POW. At that point, what is the difference? "Desire", as translated from old Greek vs "attitudes" of today. Motives of translations to "why's" of our lives. Man is still willing to live or die for there ideals, and values, or to abandon them if necessary to live.
Once we know our purpose in life, or purpose of life, we can go forward. It that propose is frustrated, removed, destroyed, we had better reestablish a new purpose quickly, before we find ourselves in the same situation that teen native girls in Northern Saskatchewan face: a culture that is holding them in a desperate situation. In the last four days, there have been four suicides. It is understandable. No future at that location, and parents that are holding them there, in a desperate conditions. Hope is not sufficient for long term, there must be action. Education is the route out of there, but they must choose education and lots of it and not let there culture hold them back. In fact, they will need to go against their culture to achieve what we consider success.
There are things that we can aim for, and if we desire them enough, we can achieve. Work, people, love, or purpose, meaning can drive us. All we need is a purpose to start with, and then we can develop a logical plan to make that possible. Education is one such ideal that can provide drive. To be able to understand the human motivational system at a fundamental level is crucial for recovery. To be able to see collective neurosis of some cultures; of our own culture: or things that have become collective neuroses of the culture lost in traditions of time gone by. Some of us must separate ourselves from our culture to get ahead, be it North American native or European native which was brought from the father lands. They are not so different.
We need to do what is right for us, as people of this time and place. Culture, tradition must change in a rapid changing world. I grew up learning to work horses, grow spuds, pigs and vegetables, along with tractors, grain, chemical fertilizers, and chemicals. I saw declining prices, growing farm sizes, hours of work with few returns, and the money of some jobs. The rural vs city, poor vs wealthy, and saw the opportunities. A plan was necessary. I made choices, some of them hard to make. It sort of worked out, but the economy had hiccups, and some promises were just promises. In the end of all the work, it was ok, but not great. Some was just luck, decisions with wrong criteria weighting, and some failure due to adherence to collective neurosis, aka tradition and traditional culture, genes, characteristics and the like.
Mental reboots are possible with things like logotherpy. Learn the logos and away we go, with as much energy as we can muster.
Man is meant to live hungry. That is a fact of modern life, as is surplus of food. In the culture that I was raised in, being satisfied was the desired state; today I know that that is false; that is an unmotivated state; and is a tradition that is just wrong; just as wrong as a belief in the existence of a god. One more collective neurosis down. Oh well, itewajda.
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