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There are some authors who contend that meanings and values are nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations. But as for myself, I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my defense mechanisms, nor would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my reaction formations.

Viktor E. Frankl

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Viktor E. Frankl
Age: 92 †
Born: 1905
Born: March 26
Died: 1997
Died: September 2
Existential Therapist
Neurologist
Professor
Psychiatrist
Psychologist
Psychotherapist
Surgeon
Writer
Vienna
Austria
Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl
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Formations
Nothing
Defense
Contend
Would
Merely
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Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.
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When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
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Thus, human existence-at least as long as it has not been neurotically distorted-is always directed to something, or someone, other than itself, be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter lovingly.
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We dislike talking about our experiences. No explanations are needed for those who have been inside, and the others will understand neither how we felt then nor how we feel now.
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Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
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Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy.
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A sound philosophy of life, I think, may be the most valuable asset for a psychiatrist to have when he is treating a patient.
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Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.
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No one can take from us the ability to choose our attitudes toward the circumstances in which we find ourselves. This is the last of human freedoms.
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Man's search for meaning is the chief motivation of his life.
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Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation.
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If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists wish to foster their patients' mental health, they should not be afraid to increase that load through a reorientation toward the meaning of one's life.
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But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.
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What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.
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No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.
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A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the why for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any how.
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Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
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Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose.
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We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life.
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In psychiatry there is a certain condition known as delusion of reprieve. The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute. No one could yet grasp the fact that everything would be taken away. all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence.
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