The Writer's Connection, SM
a publication of The Virtual Writing Coach SM


"The Creative Process of Writing is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"

www.virtualwritingcoach.com

September, 2010

In This Issue:

1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. Viktor Frank's Man's Search for Meaning
4. Helpful Hints

1. Preview

The Writer's Connection explores the creative process of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and actions. We are an interactive community of authors and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge, skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre, but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.

Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing information.

Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript, and are provided to the general public. Because we are an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters with permission from Keith Barton.

2. Publisher's Note

September, 2010

Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,

This month features the life of Viktor Frankl from his horrid days in a German concentration camp to his compelling Logotherapy treatise that continues to be a major therapeutic technique today.

3. Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning

Frankl’s book was originally published in 1952, first written in 1939 before his internment at Auschwitz during WW II. I read this book over thirty - five years ago during graduate school and it has more meaning for me today than ever. Frankl came from an aristocratic Austrian family; his father was a prominent attorney in Vienna, Austria. This short narrative is in two parts: Part One describes Frankl’s experience in four different concentration camps in Poland between 1943 and his release in April, 1945, two weeks before Hitler killed himself. His first - hand accounts of the constant, daily suffering has been recorded by other writers (Bonhoffer and Weiss) but without a theoretical framework to understand why some people survived while others languished away in their own excrement accepting death freely or by committing suicide.

Frankl talked about the numbness that ensues after seeing so much death and dying around oneself. Despite survival instincts, there were days when Frankl wanted to die. He was lucky enough to be assigned a work detail outside the camp. Five a.m. he and his cohorts were repairing railroad ties for the German rail system to move supplies. In winter, the bitter cold induced frostbite. Men were without shoes, food was scarce, and dysentery prevalent. If one were fortunate enough to be confined to sick bay for two days with broth and water, he was harangued by the SS troops who would put them on a tough detail when they were discharged. Frankl survived his suffering by focusing on his family and research. He would jot down notes and stuff them in his pockets. Other times he would formulate long treatises in his head.

Frankl was of the opinion that Freud and Adler were incorrect in what motivates us to survive. If one subscribed to Freud the absence of having one’s daily desires of food and sex met, would most assuredly lead to a quick death. Adler’s theory of man’s need for achievement would also create hopelessness and suicide. Frankl believed that man’s greatest task was to find meaning in his life in one or all of three ways: 1) through one’s vocation; 2) a love relationship; and 3) suffering. Frankl posited that IF one were to suffer, he could either choose to submit to hopelessness and die, or find meaning in his suffering and increase his chances of living. Frankl calculated that he had less than a 10% chance of remaining alive during his three years in four different concentration camps, but his insatiable desire to place meaning in his suffering (to fulfill and contribute to his life’s work and helping others) allowed Frankl to survive this harrowing degradation. Frankl’s work continues to this day under his moniker, Logotherapy, which has relevance to cancer and AIDS patients, chronically ill, and the very old who find themselves in nursing homes today.

Frankl first published his Auschwitz death camp experience in German in 1946 and the first English translation was in 1959, called Man’s Search for Meaning. His book has sold more than 12 million copies in 24 languages and the Congress/Book of the Month Club found his book to be one of the ten most influential books in America. Frankl was always fond of philosophy, experimental psychology (Wundt’s experiments), and psychoanalysis. From 1930 to 1937 he worked as a psychiatrist in Vienna, Austria and later was the chief of neurology at Rothschild Hospital, the only Jewish hospital in Vienna. In 1942 he and his family were arrested and placed in Hitler’s concentration camps where his own imprisonment served as the impetus for this book. During his darkest hours, not knowing if he would live another day, he drew inspiration from his inborn optimism, humor, psychological detachment, solitude, inner freedom and his resolve not to give up. His view of life was different from Freud—i.e. one has to eschew pleasure to find someone other than oneself—that man is ultimately self - determining. After his liberation in 1945, Frankl almost died from typhus; he later learned that his pregnant wife, brother, and parents all died in the concentration camps. Frankl later married Eleanore Schwindt who was a nurse and a Catholic. Frankl avoided direct reference to his personal religious beliefs in his writings, but believed in a power outside oneself to give meaning to our lives. He continued to write more than thirty books and lectures on four continents until is death in 1997 (from the Afterword by William J. Winslade).

Helpful Hints:

1. Robert McGee’s Search for Significance and Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life certainly owe their formulations to Frankl’s earlier work, even though Frankl would disavow that his book is not about spirituality. Can one have meaning without God?

2. Many of Frankl’s ideas are captured today by the “positive psychology” movement that argues about resilience and hardiness to overcome the negative events in our lives. Where else do you see Frankl’s influence on spirituality, philosophy, and psychology?

3. Frankl was fond of saying that a logotherapist is like an eye specialist who broadens the patient’s field of vision so that the whole meaning becomes conscious and visible rather than that of a painter who pictures the world as he sees it. Do you agree or disagree and why?


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The Writer's Connection SM is dedicated to helping first - time authors create their first manuscript for publication and to offer an exchange of ideas and opinions from our readers who might be interested in becoming authors.

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Archives

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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.

Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach and is accepting new clients. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing group home services to persons with mental retardation, and for the past 13 years founded and runs a clinical practice in Northwest Houston. He writes part - time with the goal of completing one novel a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate interest in helping others become attuned to their creative powers of storytelling.

Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family therapy and health psychology. He has published articles, made presentations and conducted workshops about:

Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self - esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality

Copyright by Virtual Writing Coach (SM) and Keith Barton, 2001 - 2008.