Viktor Frankel was a man who faced extreme physical, emotional, and spiritual degradation for years on a daily basis. He was a holocaust survivor of Auschwitz: one of the most brutal and barbaric concentration camps of World War II. However, to call him merely a survivor would be to do a great injustice to this remarkable man. He was a thriver. How was it that he came out of such a brutal and inhuman experience not emotionally broken, hateful and bitter? He thrived even after learning that the Nazi’s had slaughtered his wife and his entire family, save for his sister who was able to escape. Frankel had a fervent hope that coursed through him each and every day. Hope was his life raft, his security, and ultimately his immunity. He adopted this state of mind, and even imparted this wisdom and inspired his fellow prisoners.
Viktor Frankel worked with individuals with severe depression and suicidal ideations by encouraging them to focus on positive memories, scenes and thoughts. In doing so, he was teaching them that their lives had meaning and purpose, helping them to create the will and motivation to continue fighting and maintain hope. Viktor Frankle is quoted as saying,
Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man¬, his courage and hope, or lack of them¬ and the state of immunity of his body will understand that sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect.
In his own work, Charles Snyder observed that high hope individuals do not react in the same way to barriers as low hope individuals. Instead they view barriers as challenges to overcome and use their pathway thoughts to plan an alternative route to their goals. Some may say that hope and optimism are closely connected and sometimes even feel the same, but many psychologists hypothesize that hope is distinct. Hope ascends when we have a goal firmly in mind and we have a plan to get us there despite uncertain or even dire circumstances. Hope implies there is the possibility of a better future. This is how Viktor Frankel survived and ultimately triumphed.
