The Collective Neurosis

...courage..., a photo by SheilaTostes on Flickr.


'Every age has its own collective neurosis, and every age needs its own psychotherapy to cope with it. The existential vacuum which is the mass neurosis of the present time can be described as a private and personal form of nihilism; for nihilism can be defined as the contention that being has no meaning. As for psychotherapy, however, it will never be able to cope with this state of affairs on a mass scale if it does not keep itself free from the impact and influence of the contemporary trends of a nihilistic philosophy; otherwise it represents a symptom  of the mass neurosis rather than its possible cure. Psychotherapy would not only reflect a nihilistic philosophy but also, even though unwillingly and unwittingly, transmit to the patient what is actually a caricature rather than a true picture of man.

First of all, there is a danger inherent in the teaching of man's "nothingbutness," the theory that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. Such a view of man makes a neurotic believe what he is prone to believe anyway, namely, that he is the pawn and victim of outer influences or inner circumstances by a psychotherapy which denies that man is free.

To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions. As I once put it: "As a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry, I am fully aware of the extent to which man is subject to biological, psychological and sociological conditions. But in addition to being a professor in two fields I am a survivor of four camps - concentration camps, that is - and as such I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable.'

from Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl   

First published in German in 1946.

https://www.viktorfrankl.org

Sacrament of the Present Moment

Shinkyo (Sacred Bridge), Nikko, Japan, a photo by Paul Mannix on Flickr.

'Some Catholics have a concept I much admire: the Sacrament of the Present Moment. It suggests that every moment of our lives is sacred, and that we should make of each moment a sacrament. Were we to do this we would think of the entire world as diffused with holiness. Wherever we might be would be a holy place for us, and we would see the holy, even sainthood, in everyone we encounter.'

from In Search of Stones, p. 71
by M. Scott Peck
1995 Simon & Schuster, London.

Serotonin

Matalascañas (Huelva), a photo by sky_hlv on Flickr.

p. 165

'Then someone stands up and says the alarming and predictable thing: "Well, if van Gogh had medication, we wouldn't have all those masterpieces, would we?"
     
I can't help but reply, "I think we'd have a lot more of them."
    
Which, I guess, is a way of saying that a little serotonin reuptake inhibitor seems to have saved my life. It became clear, in those dire days of dragging myself to the library, that I couldn't get out of the slump by myself. And truly I don't care if this is the placebo effect at work or not, the moment when suddenly I feel a change: I'm standing at an intersection on Eighth Avenue, waiting for the WALK sign, and I feel a shiver up my spine, and the sudden impulse to hold my head up, to stand up straight - how long has it been? and something within me looks around at the world and says, "Oh, right, here I am."'

Mark Doty, Dog Years, 2008

Jonathan Cape, London.
http://www.markdoty.org/