In
his book “Take Off Your Shoes” (1972), Mark Link revisited Viktor Frankl’s
experience in the Nazi concentration camps, and outlined the basic structure by
which Viktor Frankl articulated his logotheraphy in his famous book, “Man’s
Search for Meaning” (1956). Sex is considered as one of the most primitive of our human intincts which even over-rides our instinct for survival. Yet Viktor Frankl observed that the religious dimension of our human existence is more fundamental than our sexual drive. In the inhuman situation, like the Nazi concentration camps, sex drive was almost null. However, according to Viktor Frankl, our being religious became more vibrant in the cruel, atrocious, and inhuman condition where human life became absurd, meaningless, and valueless. In the concentration camp where life is reduced to the whims of those who have control over the system, the religious men and women started breaking their own bread and shared it to other prisoners who suffered the most. Our survival instinct follows its natural tendency to safeguard first ourselves and to feed our hungry stomachs, but the human spirit can rise above our condition. We transcend the forces of the environment that shaped our thinking and acting. We refuse to be determined by our environment. We shape our environment. This article of Mark Link is a good read. Kudos.
