To what degree does choice, personal decision play in overcoming trauma? 95-year-old Dr. Edith Eger, a Holocaust survivor, renowned psychologist, and living treasure writes on overcoming trauma- The key is in your pocket.
What does she mean?
Dr. Eger insists that overcoming trauma, whether post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex-PTSD is an individual choice. We all experience trauma of some kind in life; we all are victims of something in life. It may occur at varying levels of challenge, yet we all experience suffering. Such is a fact of life. The experience of being victimized is a fact of life.
The experience, however, of remaining and living in victimhood is a choice. This is what Dr. Eger communicates on overcoming trauma when she says the key is in Your pocket.
How can one apply the key that Dr. Eger refers to? Is it possible for all forms of trauma?
Logotherapy, Meaning and Purpose for addressing trauma
To answer that question, I would like to turn to Dr. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997). Dr. Frankl was a Viennese psychiatrist and neurologist. As a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz, his clinical expertise centered around suffering and overcoming trauma. Building on his experiences in the Holocaust, he developed Logotherapy, a therapy focused on meaning and purpose.
Dr. Frankl’s teachings emphasized that striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in life. Answering and living according to that “call,” one’s meaning and purpose, is a significant process in addressing trauma.
Key Logotherapy principles for overcoming trauma and finding meaning
Here are some of the key principles of Logotherapy for overcoming trauma and experiencing a meaningful and fulfilling life.
- Have a Why…
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how – Friedrich Nietzsche. What matters is not the meaning of life in general, but the specific meaning of a person’s life at any given moment. Applying this psychological tool of “having a why” allows a shift to take place in which suffering moves from hopeless to bearable to meaningful.
Dr. Frankl teaches that meaning of life is discovered in three ways:
- An activity or creative process
- A significant experience of something or encountering someone (love)
- The attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering
- Happiness is not the goal; it is an outcome. People require a degree of struggle to strive towards a worthy and meaningful goal. Achievement, fulfillment, satisfaction and ultimately happiness are outcomes of a healthy struggle.
- Structure – Structure and framework are essentials for healing and reconstructing our lives, our sense of self, relationships- our existence.
- Something to look forward to – positive incentive leads to purposefulness.
- Responsibleness – Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted wrongly the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now! Individual choice is individual responsibility.
These simple principles are profoundly effective. Pick one of these 5 principles today and invite the challenge of overcoming one of your life’s difficulties through meaning and purpose. Send me an email through the contact form to share your thoughts, challenges, and successes. The key is in your pocket.
Dr. Frankl’s principles of Logotherapy, together with the works of other great minds, are the subject of this series of articles and worksheets on overcoming trauma.
