Shortly after his release, psychologist Viktor Frankl dictated the book Saying Yes to Life. Psychologist in a concentration camp, which told more about the experiences of prisoners than about real events in the death camps, about the inner freedom of a person and his ability to find meaning in any situation.
“One might get the impression that the state of the human soul is inexorably and unambiguously dependent on environmental conditions. After all, it would seem that in camp life a peculiar social environment forcibly determines the behavior of people. But against this one can rightfully put forward an objection, ask the question: what then is to be done with human freedom?
Is there not spiritual freedom, self-determination, relationship with given external circumstances? Is man really nothing more than a product of numerous conditions and influences, whether biological, psychological or social? Nothing more than an accidental result of one’s bodily constitution, the predispositions of one’s character, and one’s social situation?
And in particular: does the reaction of the prisoners really testify that people could not evade the impact of the form of being into which they were forcibly plunged? That man was compelled to submit completely to these influences? That «under the pressure of circumstances» that prevailed in the camp, he «could not have done otherwise»?
In a concentration camp, everything can be taken away from a person, except for the last — human freedom.
There are answers to these questions, both factual and principled. The actual ones are based on my experience — after all, life in the camp itself has shown that a person quite “can do otherwise.” There are quite a few examples, often truly heroic, that show that it is possible to overcome apathy and curb irritation. That even in this situation, which is absolutely overwhelming both externally and internally, it is possible to preserve the remnants of spiritual freedom, to oppose this pressure with your spiritual “I”.
Which of the survivors of the concentration camp could not tell about people who, walking with everyone in a column, passing through the barracks, gave someone a kind word, and shared the last crumbs of bread with someone? And let there be few of them, their example confirms that in a concentration camp everything can be taken away from a person, except for the last thing — human freedom, the freedom to relate to circumstances one way or another. And this «one way or another» they had.
And every day, every hour in the camp gave thousands of opportunities to make this choice, to renounce or not to renounce that very innermost thing that the surrounding reality threatened to take away — from inner freedom. And to renounce freedom and dignity meant to turn into an object of influence of external conditions, to allow them to fashion a “typical” camp prisoner out of you.
It depends on each person what, even under the pressure of such terrible circumstances, will happen to his spiritual essence.
No, experience confirms that the mental reactions of the prisoner were not just a natural imprint of bodily, mental and social conditions, a calorie deficit, lack of sleep and various psychological «complexes». Ultimately, it turns out that what happens inside a person, what the camp allegedly “makes” of him, is the result of an internal decision of the person himself.
In principle, it depends on each person what, even under the pressure of such terrible circumstances, will happen in the camp with him, with his spiritual, inner essence: whether he will turn into a “typical” camp resident or remain a man here, retain his human dignity.
The spiritual freedom of a person, which cannot be taken away from him until his last breath, gives him the opportunity to fill his life with meaning until his last breath. After all, not only an active life, which gives a person the opportunity to realize the values of creativity, has meaning, and not only a life full of experiences, a life that makes it possible to realize oneself in the experience of beauty, in the enjoyment of art or nature.
It retains its meaning and life — as it was in a concentration camp — which leaves no chance for the realization of values in creativity or experience. There remains the last opportunity to fill life with meaning: to take a position in relation to this form of extreme forced restriction of his being.
If the whole point of life is whether a person saves it or not, then such a life is not worth living.
Creative life, like sensual life, has long been closed to him. But this is not all over yet. If life has meaning at all, then so does suffering. Suffering is part of life, just like fate and death. Suffering and death give life wholeness.
For most of the prisoners, the main question was: will I survive the camp or not? If not, then all suffering is meaningless. But I was relentlessly pursued by something else: does this suffering itself, this death, constantly hovering over us, make sense? For if not, then there is no point in surviving in the camp at all. If the whole meaning of life lies in whether a person will keep it or not, if he depends entirely on the mercy of chance — such a life, in essence, is not worth living.