Watching a Kilig Movie ALONE!!!

Once I had a chance to watch a movie in a cinema house. It was my long desired respite after a tiring week of works and deadlines. Before leaving the seminary, I already had a title of the movie that I would watch. I thought of watching ‘The Mistress.’ The movie had been a talk of the town for some weeks since its first screening. I deemed such to be an enough reason to watch it.

Upon arriving in the cinema house, I immediate went to the ticket booth. I checked for an available seat for the 4 pm screening. I thought at first, I would be waiting for the 6 pm screening. The seats seemed to be all taken. But lo and behold I found a seat: seat number K 19. I took the queue and crossed finger waited for my turn to procure for a ticket. I prayed that the seat would not be taken by others. Thank God, no one did. I approached the lady clerk and asked for a 4 pm seat. She politely replied ‘Wala na po, sir.’ But how could that be when I just saw seat K 19 available. ‘Hindi’ I said ‘meron pa.’ I asked her to flash in the monitor the seats taken and untaken. ‘ O, eto meron pa’ I pointed to the available seat. ‘Ah isa lang ba sir?’ she asked. ‘Oo, isa lang.’ I said. ‘Di nga, sir, isa lang?’ replied then accompanied with little giggles. ‘Oo, isa lang talaga.’ I answered back with a bit of irritation. She gave to me the ticket: seat K 19. I immediately paid, and left the booth.

I still did have an hour before 4 pm. I thought I could still have a cup of coffee, among the cafe in the (mall) garden. Indeed I had. While taking a sip, I thought of checking the details of the ticket such as its freebies and location of the cinema. I brought out the ticket from my wallet and placed it on the table. Suddenly, my conversation with the lady clerk came into my mind. I could not imagine her disbelief that I was alone. And in finding that I was saying the truth that I would be watching a movie alone, she could not help herself but giggled. What was funny in watching a movie alone? I asked myself. I thought none. But on a second thought, indeed something seemed to be wronged in the picture. It was a romantic movie. Indeed, pity for him who had no one to share the love and romance that the movie radiated. Really funny. Pity for me.

Looking at the ticket on my table, I realized how many times I had been alone. I had been doing some things by myself, though I may have my so-called community. There are simply things meant to be done alone. I had no one to blame for this. It was my choice or at least one of the consequences of my choice to embrace religious life.

The one ticket on my table signifies the fact that I am alone, occasionally. Indeed, sometimes I am alone, but I thank God, I never been lonely.

Sharing Christ

I Cristong mabiye (Si Krsitong buhay). Ang ating Panginoon ay Panginoon na buhay, gumagalaw, kumikilos sa ating mundo sa maraming paraan. Isa sa mga katangi-tanging paraang gamit Niya ay ang Simbahan. Sa Simbahan nananahan din si Kristo Hesus, nagbibigay buhay (life giving). At sino ba ang Simbahan? Higit sa gusali o pook sambahan, ang Simbahang Katolika ay isang buhay na Simbahan, pagkat ang Simbahan ay tayo, tayong mga Katolikong nag-kakaisa sa ngalan ni Kristo Hesus, pagkakaisang kawangis ng Santissima Trinidad. Kung tayo ang Simbahan, at sa Simbahan nananahan din ang Panginoon, kung ganoon sumasaatin Siya; isang Panginoong buhay (alive) na nananahan sa ating mga buhay (living). Marapat na ang ating buhay ay sumalamin sa Panginoong buhay na nananahan at nagbibigay buhay sa atin.[1]

Kekatayang ibiye (Atin siyang ibahagi). Sa pagmamagandang-loob ng Panginoon sa atin, pinili Niyang manahan sa atin, datapwat di tayo karapat-dapat tumanggap sa Kanya. Ang pakikipamuhay Niya sa atin ay nagbubunsod ng labis na galak at tuwa sa atin. Ang ating buhay ay napupuspos ng Kanyang grasya at pagpapala sa tuwing sinusunod natin ang kanyang kalooban, sa tuwing nabubuhay Siya sa ating buhay. Walang pagsidlan ang sayang ramdam natin sa mga pagkakataong ito. Nag-uumapao ang saya (over-flowing joy). Salamat ang sambit ng ating mga labing nakangiti (gratitude). Di sapat para sa atin ang magpasalamat lamang. Tila baga meron pa tayong magawa upang kahit papaano eh masunglian natin ang regalong kaloob sa atin. Higit sa salita, tinutulak tayo ng ating pusong puspos ng galak na gumawa ng tama, na ibahagi ang sayang nararanasan natin (sharing the experienced love, thus service to others). Mula sa tuwa at pasasalamat tayo ay tumungo sa pagkakawang gawa, pagbabahagi sa sayang naranasan natin mula sa ating Panginoong buhay.[2]     

[1] Maari nating itanong sa ating mga sarili “Nakikita ba ng aking kapwa ang Pangionoon sa aking mga gawi at kilos? Nararanasan ba niya ang Panginoong buhay sa aking buhay? O Sa tuwing nakikita niya ako ay nasasabi na lang niyang ‘Diyos ko, OMG!!!?’” 

[2] Sa puntong ito maaaring palawakin ang talakayan gamit ang panukala ng PCP II sa Church of the Poor. Walang labis na dukha na walang maibibigay. At walang labis na mayaman na walang matatanggap. Sa gitna ng kahirapan ng buhay, meron pa ba tayong maibabahagi? Opo. Meron. Isa rito ay ang kwento ng karanasan mo sa Panginoon (faith-experience or God-experience). Yung mg kwento ng tuwa at saya ay malaking bagay na iyong maibabahagi sa iyong kapwa, di lahat meron niyan. Mapalad ka.

Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy

A.          Viktor Emil Frankl and Logotherapy; An Overview

It all began with an experience in a concentration camp. Viktor E. Frankl established logotherapy in the midst of human suffering, pain and death. Being a psychologist attending to the various needs of soldiers and prisoners alike, he saw how a man underwent misery in the hands of another man. He witnessed, as well, how the human person is capable of transcending himself from wretchedness to happiness, from meaninglessness to a meaningful life.[1]

Frankl instituted logotherapy when the world faced a seeming meaninglessness of life in the 1930’s, life in the world wars.[2] He was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna, Austria. He died in 1997 in the same place where he first saw the light of the world. His birthplace was the home of the renowned two psychotherapists; Freud and Adler. Surely these psychotherapists influenced him a lot in conceptualizing his own school of psychotherapy. Logotherapy is often called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy, next to Freud’s Psychoanalysis and Adler’s Individual Psychology. As a young student, he was able to write and publish an article on Freud. Such manifested his great interest in psychology at a young age. During the Second World War, he survived four concentration camps including Auschwitz in Poland from 1942-45, but not his wife Tilly Grosser and his parents. Returning to Vienna after the fall of the Nazis, he published his account of the events inside the concentration camps in his pioneering book The Doctor and the Soul, which appeared in English translation in 1959.[3]        

As an attending physician in some concentration camps during the war, Frankl saw the capacity of man to find meaning in his life. Despite the mental and physical atrocities afflicted to them by soldiers, some prisoners were able to continue their lives rather than end their lives. Prisoners who had reasons to continue living most often survived the camps. Such examples were those who had their love ones; wives and children, as their motivation to keep on living. In this way, by having a reason and inspiration, they were able to make their sufferings more meaningful. They saw their sufferings and pains as suffering and pain for someone. They were neither agony per se nor for nothing at all.[4] This fact can be encapsulated in a phrase uttered by Friedrich Nietzsche, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow.[5]” This was often used by Frankl in explicating meaning of life towards healing in man.

Logotherapy is an attempt to combine psychology with philosophy.[6] Its existential aspects stipulate that man is capable of choosing the meaning of a phenomenon and eventually the meaning of his life, no matter what physical and natural circumstances man faces. An important aspect of this therapy is known as the “tragic triad,” pain, guilt, and death.[7] Frankl’s  “Case for a Tragic Optimism” uses this philosophy to demonstrate “optimism in the face of tragedy and in view of the human potential, which at its best always allows for” turning suffering into human achievement and accomplishment, deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better, and deriving from life’s transitoriness and incentive to take responsible action.
            After the world wars, logotherapy finds itself all the more relevant to man.  It the philosophy of life of Frankl. It is used in the field of education, counseling, management, religious ministries and others.[8]  In the era of economic depression and meltdown, Cold war and unemployment, logotherapy serves as a beacon of light for man, reminding him of the meaningfulness of life.

B.          Logotherapy: Its Process

Logotherapy focuses on the meaning of human existence and the discovery of such a meaning by man.[9] The fundamental assumption of logotherapy states that man desires for the meaning of his life. Man has the will to meaning, in contrast to Freud’s will to pleasure and Adler’s will to power.[10] In everything he does, man strives to find the meaning of his life. Power and pleasure are merely means and effect in man’s existence. Meaning is the end of it.[11] But often, man is fixated with the former rather than the latter. Sometimes man is enamored with power and pleasure and finds himself unsatisfied even after attaining all the power and pleasure of his world.[12] 

Logotherapy intends to alleviate existential frustration in man. Existential frustration is the dissatisfaction of man’s will to meaning.[13]  Furthermore it causes, noögenic neuroses, which originates not in the psychological dimension of man but in the dimension of human existence.[14] In order to satisfy such frustration it is proper to utilize a therapy that can penetrate the dimension of human existence. Psychoanalysis and Individual Psychology cannot do what Logotherapy can.

Logotherapy is a process of dialogue between the doctor and the patient. Unlike in the case of other therapies, in logotherapy, the doctor neither dictates nor imposes his own conceived meaning of a phenomenon to the patient. He merely guides the patient towards a personal discovery of the meaning of such a phenomenon in his life.[15] Jim Lantz of Ohio State University describes the process of logotherapy as noticing, actualizing and honoring in relation with the future, present and past.[16] The existential frustrations of man are varied depending on the events (either of the future, present or past) he is engaged with, which serve as the object of logotherapy.

The therapist, in the process, induces a phenomenological struggle that assists and guides the patient towards the discovery (noticing) of the meaning potentials of a phenomenon that can be put into reality. The patient, upon the discovery of the meaning potentials can either choose to actualize (actualizing) such in the present or accept (honoring) such in the past.[17] But the use of phenomenological method imposes a great difficulty on the part of the patient. Patients suffering existential frustrations often discover meaning potentials that are “clouded, covered, ignored and repressed reactive to biochemical and physical problems, network and ecological stress, developmental problems and family life cycle problems.”[18]

            

C.             Man’s Freedom and Will to Meaning

Man takes a central place in logotherapy, being the patient suffering existential frustrations and the sole person who can satisfy such.[19] To understand fully the mechanics of logotherapy, it is vital to comprehend Frankl’s notion of man.

Man is a self-creating, self-determining being. He is not determined by his experiences or condition.[20] He is not a finish product but a project in the making. He alone has the power to finish such project. He is not fully subject to conditions but is basically free to decide and capable of taking his stance towards internal (psychological) and external (biological and social) conditions. This attribute of man is derived from his freedom; Freedom of (his) Will. Frankl argued that man has a spiritual core characterized by freedom. Since he has a free core, man cannot but be a free being.[21]  Frankl supported further the argument of man’s freedom through man’s responsibility. How can man be a responsible being without being free? Thus freedom is a prerequisite of being responsible.[22]

The logical consequence of man’s freedom is the activation of his will to meaning.[23] Freedom is not freedom from but freedom for. In the context of logotherapy, freedom is to will the meaning of one’s existence.[24] Man has the freedom to find meaning in what he does, he experiences, and in the stand he takes when confronted by situation of unchangeable suffering. When man cannot exercise his will to meaning, he experience abysmal sensation of meaninglessness and emptiness. He experiences existential vacuity.[25] This may trigger aggression, addiction, depression and suicidality. It may engender or increase psychosomatic maladies and neurotic disorders.[26] In such cases, a patient is guided by a therapist to uncover the meaning potentials inherent in the phenomenon he experiences.

The meaning of life, however, is not a created reality. It is not a product of imagination and creativity of the mind of man.[27] The meaning of life is an objective reality, inherent to phenomenon. This is in contrast to the so-called "Occupational and Recreational Therapies" which are primarily concerned with diverting the patients’ attention from disturbed or disturbing modes of experience.[28] Though objective in nature,, the meaning potentials belong to the particular moment which man experiences. This relationship between the meaning and the personal experience of man links meaning with man. In a sense, the objective meaning is made personal not by constituting it but through the fact that it belongs to a personal experience of man.[29] Thus meanings can vary from one person to another, in respect to the specific context and situation it is discovered.[30] Logotherapy does not offer a general meaning of life. It merely guides man towards the discovery of the meaning of his own life.        

D.               Meaning and Man’s Self- Transcendence

Meaning belongs to objective reality, free from the biases and delusion of man.[31] In logotherapy,  meaning is the object of man’s will. It is so important in this therapy that meanings be objective rather than self-projected. What man feels that he ought to do, or ought to be could never be effective if it were nothing but an invention of him rather than a discovery.[32] If meaning is self-projected, then there is nothing outside the mind of man that corresponds to it, making such a meaning a total subjectivity, incommunicable to others. Inauthentic existence is the repercussion of self-projection; a meaningless existence.[33] To be human is to exist for someone or something other than self.[34] Despite the subjectivity contained in man, Frankl argues that it is still possible to perceive meaning objectively through phenomenological reduction.

            The process of discovering the objective meaning inherent in every phenomenon man experiences takes the form of a dialogue between the patient and the therapist. But unlike in other schools of psychotherapy, the patient and the logotherapist speak, and listen to one another.[35] The two engage themselves in a so-called Socratic Dialogue; others would call it the modification of attitudes.[36] This is a form of inquiry with a set of questions aimed to make the patient aware of the meaning potentials of the phenomenon and his capacity to actualize such a meaning. 

Every man has biases and preconceived notions about a particular phenomenon. These can be effects of his environment, upbringing, or past experiences. These can be hindrances to man in realizing his will to meaning.[37] He may find a phenomenon meaningless due to his past experience of the same type of phenomenon, without even careful and critical analysis of the phenomenon at hand. The logotherapist in the process leads the patient to self-transcendence.[38] This involves detachment from oneself, including from one’s biases and preconceived notions. It is only through this process that a genuine dialogue is possible; when one is reaching out toward a being other than oneself. The logotherapist, on his part, avoids imposing his own meaning upon the phenomenon. He guides the patient towards the knowledge of his unrealistic and counterproductive attitude towards the phenomenon. He assists the patient in developing a new outlook that can better achieve a meaningful life.

Operating within the Socratic Dialogue is Husserl’s phenomenological method. Frankl adopted Husserl’s phenomenological method as his methodology to arrive at the objectivity of meaning.[39]   Phenomenological method facilitates a return to the things themselves. It is comprised by a process of suspending the empirical subjectivity in order to define pure consciousness in its essentials and absolute being. This involves the movement from empirical to transcendental knowledge. This is accomplished through the process of bracketing the empirical data away from consideration. It is the deferment of judgment regarding the true nature of reality. The pure ego is able to experience a pure consciousness of a pure phenomenon.[40] The phenomenological reduction is defined as the explication of the method practiced in the examination of phenomena.[41] Through this adoption of Husserl’s methodology, Frankl was able to propose the possibility of perceiving meaning potentials objectively. Frankl states,

As we see, the unbiased analysis of the unbiased man in the street reveals how he actually experiences values (meanings). Such an analysis is phenomenological, and as such it refrains from any preconceived patterns of interpretation and abstains from forcing phenomena into the Procrustean bed of pet concepts along lines of a particular indoctrination, pet concepts such as ‘underlying psychodynamics’ or ‘operant conditioning.’[42]

 Meaning potentials are those which are perceived objectively. In effect, they themselves are objective.[43] They are inherent in the phenomenon being examined. They are found by man as latent potentialities waiting for an agent to actuate them. They serve as parameter of the possibilities that a phenomenon may signify. Thus, they dictate the limitation of what a thing may mean. And consequently, they limit man’s freedom and define his responsibility.[44] 

            Meanings are classified in three, based on the manner by which they are discovered. Meanings are known through the things one does, by an encounter with someone, and through the stand one takes towards an unalterable experience, which classify meanings as creative, experiential, or attitudinal, respectively.[45] Creativity implies contributing something to the world through the use of man’s talents expressed in various ways. Experiencing means receiving from something from the world through nature, culture, relationships, interactions with others and with one’s environment. Attitudinal is the change of attitude towards an event or a phenomenon belonging to the past which man cannot change anymore. Nonetheless, man can change his outlook towards the past. This act of deriving meaning from the past is characterized by self-transcendence, especially in cases of death, suffering and guilt.

E.             Choosing and  Healing

With meaning as his primary motivation in life, man desires for meaning. This moves him to search for such a meaning. Upon the discovery of meaning potentials in the phenomenon he experiences at present, the patient faces the task of choosing what meaning potentials he will actualize among the many possibilities he discovered from his experience.[46] It is through this process that healing from existential frustration becomes possible.[47] With this, it appears that logotherapy is a dynamic process involving the act of discovering and choosing meaning to be fulfilled.[48] This is carried out through the fact that man is capable of self-transcendence to know a meaning and is free to fulfill a meaning. Frankls states,

Ultimately, man is not subject to the conditions that confront him; rather, these conditions are subject to his decision. Wittingly or unwittingly, he decides whether he will face up or give in, whether or not he will let himself be determined by the conditions. Of course, it could be objected that such decisions are themselves determined. But it is obvious that this results in a regressus in infinitum. A statement by Magda B. Arnold epitomizes this state of affairs and lends itself as an apt conclusion of the discussion: ‘ All choices are caused but they are caused by the chooser.’[49]

The problem of noögenic neurosis is the problem that logotherapy seeks to solve. Noögenic neurosis occurs in the noölogical dimension of man. Noös can be translated into English as spirit.[50] Thus, noögenic neurosis, can be found in the spiritual dimension of man. However, in the context of logotherapy, the spiritual dimension does not have any religious definition. Though in general perception, spirit is defined in relation with religions. The noölogical dimension or the spiritual dimension is defined as the dimension in which the specifically human phenomena are located.[51]

Neglect of this dimension is the common mistake committed by other schools of psychotherapy (Freudian and Adlerian). Such negligence has a repercussion in the overall view of what man is and human phenomena are.[52] Human phenomena are downgraded to the psychological level from the noölogical dimension. This is a obliteration of the noölogical dimension, of the human dimension.[53] Man is viewed, in the said schools, through the planes of biological and psychological planes. This entails the incapacity of man to transcend from biological and psychological foundations. Furthermore, this means that man is incapable of living an authentic existence, for to exist authentically is to transcend oneself from these foundations. Self-transcendence is the essence of existence. And existence is the human mode of being.[54] Thus, the proper approach to human existence, with the neuroses involve, is neither biological nor psychological, but existential, taking into consideration the noölogical dimension of man.[55]  By examining the neuroses in their proper framework, healing becomes possible in man, enabling him to live an authentic existence.   

---

[1] MSM, 17.

[2] “What is Logotherapy and Existential Analysis?” http://logotherapy.univie.ac. at/e/institute _wwE.html, accessed: December 3, 2009.

[3] “Introduction to Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy,” http://www.logotherapyinstitute.org/life-and-works.html, accessed: June 16, 2010.  

[4] UCFM, 47.

[5] MSM, 109.

[6]  Crowell, Existentialism.  

[7] PAE, 56.

[8] Lantz, Depression. Existential Family Therapy, and Viktor Frankl’s Dimensional Ontology,19-32.

[9] MSM, 104.

[10] Ibid.

[11] WTM, 34.

[12] Ibid.

[13] The term “existential” may be used in three ways: to refer to (1) existence itself, i.e., the specifically human mode of being; (2) the meaning of existence; and (3) the striving to find a concrete meaning in personal existence, that is to say, the will to meaning (MSM, 106).

[14] Ibid.

[15] UG, 131.

[16] Lantz, Phenomenological Reflection and Time in Viktor Frankl’s Existential Psychotherapy, 220.

[17] Ibid. 222.

[18] Ibid. 223.

[19] PAE, 71-74.

[20] MSM, 133.

[21] UG, 28.

[22] Ponsaran, The Concept of Man in Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy, (Manila: University of Santo Tomas, 2000), 134.

[23] WTM, 48-49.

[24] UG, 121.

[25] PAE, 73.

[26] “What is Logotherapy and Existential Analysis?” http://logotherapy.univie.ac. at/e/institute _wwE.html, accessed: December 3, 2009.

[27] WTM, 64.

[28] Ibid.

[29] UG, 124.

[30] WTM, 54.

[31] UCFM, 37-38.

[32] UG. 58.

[33] Ponsaran, The Concept of Man in Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy. 143.

[34] WTM, 25-26

[35] PAE, 77-78.

[36] “What is Logotherapy and Existential Analysis?” http://logotherapy.univie.ac. at/e/institute _wwE.html, accessed: December 3, 2009.

[37] Lantz, Phenomenological Reflection and Time in Viktor Frankl’s Existential Psychotherapy, 220.

[38] PAE, 82-83.

[39] W.F.J. Ryan S.J., “Viktor Frankl’s Notion of Intentionality.” In Essays in Honor of Bernard Lonergan, eds., Timothy F. Fallon SJ and Philip Boo Riley (New York: State University of New York Press, 1987) 79-93.

[40] Jovi Jim Aguas, “Edmund Husserl: Phenomenology,” (lecture delivered at Philippine Dominican Center of Institutional Studies, Quezon City, Philippines, on July 2, 2010); 5-6.

[41] Paul Ricoeur, Husserl: An Analysis of his Phenomenology (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1967); 9-10.

[42] UG, 125.

[43] UCFM, 38.

[44] UG, 129-130.

[45] WTM, 70-71.

[46] UCFM, 47.

[47] WTM, 45-46.

[48] Logotherapy is a process less retrospective and less introspective. It focuses rather on the future, that is to say, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future. Indeed, it is a meaning-centered psychotherapy. At the same time, it defocuses all the vicious circle formations and feedback mechanisms which play such a great role in the development of neuroses. Thus, the typical self-centeredness of the neurotic is broken up instead of being continually fostered and reinforced (MSM, 104.).

[49] UCFM, 48.

[50]Marciana Agnes G. Ponsaran, “The Philosophical Foundations of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy.” Philippiniana Sacra Vol. XLII No. 125 (2007): 340.

[51] Mat Gelman. “On Viktor Frankl’s Legacy.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 32 Issues 2 (2001): 307-308. URL: http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=4&sid=01a55fa8-acf1-4192-9c08-635e188c3e14%40sessionmgr112&vid=43&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d# db=m nh&AN=9588317, accessed July 15, 2010.

[52] WTM, 33-34.

[53] “What is Logotherapy and Existential Analysis?” http://logotherapy.univie.ac. at/e/institute _wwE.html, accessed: December 3, 2009.

[54] DAS, 294.

[55] PAE, 73-74.