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On Suicide

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“Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable.” -Viktor Frankl

This comes from a man who lived in post-WWI Austria – a time when his country was experiencing a national identity crisis, a horrific unemployment rate, deplorable living conditions, and one of the highest suicide rates in history.  He chose to work with suicidal patients, and significantly decreased the rate of suicide in his clinic.

Then he went on to suffer for three years in Nazi concentration camps.

He saw dozens of suicides.  He contemplated taking his own life on several occasions to free himself from suffering.

But he didn’t.  Because he didn’t, we was able to go on to found the “Third School of Viennese Psychotherapy”, become a prolific writer and speaker – one of his books is in the “Top 10 of most gifted books of the past 100 years”, and impact thousands of lives.

It is sad when we hear of the suicide of a well known person.  It is absolutely heartbreaking when it is member of our own community.  It can be absolutely devastating when it is a child or teen.

We live in the most advanced and successful times in human history – one would think suicide would be unknown.  But because we also live in a time of questionable values and dying traditions, people sometimes find life to be “meaningless”.  Thus suicide becomes an option for some.

I tell you, even in our worst moment, life still has meaning – it still has tasks for us to complete, responsibilities to fulfill, life to be lived.

As Dr. Elizabeth Lukas says, “Every human life has it unconditional meaning.  The hand that ends life also lets this hidden meaning be forever unfulfilled.”  (The Therapist and the Soul, p. 191)

What is the meaning in your life?  What is life asking of you today?  How do you go about helping those around you discover meaning, so that suicide is never an option?

I found this as I was wrapping up Jordan B. Peterson’s latest book – I thought it might be relevant to this discussion:

“People are very tough.  People can survive through much pain and loss.  But to persevere they must see the good in Being.  If they lose that, they are truly lost.” (p.351)


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