Tag Archives: Viktor Frankl

The Folly of Mind Over Matter

Culture, Sin, , , , , , ,

In Book I of Paradise Lost, Satan, examining his situation in hell, remarks that “the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” On its face, this line expresses a profound truth about the nature of the mind. Often when someone has a totally different worldview than us, one might say that “they live in a different reality.” The truth is that we all are tempted by this sentiment in the same way that many naive readers, such as Saul Alinsky, are tempted to read Satan as the heroic figure in Paradise Lost. After all, perhaps we are like gods, and perhaps, therefore, we do have the right to define heaven and hell for ourselves. It seems to be the conclusion that many have reached, so we should at least spend some time giving it thought.

What we will examine in this article is not just the idea that our minds can help us cope with or even heal suffering, as seen in the placebo effect, but, instead, the philosophy behind the saying “mind over matter.” Namely, the idea that by becoming arbiters of our own experience we can become arbiters of reality.

Giving the Devil His Due

In the spirit of intellectual honesty, we will begin by looking at the truth of “mind over matter.” When faced with extreme circumstances a man’s attitude towards those circumstances makes a world of difference. As Viktor Frankl observes in Man’s Search for Meaning, one’s attitude towards the brutality of the camps were what made the difference between a saint and a monster. It is rather astonishing that the same set of circumstances produced saints such as St. Maximilian Kolbe, and monsters such as the kapos1 who were often crueler than the guards themselves. For Kolbe and the countless other heroes and saints of the concentration camps, the suffering was seen as something that could be received with courage and could even be sanctifying. However, for the prisoners who became cruel, the suffering became a justification for them to behave as they pleased. While their minds did not change the reality of the circumstances they found themselves in, for the heroes of the camps it was their mindset which changed their experience from tragic to sanctifying.

The Limits

There is, however, a limit to this power. One’s mind can determine attitude and experience, but it cannot change the reality itself. There is tremendous danger in thinking so. Modern thinking has become infected with this idea. Take for example the use of the term “manifesting”. While this term is often used in an ironic way, there are, unfortunately, far too many examples of people who take it seriously. On a more serious note, the contraceptive pill represents a far more established version of this same fatal idea. It is “medicine” that no longer attempts to restore the body to its natural function, but instead is man’s attempt to determine how the body ought to work for himself. The debates over gay marriage and transgenderism suffer from the same problem. Oftentimes, those who oppose either of these are called bigots, but that misunderstands the argument. We are not arguing that we would prefer gay marriage, and transgenderism to not exist, but that the terms do not describe reality. Marriage is the exclusive, permanent, and procreative union of a man and woman regardless of what anyone says, and we simply wish to recognize that. Similarly, transgenderism is not a word that describes a real phenomenon, because transgender is not a real category. This does not mean that people who claim to be transgender do not exist as activists will often say we are claiming, but that these people are, sadly, mistaken about who they are.

Reality Reasserts Itself

These attempts to alter reality with one’s mind do not just affect the individual either. They have real consequences. Babies are sold to “married” men to grow up without mothers. Women alter their hormones to such a degree that it changes who they are attracted to. Children are handed over to butchers, otherwise known as gender-affirmation surgeons, to affirm the delusions of adults. Language itself is no longer a means of communication, but is simply a vehicle for imposing one’s own mind. I do not mean to point these realities out in a hyperbolic way, but far too often we euphemize grave evils away.

Returning now to Paradise Lost, one may be tempted to think that Satan’s words in Book I represent the triumphant spirit of a rebel, but that would require neglecting his tragic observation later in the poem. In Book IV he realizes that the mind cannot make hell into heaven, and that hell now follows him wherever he goes: “Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell.” In many ways, this is the tragedy of human history. Since the beginning, man has tried to set himself up as a god, and the consequences have always been disastrous. The truth is that God is God, and we are not. There is no amount of technology, wealth, or power that will change that fact. Reality must be accepted, or it will impose itself. It is not optional. The mind that thinks it can impose itself on reality is driven to madness, as is evident from the paragraph above. God bestowed a beautiful gift and dignity on humanity by giving us minds, but if we wish to usurp Him with those minds we will not find enlightenment and intellectual freedom. Instead we will find madness and despair.

  1. Prisoners who collaborated with the guards ↩︎

Happiness and the Good Life

Faith and Reason, Virtue, , , , , ,

Happiness is one of the most enduring ideas in the history of the world. One could go all the way back to the ancient Greeks and their idea of happiness as human flourishing, or eudaimonia. In our time, happiness is still a fundamental idea in the lives of ordinary people. You would be hard pressed to find a person who does not want to be happy. In fact, since the human will is inclined to work towards the good that it perceives, a man cannot help but act towards his own happiness. Or, at the very least, his perceived happiness. Herein lies the issue in many of our modern day conversations about happiness, for as much as it is talked about it is almost never defined. Postmodernists did away with the idea that there was any uniting narrative for humanity, and it seems that as a consequence the idea that happiness had any objective basis was thrown out as well. The prevailing notion in our age is that the question of what makes a person happy is up to each individual to decide for him or herself. So what is happiness? And how should we go about obtaining it?

Happiness as an Activity

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines happiness as an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. Thus, happiness is not merely a feeling or something that can be subjectively defined. It is an activity which we participate in. A person is happy insofar as they are virtuous. This view is more robust than our modern conception of happiness. Our modern conception of happiness is based around how a man feels about his life, or the external circumstances of his life, but if we view happiness as an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue then it is not dependent on the external circumstances of one’s life. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, makes the case that meaning and happiness are not found in one’s external circumstances. He observes that those who were able to survive the concentration camps were not necessarily the most physically fit, but the ones who had a strong interior life. This fits with Aristotle’s further commentary on happiness in Book X of Nicomachean Ethics. He writes, “If happiness is activity in accordance with virtue, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest virtue; and this will be that of the best thing in us… That this activity is contemplative we have already said.” So for Aristotle, happiness is a contemplative activity. This does not mean that in order to be happy we need to withdraw from society and go live a life of contemplation in the wilderness. We are social creatures, we need relationships to flourish, and have obligations to our families and society. However, true happiness cannot be found unless we take intentional time to spend in contemplation and reflection. The man who lives only for his shallow external circumstances will find that his happiness is not enduring and can be stripped away in a moment’s notice.

Man’s Final End

Aristotle’s vision of happiness is a natural happiness. It is a happiness that we can achieve by our own nature. However, there is a happiness promised to us as Christians that we cannot achieve by our nature: supernatural happiness. For Aquinas, this supernatural happiness finds its completion in the Beatific Vision which is the vision of God enjoyed by those in Heaven. Christ speaks of this happiness when He says, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15: 10-11). Natural happiness is not a complete picture of human happiness. We were not created for this life alone. The beginning of the Baltimore Catechism sums this up well: “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” Supernatural happiness cannot be achieved separate from natural happiness. Grace perfects nature and does not destroy it as Aquinas famously stated. We ought to seek virtue in this life, and by cooperation with God’s grace and the sacraments obtain everlasting happiness in the next. Any other view of happiness will be incomplete.

Aristotle correctly posits that in order for happiness to be our final end it must be self-sufficient and not lacking. However, if we restrict our happiness to things of this life we will run into the problem of desire which C.S. Lewis speaks of in Mere Christianity when he says, “I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy.” Therefore, seek virtue and happiness in this life, but never despair of our ultimate happiness in the next. Let us always keep in mind the closing lines of the serenity prayer: “Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever.”