Web-Based Issue Position Statement :: Essays Papers

Web-Based Issue Position StatementIntroduction The use of research laboratory puppets in the schoolroom is an extremely controversial issue. Ethics as well as religion are challenged with the dissection of animals. This controversy is not a new one, animal dissection has been dis regulateed for well over a hundred years (National Research Council, 1988). There have been numerous court cases concerning this issue and laws have been enacted to give assimilators the correct to refrain from participating in animal dissection (NABT, 1990). Background Animal dissection started hundreds of years ago in order to gain a better understanding of how the carcass works. It has helped us to learn about, prevent, and cure diseases that could have otherwise never been understood (National Research Council, 1988). Without animal research human health in general would be at a much lower level. ..in the United States, animal experimentation has contributed to an increase in average life expe ctancy of about twenty flipper years since 1900 (Research Council, 1988). Dissection was not used in the classroom until 1920 and did not become part of the regular curriculum until the 1960s (NABT, 1990). The original attitude towards dissection in the classroom was generally supportive and understanding of the benefits of this type of study. In 1987 high school student Jennifer Graham went to court after her grade was lowered because she refused to participate in a frog dissection. After this incident, public opinion on dissection in the classroom completely changed (NABT, 1990). Since then, the controversy has heightened and researchers continue to debate with animal rights activists on the issue. lot in support of animal use in the classroom present several arguments, the most popular being that it is a hands-on experience that allows student the opportunity to understand the body form and function (Lewis, 1997). It also allows students to see the actual placement of var iety meat, the appearance and texture of tissues and organs, and the relationship of the organs with one some other (NABT, 1990). Howard E. Buhse, associate director of the department of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, claims that through dissection students gain a respect for the complicated way a body is put together. Buhse also states that the plastic models throw students off because, unlike the models, no body has perfect organs and there is natural anatomical variation of the placement of the organs (Lewis, 1997).

The war of the worlds Essay -- English Literature

The war of the worldsThis essay will discuss how chapter four the cylinder unscrews is meaning(a) to the fiction as a whole. The war of the worlds waswritten by Herbert George Wells, the young was written in response toseveral historical events. The most important one was the unificationand militirisation of Germany. The war of the worlds was written in1894 which later in 1983 was windy on radio broadcast by Orson Wells.The novel is about Martians invading earth because they can no longersurvive on mars. The people approximate everything to get rid of the Martiansbut in the end nature wins against science. H.G. Wells has included alot of science fiction in this account statement which makes this story effective.In the 1st chapter the narrator describes how Earth may be seen bygreater, more intelligent forces same as humans with microscopesscrutinize the transient. This novel is unagitated popular today for thewait of a big film coming out next year.The fundamental reason to why the cylinder unscrews is important tothe novel as a whole is because its the first time we seetheMartians, but there are also many other reasons to why this chapter isimportant to the novel as a whole. as we can see at the beginning ofchapter four we see signs of unease and fear arising the voices wereraised the first sure evidence of actual fear is in chapter four aswell, when the narrator passes the young boy as he heads for home Idont like it. At this point the crowd is also getting more worriedand closer to the danger. Further on in the chapter we come to thebuild up of suspense towards the cylinder being unscrewed I had thesunset in my eyes revelation delayed by a description of what peopleexpected to ... ...hing of the lungs in a strangeatmosphere.The science fiction part is again where the author describes thebreathing of the Martians the description of the Martians is part ofscience fiction but is more of a fantasy and is completely imaginedtentacles. The historical fits in with the chapter because the storywas most appealing to the Victorian reader Wells used his scientificknowledge to intrigue the reader. The mixer concept in the story issymbolic and shows cruse characterisation of the mob.In conclusion this chapter is important to the novel as a wholebecause it is the first time we suit the Martians base on the evidencein this essay. My views about the war of the worlds is that althoughthe writer used a lot of science fiction in the first guide chapters itwas really effective when it came to the actual description of theMartians.

Sexuality in John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums Essay -- Chrysanthemu

Sexuality in Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums Reading over this excellent story once more, I am again filled with the same emotion (if it can be called that) that I experienced when first reading it. Steinbeck planned for that. In a letter to George Albee in 1933, Steinbeck comments on this story and his interest in Albees opinion of it. ...It is entirely different and is designed to strike without the readers knowledge. I mean he reads it casually and after it is finished feels that several(prenominal)thing profound has happened to him although he does not know what nor how. I knew after reading this, that Steinbeck is truly a marvel. It is one thing to have enough sight to leave your readers with this sense after theyve read something of yours, precisely to have it happen to them when youve actually planned it This is incredible. I was not the only person feel what Steinbeck had planned. And in that group, I was not the only one to want to pick apart this story to find out why I felt this way, what he mean me to feel, and what his story meant taking all things into consideration. when looking at various criticisms, I found a division line that could be made between the sexes. intimately women agreed with me and felt the sexual tension apparent in the story. This sexual tension was quiet and sensual. The only men that picked up on this picked out some overtly sexual innuendoes and chose to ignore the subtleties as Elizas mood changes and tone of voice. The other men attributed any sexual tension to Elizas need for children, which is a valid point, but it ignores too many other things in the story to fit it well. ... ...e predominantly male or predominantly female side, nor can they be pushed into little pigeonhole holes that define the different stereo-types of a woman. Her androgyny uses such stereo-types to define her, and to go over that and then use even more to define the end crossway of the story would be a mistake. Works Cited Ste inbeck, John. The Chrysanthemums 1937. Literature. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs eds. London Prentice Hall, 1998. Mitchell, Marylin L. Steinbecks Strong Women Feminine Identity in the Short Stories, Southwest Review, Vol. 61, No. 3, Summer, 1976, pp. 304-15. McMahah, Elizabeth E. The Chrysanthemums body of work of a Womans Sexuality, Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. XIV, No 4. Winter, 1968-69, pp. 453-58. Hughes, R. S. John Steinbeck A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1989.

A Compare and Contrast of Thomas Moores Utopia and Machiavelli?s The Pr

Just vs. ViableTo be just is to be fair and honorable. Kids are taught that if you are kind and just you will excel and be successful. and lifes not fair and being just doesnt necessary mean that a hostelry will stand the test of term and be able to grow. The two different societies introduced in Mores Utopia and Machiavellis The Prince are very different and although Mores Utopian society would be considered more than just then Machiavellis society. Machiavellis society is more realistic and more same(p)ly to be viable. Leadership is a major(ip) issue when it comes to whether or not a society is going to be viable. It seems that if the leader is a good leader, a leader that puts his people first and wants the take up for his country, then the land and the society should flourish. and if the leader is a bad leader, a power driven leader, a leader who puts himself first, and lets his people starve era he and his nobles live in excess, then the society and land will not flouri sh. This idea is not demonstrated to us in Utopia or The Prince it seems like the exact opposite. Utopia has a more democratic govern handst. Each set of households elects someone and then those elects elect others, and although there is a prince they still have the power to own him out of office if hes involved in any wrong doing. And although their prince doesnt have as much power as a prince in Machiavellis writing the prince in Utopia serves a different purpose. The prince in Utopia is there to provide stability. With the syphogrants and tranibors changing annually the stability of a constant figure of speech head is needed. More describes the government as followsOnce a year, every multitude of thirty households elects an official,Formerly called the syphogrant, exactly now called the phylarch. OverEvery group of ten syphogrants with their households there is another official, once called the tranibor but now known as the head phylarch. All the syphogrants, two hundred in n umber, are brought unitedly to elect the prince. They take an oath to choose the man they think best qualified and then by secret ballot they elect they prince from among four men nominated by the people of the four sections of the city. The prince holds office for life, unless he is suspected of aiming at a t... ...s. But this society was in no way more just then the Utopian society, although this society was more viable. They had what it took to last, to grow and to flourish. Both societies have there good points and both societies have their flaws. More imagined a sunrise(prenominal) society, even though it still carried some remnants of the one he knew. And the Utopian society looked great on paper they were very just and honorable people. But when examined in depth it falls apart. This society wouldnt last people dont think that way. Machiavelli criticized and critiqued history, he took things he knew and said how they could be do better for future societies. Except societi es and societal ideas evolve, ideas that worked then dont always work now. His society was based on backstabbing and deceitfulness, appearing virtuous but not actually being virtuous. So although his society would have lasted, it was far from just. But this is the opinion looking back at these texts. When these texts were written More and Machiavelli both thought these were the ideal societies. But if More and Machiavelli knew what people know now would their societal ideas still be what they were?

Brown versus Board of Education Essay -- Race Segregation

Imagine that your walk to school lasts longer that sixty legal proceeding even though a school is five minutes away. When you finally get there, you enter a shack with makeshift tables and a dirt floor. You do not get paper or writing utensils and you surely do not get good books. Your teacher, who did not even finish her education, hands you a book that another school determined outdated and tossed away. But on one glorious day, May 17, 1954, a promise of change is made. The Supreme salute gave you the right to attend that school at the end of your block, a previously designated white school (Rodgers 1). The next day you and your parents wear nice clothes and walk down the street to the school to enroll for the following school year. You get there and stand proud of yourself and of your new school as you move towards the doyens office. You are confronted with terrifying looks of disgust from your white counterparts as they deny you admission based on the color of your ski n. Unfortunately, for many African Americans, this was a cosmos in the years following the Brown versus Board of Education decision (Stephan 19). Although we have made considerable progress since then, our job is far from finished. When examining statistics on interrogation scores, the quality of schools with African Americans making the majority, on housing segregation and white flight, it quickly becomes apparent that whites and blacks have different numbers. This is due primarily to the ongoing survey that black people are inferior to them dating back to the pre-emancipation period. Even at the fiftieth anniversary of the infamous Brown versus Board of Education decision, discrepancies betwixt the races remain prevalent.Oliver L. Brown painstakingly wat... ...earch/reseg04/brown50.pdf.Orfield, Gary, Daniel Iosen, Johanna Wald, and Christopher B. Swanson. Losing our Future How Minority Youths are being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis. The Civil Rights Project . 25 Feb. 2004 .Rogers, Frederick A. The foreboding(a) High School and Its Community. Massachusetts Lexington Books, 1975.Stephan, Walter G., and Joe R. Feagin, eds. School Desegregation Past, Present, and Future. New York Plenum Press, 1980.Toppo, Greg. Integrated Schools Still a Dream 50 Years Later. USA Today 28 Apr. 2004.United States. Bureau of the Census. Historical Income Tables. Washington GPO, 2001.Yamasaki, Mitch. Using Rock N Roll to Teach the History of Post-World War II America. The History Teacher 29.2 (1996) 179-193.

Brown versus Board of Education Essay -- Race Segregation

Imagine that your walk to prep atomic number 18 lasts longer that sixty transactions even though a school is five minutes away. When you finally get there, you enter a shack with makeshift tables and a dirt floor. You do not get paper or writing utensils and you sure do not get good books. Your teacher, who did not even finish her education, hands you a book that another school determined outdated and tossed away. alone on one glorious day, May 17, 1954, a promise of change is made. The Supreme Court gave you the right to attend that school at the end of your block, a previously designated white school (Rodgers 1). The next day you and your parents wear nice clothes and walk down the street to the school to enroll for the following school year. You get there and stand proud of yourself and of your new school as you move towards the Deans office. You are confronted with terrifying looks of disgust from your white counterparts as they deny you admission based on the color o f your skin. Unfortunately, for many African Americans, this was a reality in the years following the Brown versus Board of knowledge decision (Stephan 19). Although we have made considerable progress since then, our job is far from finished. When examining statistics on testing scores, the quality of schools with African Americans making the majority, on housing separationism and white flight, it quickly becomes apparent that whites and blacks have different numbers. This is due primarily to the ongoing perspective that black people are inferior to them dating impale to the pre-emancipation period. Even at the fiftieth anniversary of the infamous Brown versus Board of Education decision, discrepancies between the races remain prevalent.Oliver L. Brown painstakingly wat... ...earch/reseg04/brown50.pdf.Orfield, Gary, Daniel Iosen, Johanna Wald, and Christopher B. Swanson. Losing our Future How Minority Youths are being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis. The Civil R ights Project. 25 Feb. 2004 .Rogers, Frederick A. The Black High School and Its Community. Massachusetts Lexington Books, 1975.Stephan, Walter G., and Joe R. Feagin, eds. School Desegregation Past, Present, and Future. saucily York Plenum Press, 1980.Toppo, Greg. Integrated Schools Still a Dream 50 Years Later. USA Today 28 Apr. 2004.United States. Bureau of the Census. Historical Income Tables. Washington GPO, 2001.Yamasaki, Mitch. Using inclination N Roll to Teach the History of Post-World War II America. The History Teacher 29.2 (1996) 179-193.

Legal Process

Discrimination is rampant. In the workplace, troth discrimination can take various forms. According to the United States lucifer physical exertion prospect armorial bearing (2004.), it is illegal to discriminate in any aspect of employment. Employment discrimination can be based on sex, race, color, religion, deterrent or sexual orientation. federal and state employment discrimination laws prohibit employers from engaging in unfair employment practices (Justia.com, n.d.).Most of the employment discrimination cases be handled first by the tally Employment chance Commission before a case may be filed in chat up. According to the U.S. Office of force-out Management (n.d.), the concern Employment hazard or EEO complaint process is a legal process designed to resolve allegations of employment discrimination and vengeance. The legal process sis composed of three parts. First is the pre complaint counseling process. Second, the formal complaint process. Lastly, the appeal proc ess (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, n.d.).At the counseling process, John will be referred to an officer so that he may be apprised of his rights and the remedies made available for him under the various equal employment hazard laws. This is where John can be advised of the best course of action to take and the corresponding costs and benefits of the relief. The formal complaint process shall stick after John filed a blast and the investigation proper. At this stage, the complainant, John, and the answering, and his employer, are already authorise to the right to appeal. Should they feel that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission erred in its resolution or investigation, they may file an appeal according to the provisions of law.If a person feels that his employment rights as regards equal employment opportunity have been violated, he can start the legal battle by filing a discrimination complaint at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, it should be noted that another person may also file a complaint in behalf of another person who has been discriminated against (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2007.In Johns case, he can start his complaint by filling out an intake questionnaire which shall be submitted to the nearest Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office either personally or by mail. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2007), an intake questionnaire or other correspondence can constitute a charge under the statutes if it contains all the information required by EEOC regulations governing the contents of a charge and constitutes a clear request for the agency to act.In order to complete the charge, relevant information should be provided including the names, addresses and contact numbers of the complainant and the respondent employer. A short description of the acts complained of or of the acts constituting the violation. After which, John should see the national Sector E qual Employment Opportunity Complaint Processing (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2007).After the complaint has been filed, the Commission will inform the respondent of the nature of the complaint. Then, the Commission will act on the complaint either by referring it to a priority investigation if it appears that there is a convincing proof that a violation indeed happened or request for a occur up investigation should the complaint need additional evidence. However, settlement efforts can be resorted to at any stage of the investigation.In this case, should Johns employer be willing to negotiation or submit into alternative disputer resolution like mediation. However, should these efforts prove unsuccessful, the investigation shall continue. After investigation, the EEOC will issue recommendation and judgment as to the charges. After which, should the EEOC decide in favor of John, a right to sue can be issued in his favor so that eh can file a formal complaint in the courts of law.The suit should be filed within 90 days following the issuance of the right to sue (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2003). Pursuant to Title 28, U.S. Code, Section 1914, John is required to pay a filing fee, which can be given back to him should judgment be rendered in his favor together with all other costs of litigation. John should know that under the law, he is entitled to a number of remedies.He shall be entitled to back wages, reinstatement, hiring, promotion or reasonable accommodation including the payment of attorneys fees and other costs of the suit. Compensatory damages can also be awarded should designed discrimination be found (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2003).Once a complaint is filed in court, it shall undergo the usual proceedings in court until a judgment is rendered and the judge in order for the decision to be adhered to, either in favor of John or his employer issues a Writ of Execution.ReferencesThe Fe deral Judiciary. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved January 12, 2008Justia.com. (n.d.). Employment Discrimination. Retrieved January 12, 2008, from http//www.justia.com/employment/employment-discrimination/The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2003). EEOCs Charge Processing Procedures. Retrieved January 12, 2008, from http//www.eeoc.gov/charge/overview_charge_processing.htmlThe U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2004). Discriminatory Practices. Retrieved January 12, 2008, from http//www.eeoc.gov/abouteeo/overview_practices.htmlThe U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2007). Filing a Charge of Employment Discrimination. Retrieved January 12, 2008U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (n.d.). Laws and Executive Orders. Retrieved January 12, 2008, from http//www.opm.gov/disability/appempl_5-01.asp

Ebonics and Education Essay

A Persuasive Research Paper on the Why Education Should coat Way for Ebonics All a person needs to do is turn on the television or browse the Internet to see the proof that in that location be very important changes in the baseball club. Among those changes is how the use of language increased and how its stamps control greatly grown. With much slang, dialects and language transformation and combinations, the number of languages completely over the world and not just in the United States, have significantly grown larger and bigger.However, the suspicion of whether this continuous dynamic change in languages is for the expose remains to be seen. This is because, though languages have changed and grown, problems ca employ by miscommunication and misunderstandings are still rampant and present. Although language and all its combinations with another(prenominal) languages aimed to bridge the gap between nations and cultures, unlike raft with different origins and speech are s till unable to bridge that gap. There are still many issues concerning the cropping up and usage of new languages. some common among those is the problem that languages which are combined or which undergo a linguistic blend tends to be disruptive of formal, gear up and grammatical language. A plain example would be those music videos which feature artists that combine and contract structure of words to suffer the song more likeable or even more attuned to the rhythm of the song. However, this has a negative effect as people, or so especially young adults and children, become familiar with such language usage to the point that they attempt to emulate them.Such line has long been the topic in educational boards and institutions of whether they should correct and put stop to such language usage or assist such exchange of words since clearly, the young are affected. In fact, Ebonics or cutting English or African American English has become such a heated topic when it was quite obvious that thither is a problem among the academics of African American students because they have such low grades and low public presentation levels that could be attributed to the usage of Ebonics.Many people sided against and for the encouragement of Ebonics. Study after study ensued to prove that Ebonics was an important and integral part of the many pupils and students since that is the language they actually use while others also discouraged its usage. Through this paper, it can be argued that Ebonics is not a mere slang which African American students can do with by and that it is not something which should be corrected just because it is seen as ungrammatical.Instead, what the educational boards and institutions should do is cater to their find outers and use Ebonics to implement knowledge transfer among their pupils and students and eventually make them learn and use measuring stick English. Ebonics is formally known as African American English or AAE according to th e Center for Applied Linguistics (n. p. ). It is a kindly of sociolect or social dialect where it is often used by people who are of African American origins in particular surroundings or situations.The deviation of Ebonics with American English is its structure wherein African dialects and sounds are combined, blended, mixed with American English. American English is also sometimes contracted with African dialects or sounds to be inserted within the contractions. Such example is presented by John R. Rickford in his discussion of Ebonics as presented in the Website of the Stanford University. In the example, Rickford uses a simple sentence which is grammatically correct I asked Alvin if he could go (n. p. ).He therefore conveys the example to a student known to use Ebonics and the student gives his own version of the sentence I as Alvin could hecould he go (Rickford, n. p. ). Ebonics is not the mere transformation of structure of words to ungrammatically correct versions. In fact , though not alto sustainher grammatically acceptable, Ebonics is still considered a structured and coherent dialect. As what the Center for Applied Linguistics or CAL states, AAE (or Ebonics) is a regular, systematic language variety that contrasts with other dialects in terms of its grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary (n.p. ). Thus, Ebonics is not wrong or incorrect, it is merely different and a contradiction with other languages, in this case, the language of American English or Standard English. The origin of Ebonics is unclear but the origins of wherefore it became a topic of heated arguments and debate is quite known. Because nations cater to other nations, and migration and immigration (and even simple leisure travel) are inevitable, it is also natural that the language which people of different cultures use would also be transferred and assimilated by other people with other languages.According to Ladonna Lewis Rushs argumentative paper on the Ebonics debate titled The Ebonics Debate, the origins of Ebonics can be explained by Smitherman who wrote in Talking and Testifyin Black English and the Black Experience that Black English contains elements of Standard English, elements of West African languages, and elements unique to African-Americans. The structure of speech in Ebonics can be study and related to African language structures as well as to the black experience in America. (as cited by Rush, n. p. )Thus, Ebonic came about because the African Americans needed the language which they could line up to and use while in America who used American English for their communication. Like what the CAL stated, Smitherman and Rush also believe that Ebonics is not mere slang which is have and used by African American music artists but it is considered as a distinct dialect all on its own. The concept of Ebonics must have been unknown to most people before the year 1996 but because of a certain state in America, Ebonics and everything related to the dial ect and term suddenly explode to the point that it became a topic of debate.According to Tracey L. Weldon in her write up titled Reflections on the Ebonics dispute which appeared in American Speech, the Oakland Unified School territorial dominion in California passed a resolution on the month of December year 2006 that recognized the legitimacy of Ebonics and it called for teachers in the district to be better better about the rules governing the variety (Ebonics) with the aim that the teachers would be able to improve the teaching of standard English to Ebonics let outers (275).The issue sparked up debate after debate because linguists approved the resolution stating it was correct and adequate while Ebonics speakers and family members of African American origins complained that it was an obvious tactic of discrimination and identification of who were the students that does not have the ability to speak the proper English (Weldon 276). Ebonics and the usage of the dialect is qu ite obvious in the society as it can be heard from people in most social gatherings, informal meetings and even in the media.According to Rickford, many terms and structures in Ebonics are used by common people because of what they have well-educated from rap, hip hop and other means of popular Black culture (n. p. ). As what Rickford uses to describe this massive usage of Ebonics in popular Black culture, it becomes an picture of youth culture itself wherein young African Americans are immediately identified as being users of Ebonics. Since Ebonics is a mere means of communication among African Americans, then it should not be a great deal of a problem.However, unfortunately, the usage of the sociolect has become increasingly an issue most especially in educational institutions wherein grammatically correct and linguistically sound structure and vocabulary should be used and encouraged. Rush points out the case why Ebonics has become a problem among pupils and students in schools and this is because they manage to have poor academic standing and it was revealed that because of this dialect that the students have such appalling results. Rush writes in her paper that language skills are right off related to achiever in academics (n. p. ).This is obviously true since language is used to communicate and interact with other people. Poor language skills or inability to recrudesce and understand the language would make it for ones self and for other people to have a clear conversation and communication. It is also Rush who pointed out that African American students have a high rate of being suspended (around 80%) and that the students are lagging behind in measures of academic success (n. p. ). There was also an article which appeared on NEA Today that interviewed Lisa Delpit who is a professor an author that focused on Ebonics.In the interview, Delpit mentioned the reason why Ebonics is important and why the resolution passed by the school district was commend able Most of the African-American children in Oakland were performing miserably. But one school, the Prescott School, consistently performed near the top of the district. Its students were all low-income African-American children. And it adopted a program called the Standard English Proficiency, which uses the childrens home language and culture to teach them Standard English. (17).If Ebonics will be used to relate to the students and easy pave their learning for Standard English, then there is a high possibility that African Americans percentage of academically challenged students would significantly decrease. The question then is how does one go on solving such problem to ensure a fool proof way of solving the issue? This of occupation lies with the educational board and teachers. Teachers in formal schools teach Standard English because it something which society and the rest of the English speakers use.There is no problem with using Ebonics if it is foreign professional and a cademic grounds it is after all part of the African American culture. However, Standard English should be the language that is encouraged by the teachers to be used by their students because it would help them in the long run. Based on different discussions on the resolution passed by the school district of Oakland, the debate on whether Ebonics should be studied by the districts teachers and used to pave the way to teach Standard English should not even be a topic of debate.This is because the debate started because of a mere misunderstanding about the resolution, another proof that language does not only bridge gaps it also creates them, when people power saw Standard English as the only form of English that linguists identified as proper English. Linguistically speaking, there is indeed a Standard English as what Weldon has stated but the term proper English is incorrect since there is no wrong or right English. If it can be remembered, Ebonics is even identified as being a dial ect that is structured thus, it is very much acceptable.In conclusion, the issue that Ebonics be used to gap and slowly push the learners toward Standard English (as aimed by the resolution) is created by the definition and need of the Standard English. Standard English is not the only English nor is it the only form of the language which is encouraged to be used instead, Standard English is something which is needed to make all forms of English languages coherent and uniform in the sense that there would be no linguistically and communicatively wrongly structured words.It is the same case of having a one school uniform designated to students of a school to identify who are the members of that school or the generally approved legal age for drinking or voting or driving. There is a common factor which envelopes the entities of a school, a state or a nation. Standard English therefore is needed by the Ebonics speakers if they are desirous of being successful in society which is also t he language used by the many. Ebonics is not slang, wrong nor should it be discouraged.However, the Ebonics speakers should be able to understand that learning the Standard English is important since it would make them socially adept at communicating with other people. With all the turmoil and misunderstandings that society is currently under, it needs all the unity and harmony it can geteven if it just comes from having a language they can all understand and speak. Works Cited A New Take on Ebonics and Teaching. NEA Today 17. 2 (1998) 17. academician Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 July 2010. Center for Applied Linguistics. 2010. Dialects African American English. Cal. org. Web. 26 July 2010. Rickford, John R. 1996. Ebonics Notes and Discussion. Stanford. edu. Web. 26 July 2010. Rush, Ladonna Lewis. The Ebonics Debate. Princeton. edu. College of Wooster. 1997. Web. 26 July 2010. Weldon, Tracey L. Reflections on the Ebonics Controversy. American Speech 75. 3 ( 2000) 275-277. Proje ct MUSE. Web. 26 July 2010.

Stefan’s Diaries: Origins Chapter 14

I woke the next morning and stretched my mail outward, dejected when I touched nothing completely goose-down pillows. A slight indentation in the mattress next to me was the only proof that what had happened had been real, and not one of the fever dreams Id been having since Rosalyns death.Of course, I couldnt expect Katherine to have spent the dark with me. Not with her maid waiting at the carriage house, and not with the way the servants talked. Shed told me herself that this had to be our confidential, that she couldnt risk ruining her reputation. Not that she had to worry about that. I wanted us to have our own secret world, to pressher.I wondered when shed slipped away, remembering the feeling of her in my arms, a warmth and lightness Id never matt-up before. I felt whole, and at peace, and the thoughtof Rosalyn was just a shadowed memory, a character in an unpleasant story that Id simply put out of my mind. straightaway my mind was consumed with thoughts of Katherine how she pulled the curtains closed as the summer storm pelted apostrophize on the windows, how shed every(prenominal)owed my reach to explore her exquisite body. At one point, I was caressing her neck when my hands fell on the clasp of the ornate dingy cameo necklace she perpetually wore. I began to unclasp it when Katherine had roughly pushed me away.Dont shed say sharply, her hands flying to the clasp, making sure nothing had been disturbed. But then, once she patted the charm into place on the hollow of her neck, shed resumed kissing me.I blushed as I remembered all the other places she did allow me to touch.I swung my legs out of bed, walked toward the hand basin, and splashed water on my face. I looked in the mirror and smiled. The dark circles were gone from my eyes, and it no longer felt like an effort to walk from one side of the room to the other. I changed into my vest and dark-blue breeches and left the chambers humming.Sir? Alfred asked on the steps. He was holding a silver-domed plattermy breakfast. My lip curled in disgust. How could I have lain in bed for an entire week when there was a whole world to disc everywhere with Katherine?Im quite well, thank you, Alfred, I give tongue to as I took the stairs twain at a time. The storm from last night had disappeared as quickly as it came. In the sunshineroom, the early-morning light was sparkling through the floor-to- ceiling windows, and the confuse was decorated with freshly do it daisies. Damon was already there, drinking a mug of coffee while flipping through the morning paper from Richmond.Hello, brother Damon said, holding up his coffee mug as if he were toasting me. My, you look well. Did our afternoon ride do you some good, after all?I nodded and sat opponent him, glancing at the organizelines on the paper. The Union had taken Fort Morgan. I wondered where exactly that was.I dont know why we even get the paper. Its not like find cares about eitherthing except the stories he makes u p in his head, Damon said disgustedly.If you hate it here so much, why dont you just leave? I asked, suddenly harried with Damons constant grumbling. Maybe it would be better if he were gone, so that Father wouldnt be so frustrated. An odious voice in the backward of my mind silently added, And so I dont have to think about you and Katherine, swinging on the porch swing together.Damon raised an eyebrow. Well, Id be remiss if I didnt say things were elicit here. His lips sheer in a private sort of smile that made me suddenly want to grab his shoulders and shake him.The force of my emotions surprised me, so much so that I had to sit down and shove into my mouth a muffin from the overflowing basket on the table. Id never felt jealous of my brother before, just suddenly I was dying to know Had Katherine ever snuck up to his bedroom? She couldnt have. Last night, shed seemed so nervous about getting caught, having me promise over and over again that Id never breathe a word to anybo dy about what wed done.Betsy, the cook, came in, her arms laden with plates of grits, bacon, and eggs. My stomach rumbled, and I realized I was starving. I quickly insert in, reveling in the saltiness of the eggs combined with the impertinent bitterness of my coffee. It was as if Id never tasted breakfast before and my senses were finally awakened. I sighed in contentment, and Damon looked up in amusement.I knew all you needed was some fresh air and good food, Damon said.And Katherine, I thought.Now lets go outside and cause some trouble. Damon smiled wickedly. Fathers in his study, doing his monster studies. Do you know he even has Robert in on it? Damon shook his head in disgust.I sighed. While I didnt necessarily believe all the converseion about demons, I did respect Father enough to not make fun of his thoughts. It made me feel vaguely disloyal to hear Damons waiver of him.Im sorry, brother. Damon shook his head and scraped his death chair back against the slate floor. I k now you dont like it when Father and I fight. He walked over to me, pulling out my chair from under me, almost causing me to fall. I scrambled to my feet and good-naturedly shoved him back.Thats better Damon called with glee. Now, lets go He ran out the back door, letting the door slam shut. Cordelia employ to scream at us for that offense as children, and I laughed when I heard her familiar groan from the kitchen. I ran toward the center of the lawn, where Damon had unearthed the oblong stumblebum wed been tossing two weeks before.Here, brother Catch Damon panted, and I turned and leapt into the air, just in time to ensure the pigskin in my arms. I pulled it tightly to my chest and began running toward the stable, the wind lather my face.Y boys a voice called, stopping me in myou tracks. Katherine was stand on the porch of the carriage house, wearing a simple, cream-colored muslin dress and looking so innocent and sweet that I couldnt believe that what happened last night wasn t a dream. Burning off excess energy? I sheepishly turned around and walked toward the porch.Playing catch I explained, hastily throwing the ball to Damon.Katherine reached behind her, braiding her curls down the back of her neck. I had a sudden fear that she thought we were tiresome with our childish spunky and that shed come out here to scold us for waking her so early. But she simply smiled as she settled on the porch swing.Are you ready to touch? Damon called from his position on the lawn. He held the ball far back behind his head as if he were about to throw it toward her.Absolutely not. Katherine wrinkled her nose. one time was enough. Besides, I feel people who need props for their games and sports are lacking in imagination.Stefan has imagination. Damon smirked. Y should hear him read poetry. Hes like aou troubadour. He dropped the ball and ran toward the porch.Damon has imagination. too. Y should seeou the imaginative way he plays cards, I teased as I reached the steps o f the porch.Katherine nodded at me as I bowed to her notwithstanding didnt make any other effort to greet me. I stepped back, momentarily stung. Why hadnt she at least given me her hand to kiss? Hadnt last night meant anything to her? I am imaginative, especially when I have a muse. Damon winked at Katherine, then stepped in front of me to grab her hand. He brought it to his lips, and my stomach churned. Thank you, Katherine said, standing up and walking down the porch steps, her simple skirts swishing down the stairs. With her hair pulled back from her eyes, she reminded me of an angel. She gave me a secret smile, and finally I relaxed.Its beautiful here, Katherine said, spreading her arms as if blessing the entire estate. Will you show me around? she asked, turning and glancing first at Damon, then at me, then back at Damon again. Ive lived here for more(prenominal) than two weeks, and Ive barely seen anything besides my bedchambers and the gardens. I want to see something new. Something secretWe have a maze, I said stupidly. Damon elbowed me in the ribs. Not like he had anything better to say. I know, Katherine said. Damon showed me.My stomach fell at the reminder of how much time the two of them had spent together in the week I was in my sickbed. And if hed shown her the maze But I pushed the thought out of my head as best I could. Damon had always told me about all the women hed kissed, ever since we were thirteen and he and Amelia Hawke had kissed on the Wickery Bridge. If he had kissed Katherine, I would have heard about it.Id love to see it again, Katherine said, clapping her hands together as if Id just told her the most interesting news in the world. Will you both escort me? she asked hopefully, glancing at us.Of course, we said at the same time.Oh, wonderful I must tell Emily. Katherine dashed inside, loss us standing on opposite ends of the stairs.Shes quite a woman, isnt she? Damon asked.She is, I said shortly. Before I could say anything else, Katherine came bounding down the stairs, holding a sun umbrella in one hand.Im ready for our adventure she cried, handing me her parasol, an expectant look on her face. I hooked it over the crook of my arm, while Katherine linked arms with Damon. I walked a few feet behind, watching the easy way their hips bumped each other, as if she were simply his younger, teasing sister. I relaxed. That was it. Damon was always protective and was simply organism a big brother to Katherine. And she needed that.I whistled under my breath as I followed them. We had a small labyrinth in the front garden, except the maze on the far corner of the property was expansive, built from a boggy marsh by my father, who had been determined to impress our mother. Shed loved to garden and had always bemoaned the fact that the flowers that bloomed in her native France simply couldnt withstand the hard Virginia soil. The area always smelled of roses and clematis and was always the first place couples would retr eat to when they wanted to be alone at a Veritas party. The servants had superstitions about the maze that a child conceived in the maze would be blessed for life, that if you kissed your true love in the center of the maze, youd be bonded for life, but that if you told a lie while within its walls, youd be cursed forever. Today it felt almost magical The arbors and vines provided shade from the sun, making it seem that the triad of us were in an enchanted world togetheraway from death and war.Its even more beautiful than I remembered Katherine explained. Its like a storybook. Like the capital of Luxembourg Gardens or the Palace of Versailles She plucked a calla lily and inhaled deeply.I paused and glanced at her. Y ouve been to Europe, then? I asked, feeling as provincial as any of the country bumpkins who lived in the shanty town on the other side of Mystic Falls, the ones who pronounced the word creek like crick and who already had cardinal or five children by the time they wer e our age.Ive been everywhere, Katherine said simply. She tucked the lily behind her ear. So, tell me, boys, how did you amuse yourselves when you didnt have a mysterious stranger to impress with a tour of your grounds?We entertain pretty young things with real Southern hospitality. Damon smirked, falling into his overdone accent that always made me laugh.Katherine rewarded him with a giggle, and I smiled. Now that I saw Damon and Katherines flirtatious friendship as being as innocent as the relationship of cousins, I could enjoy their banter.Damons right. Our Founders Ball is just a few weeks away, I said, my spirits lifting as I realized that I was free to go to the ball with whoever I pleased. I couldnt wait to twirl Katherine in my arms.And youll be the prettiest girl. Even the girls from Richmond and Charlottesville will be jealous Damon pronounced.Really? Why, I think I should like that. Is that wicked of me? Katherine asked, glancing from Damon to me.No, I said.Y Damon said a t the same time. And I, fores, one, think more girls should admit their wicked natures. After all, we all know the fairer sex has a dark side. Remember when Clementine cut off Amelias hair? Damon turned toward me.Y es, I chuckled, happy to play the role of storyteller for Katherines amusement. Clementine thought Amelia was being too forward with Matthew Hartnett, and since Clem envisage him, she decided shed take it in her own hands to make Amelia less attractive.Katherine put her hand over her mouth in a gesture of magnify concern. I do hope poor Amelias recovered.Shes engaged to some soldier. Dont worry about her, Damon said. In fact, you shouldnt worry about anything. Y oure far too pretty.Well, I am worried about one thing. Katherine widened her eyes. Who shall escort me to the ball? She swung her parasol back and forth on her arm as she gazed at the ground, as if persuasion through a deep decision. My heart quickened as she looked up at both of us. I know Lets have a race. Wi nner may get to take me She threw her parasol on the ground and ran off to the center of the maze.Brother? Damon asked, raising an eyebrow at me.Ready? I smiled, as if this were just a casual childrens footrace. I didnt want Damon to know how fast my heart was beating, and how very much I wanted to catch Katherine.Go Damon yelled. Immediately I began running. My hands and legs flailed, and I propelled myself into the maze. When we were in school, I was the fastest boy in the class, lightning quick when the school bell rang.Then I heard peals of laughter. I glanced back. Damon was doubled up over himself, slapping his knee. I gulped air, trying not to seem winded. Scared to compete? I said, running back and slugging Damon on the shoulder. Id meant it to be a playful punch, but it landed with a heavy thud.Oh, now were on, brother Damon said, his voice light and full of laughter. He grabbed my shoulders and wrestled me easily to the ground. I struggled to my feet and tackled him, throw ing him onto his back and pinning down his wrists. remember you can still lick your little brother? I teased, enjoying my momentary victory.No one came for me Katherine pouted, wandering out of the maze. Her frown quickly turned into a smile as she saw us on the ground, breathing heavily. Good thing Im here to save you both. She knelt and pressed her lips first to Damons cheek, then to mine. I released Damons wrists and stood up, wiping the spot off my breeches.See? she asked, as she offered an arm to Damon. All you need is a kiss to make everything betteralthough you boys shouldnt be such brutes with each other.We were fighting for you, Damon said lazily, not bothering to stand up. Just then, the sound of horses hooves interrupted us. Alfred dismounted his horse and bowed to the three of us. It must have been a sight Damon lying on the ground, resting his head on his hand as if he were simply reclining, me frantically brushing grass stains off my trousers, and Katherine standing b etween us, looking amused.Im sorry to interrupt, Alfred said. But superscript Giuseppe needs to speak to Master Damon. Its urgent.Of course it is. Everything is always urgent for Father. What do you bet he has another ridiculous theory he needs to discuss? Damon said.Katherine lifted her parasol from the ground. I should get going, too. Im all disheveled, and Im due to visit with Pearl at the apothecary.Come, Alfred said, gesturing for Damon to jump onto the back of his horse. As Alfred and Damon rode away, Katherine and I slowly walked back to the carriage house. I wanted to bring up the Founders Ball again but found myself afraid to do so.Y dont need to keep railyard with me.ou Perhaps you should keep your brother company, Katherine suggested. It seems that your father is a man whos best taken on by two, she observed. Her hand brushed my own and she grabbed my wrist. Then she stepped on her tiptoes and allowed her lips to graze my cheek. Come see me tonight, sweet Stefan. My cha mbers will be open. And with that, she broke off into a spirited run.She was like a colt, galloping free, and I felt my heart gallop along with her. There was no question She felt the same way I did. And knowing that made me feel more liveborn than I ever had in my life.

Raging Achilles: Achiles’ Tragic Flaw

In the Iliad, Homers character Achilles embodies mevery of the characteristics of a hero including strength, quickness, leadership, and particularly, courage. During the Trojan War, Achilles actions venturesomely, destroying and killing every man in his path without any sign of fear or retreat. No Achaean questions his abilities nor do they doubt his bravery they cite him as one of their greatest warriors without whom they would have lost the war. However, match to Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics, Achilles does non exemplify a man with trustworthy courage at all due to one simple character brand.Ironically, this acute flaw is mentioned in the first line of the Iliad his zippy temper. According to Aristotle, a spirited temper prevents heroic men, like Achilles, from attaining a straight courage because it alters the intentions behind their actions. closer analysis of Achilles spirited temper and its consequences illustrates that by Aristotles definition, Achilles does not posse ss true courage, however merely a resemblance of it. Aristotle begins his argument by classifying a spirited temper as a quality similar to courage, claiming that individual retirement account propels a man to confront his fears.Aristotle states nothing makes a man as entrap to encounter d cholers as a spirited temper (3. 8. 1116b. 27), implying that a courageous man must be spirited. However, despite these claims, Aristotle counters, stating that possessing a spirited temper does not necessarily mean one automatically acquires true courage. He asserts that while a spirited temper jakes provide a truly courageous man (one with noble intentions) with support, a spirited temper can also deter a man from being truly courageous by mending his needs and incentives.Since a spirited temper lends to individual retirement account and passion, these often replace yard and knowledge as the incentive behind the actions of courageous men, such as in the case of Achilles. These emotions t hen result in a variety of consequences for the owner, including blindness due to anger, a likeness to beasts, and an obsession with penalise. A close examination of Achilles and his actions reveals how his spirited temper changes his motivation, and consequently inhibits him from being truly courageous in an Aristotelic sense. The basis of a spirited temper is anger, which Aristotle both praises and criticizes.On one hand, anger overcomes fear and gives man the courage to face his fears. However, anger can also influence mans ability to think and dominate his motivations and desires. Thus, anger can catapult man to commit actions not out of courage, but out of passion. For example, in the Iliad, Achilles anger transcends his ability to reason and consequently impels him to engage in passage of arms with the river god Scamander after being insulted. Even after almost being killed by the river, Achilles anger prevents him from leaving the river and so, he surges onwith high hurdli ng strides, charging against the river (21. 42-343). Aristotle states that anger must be experienced under the right circumstances and with the right people, and also in the right manner, at the right succession, and for the right length of time (4. 5. 1125b. 32-34). In Achilles case, he exhibits none of these. Achilles directs his anger for Hector towards the wrong target, the river. In addition, he holds onto his anger longer than he should and simultaneously risks his life. According to Aristotle, Achilles is consequently ill-natured and does not possess a true courage.His anger overtakes his reasoning abilities, driving him to commit undesirable acts and leaving him without noble intentions. Achilles anger also affects his perceived carnal state of being and further alters his motives by fueling his desires for revenge. In Aristotles argument, he explains that men provoked by spirited tempers are comparable to beasts and therefore not courageous. In the Illiad, Homer often d escribes Achilles analogous to an animal. During the battle, Achilles is depicted as rearing like some lion (20. 94) and thundering on, on like cattle broad in the brow (20. 560). These descriptions illustrate a lack of restraint and semblance to a wild beast, thus further supporting the argument that Achilles is not in fact courageous. Aristotle states that wild beasts are motivated by painthus they are not courageous, because they are spurred bya roused temper to race into danger (3. 8. 1116b. 33-36). Achilles epitomizes this Aristotelian idea by acting in response to a base emotion anger. Rather than being motivated by reason or knowledge, Achilles allows his anger to stimulate him.Consequently, this anger causes Achilles to lose parts of his humanity and bringing him closer to his animalistic base, which is further reflected in descriptions of his actions. Homer describes how Achilles charged, wild, hurtling toward Aeneas, loosing a animate being cry (20. 327). Not only does this portray a baser, less human side of Achilles, but it also supports Aristotles idea that those who rush into danger blind by their anger do not foresee the perils in store. In this case, despite Aeneas inferiority in ability, he is able to take this opportunity of momentary blindness to attack Achilles.This example illustrates Aristotles argument that Achilles spirited temper makes him similar to nothing more than a wild beast lacking true courage. Aristotles definition of courage also states that revenge as motivation corrupts true courage and leaves only a resemblance of courage. Achilles exemplifies a man who allows anger to fuel his desire for vengeance to distort his natural courage and purpose, leaving only a likeness of courage. Homer describes explicitly that Achilles motivation to enter the battle lies in his desire for revenge.Upon learning of Patroclus death, Achilles immediately declares that he will enter the battle. Achilles proclaims, Despite my anguish I will be at it down, the fury mounting inside(a) me, down by force. But now Ill go and meet that murderer head-on, that Hector who destroyed the dearest life I know (Homer 18. 134-138). by and by having obstinately refused to enter the battle despite the promises of riches and glory, Achilles allows his desire for revenge to propel him into battle almost instantaneously. In fact, as the battle progresses, Achilles desire for revenge begins to resemble an obsession.He refuses to release his anger towards Hector, stating his desire for revenge even halfway through the battle. Achilles says, But now, PatroclusI shall not bury you, no, not bowl I drag back here the gear and head of Hector, who slaughtered you (Homer 17. 387-390). This quote illustrates Achilles complete fixation with revenge. Thus, correspond to Aristotle, he no longer acts through courage, but through obsession. While it is arguable that Achilles lack of fear of death makes him courageous, his basic motivations, revenge and anger, again prevent him from being truly courageous in the Aristotelian sense.Throughout the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states mans incentive as the defining aspect in which to characterize man. In Achilles case, his anger-fueled obsession with revenge motivates and supports his ability to fight therefore, according to Aristotle, Achilles is not guided by reason, but by emotion (3. 8. 1117a. 8). Aristotle further explains that while revenge gives men support and pleasure, it does not imply courage. Aristotle states, Although those who fight for this motive are good fighters, they are not courageous, for it is not the incentive of what is noble that makes them fight (Aristotle 3. 7. 117a. 5). Aristotle concludes his argument by stating that when choice and true purpose guide a spirited temper, a man becomes truly courageous. Achilles, however, motivated by anger and revenge, does not resemble this truly courageous man. While Achilles does not fit this definition, he does neverth eless seem to have some form of courage arisen from his spirited temper. Aristotle defines this type of courage as a natural courage. Thus, Achilles does not possess true courage, but rather a natural courage governed by his base emotions.

Effect of video games on children Essay

Technology had evolved very fast from generation to generation. Young and adults are both into what we c on the whole video games and techie gadgets. Nowadays, we can normally see computers, swordplay consoles and etc. at home and in schools. Video games are entertaining and effective motivation for children. They engage them to skillful play depending on the game design. at that place have even been studies with adults confronting that experience with video games is related to better surgical skills.Research also suggests that people can learn iconic, spatial, and visual guardianship skills from video games. Although this fad benefits to all but on the other hand, it also give prejudicious effects especially to those children who are getting addicted to it. Studies show that childrens video game habits are contributing to the risk factors for health, behavior and poor academic performance. It was also reported that girls and boys play for an average of about 5-13 hrs/ week. s ome(prenominal) children spend more hours that what is reported.There were negative effects of video games on childrens physical health, including obesity, video-induced seizures. and postural, muscular and skeletal disorders, such as nerve compression, and carpal bone tunnel syndrome that were documented by the research. However, these effects are not likely to occur for most children. Parents should be most concerned about two things the list of time that children play, and the content of the games that they play. The amount of time that the children play lessens the amount of time and focus allotted for his academics.The content of the games that he/she plays leads to increased physiological arousal, increased aggressive thoughts, increased aggressive feelings, increased aggressive behaviors, and decreased pro-social helping. Children must not spend more than one to two hours per day in front of all electronic screens, including TV, DVDs, videos, video games, and computers (The American Academy of Pediatrics, 2004). Regarding content, educational games are likely to have positive effects and violent games are likely to have negative effects.We must limit them from violent games and introduce to them educational games, consoles and etc. The conclusion that Gentile (2004) drew from the accumulated research is that the question of whether video games are mature or bad for children is oversimplified. Playing a violent game for hours every day could decrease school performance, increase aggressive behaviors, and improve visual attention skills. Instead, parents should recognize that video games can have powerful effects on children, and should therefore set limits on the amount and content of games their children play.In this way, we can consume the potential benefits while minimizing the potential harms. Source http//findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0816/is_6_21/ai_n9772319/ Article by Dr. Douglas Gentile is a developmental psychologist, and is assistant pr ofessor of psychology at Iowa show University and the director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family where he conducts research with children and adults.COPYRIGHT 2004 Pediatrics for Parents, Inc. COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group.

V.Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning

With more than 4 1 million million million copies in yarn-dye in the slope language entirely, Mans calculate for center, the chilling yet inspirational story of Viktor Frankls struggle to hold on to hope during his cardinal-third years as a captive in Nazi c erstntration lives, is a true classic. Beacon Press is right take out pleased to donation a special gift edition of a be keep up that was hailed in 1959 by Carl Rogers as champion of the asidestanding contri entirelyions to psychological thought in the last fifty years. Frankls training as a head up-shrinker informed e truly waking minute of arc of his ordeal and every(prenominal)(prenominal)owed him a re memorializeable perspective on the psychology of survival.His assertion that the depart to cockeyeding is the basic pauperism for hu sm solely-arm life has forever changed the musical mode we understand our hu art objectity in the face of suffering. Mans Search for Meaning AN INTRODUCTION TO LOGOTH ERAPY Fourth Edition Viktor E. Frankl federal agency unrivaled TRANSLATED BY ILSE LASCH PREFACE BY GORDON W. ALLPORT BEACON PRESS TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER, Beacon Press 25 Beacon S guidet Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892 www. beacon. org Beacon Press books atomic number 18 gather in under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. 1959, 1962, 1984, 1992 by Viktor E.Frankl All rights reserved Printed in the generate together States of America First published in German in 1946 under the title Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. Original English title was From Death- large number to Existentialism. 05 04 03 02 01 Contents Preface by Gordon W. Allport 7 Preface to the 1992 Edition II PART ONE 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Experiences in a Concentration Camp 15 PART TWO Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frankl, Viktor Emil. Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. English Mans search for meaning an introduction to log otherapy / Vi ktor E.Frankl part one translated by Use Lasch preface by Gordon W. Allport. fourth ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 0-8070-1426-5 (cloth) 1. Frankl, Viktor Emil. 2. Holocaust, Je conjure (19391945) Personal narratives. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Psychological aspects. 4. PsychologistsAustriaBiography. 5. Logotherapy. I. Title. D810J4F72713 1992 i5o. ig5dc2o 92-21055 Logotherapy in a Nutshell 101 POSTSCRIPT 1984 The Case for a Tragic Optimism 137 Selected English Language Bibliography of Logotherapy one vitamin C fifty-five Ab bulge out(a) the AuthorPreface Dr. Frankl, author- headhunter, some measure asks his pa tients who suffer from a multitude of tor ments bully and small, Why do you non shoot down suicide? From their an swers he offer often durations find the guide- force for his psychotherapy in one life t here is love for ones children to tie to in another life, a talent to be used in a third, perhaps except(prenominal) lingering me mories expense preserving. To weave these slender threads of a broken life into a firm pattern of mean ing and responsibility is the object and challenge of logotherapy, which is Dr.Frankls sustain version of modern exis tential analysis. In this book, Dr. Frankl explains the experience which led to his discoery of logotherapy. As a coherenttime prisoner in bestial concentration camps he found himself stripped to naked existence. His father, mother, brother, and his wife died in camps or were roleplay to the gas ovens, so that, but ing for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps. How could heein truth possession lost, every value destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting exterminationhow could he find life worth preserving?A psychiatrist who personally has faced much(prenominal) extremity is a psychiatrist worth listening to. He, if anyone, should be 8 Preface able to view our human figure wisely and with compassion. Dr. Frankls wor ds have a weightyly clean ring, for they rest on experiences too deep for deception. What he has to say gains in prestige because of his present position on the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna and because of the ren consume of the logotherapy clinics that today are springing up in many lands, patterned on his own re straightned Neurological Policlinic in Vienna.One cannot dish up but compare Viktor Frankls approach to theory and therapy with the dissemble of his predecessor, Sigmund Freud. Both physicians concern themselves primarily with the nature and cure of neuroses. Freud finds the root of these pitiful disorders in the anxiety caused by conflicting and unconscious motives. Frankl distinguishes several forms of neurosis, and traces some of them (the noogenic neuroses) to the failure of the sufferer to find meaning and a sense of responsibility in his existence. Freud stresses frustration in the sexual life Frankl, frustration in the will-to-meaning. In atomic number 63 today on that point is a marked turning away from Freud and a widespread embracing of Preface 9 existential analysis, which takes several related formsthe school of logotherapy being one. It is characteristic of Frankls tolerant outlook that he does not repudiate Freud, but builds gladly on his contributions nor does he quarrel with other forms of existential therapy, but welcomes kinship with them. The present narrative, brief though it is, is artfully constructed and gripping. On twain do I have read it through at a single sitting, unable to break away from its spell.Somewhere beyond the midpoint of the story Dr. Frankl introduces his own philosophy of logotherapy. He introduces it so gently into the continuing narrative that only later on finishing the book does the reader realize that here is an essay of profound depth, and not on the button one more brutal tale of concentration camps. From this autobiographical fragment the reader learns much. He learns what a h uman being does when he suddenly realizes he has nothing to discharge except his so ridiculously naked life. Frankls description of the mixed flow of emotion and apathy is arresting.First to the rescue comes a cold detached curiosity concerning ones fate. Swiftly, too, come strategies to preserve the remnants of ones life, though the chances of surviving are slight. Hunger, humiliation, fear and deep anger at injustice are rendered allowable by closely guarded images of beloved persons, by religion, by a grim sense of humor, and nevertheless by glimpses of the healing beauties of naturea tree or a sunset. But these moments of comfort do not establish the will to live unless they help the prisoner induce larger sense out of his apparently senseless suffering.It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a point in life at all, there essential be a purpose in suffer ing and in dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself, and must accept t h e responsibility that his answer prescribes. If he succeeds he will continue to grow in spite of all indignities. Frankl is fond of quoting Nietzsche, He who has a wherefore to live can bear with closely any how. In the concentration camp every circumstance conspires to restrain the prisoner lose his hold. All the familiar goals in life are snatched away. What alone remains is the last of human fores infractdomsthe ability to choose ones attitude in a reach outn set of hatful. This ultimate freedom, recognized by the ancient Stoics as well as by modern existentialists, takes on vivid significance in Frankls story. The prisoners were only average men, but some, at least, by choosing to be good of their suffering proved mans capacity to rise above his outward fate. As a psychotherapist, the author, of course, indispensablenesss to 0 Preface know how men can be helped to get to this distinctively human capacity. How can one awaken in a patient the beliefing that he is responsible to life for something, however grim his circumstances whitethorn be? Frankl gives us a moving account of one collective therapeutic session he held with his fellow prisoners. At the publishers request Dr. Frankl has added a state ment of the basic tenets of logotherapy as well as a bibliog raphy. Up to now most of the publications of this Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (the predecessors being the Freudian and Adlerian Schools) have been primarily in German.The reader will whence welcome Dr. Frankls supplement to his personal narrative. Un deal many European existentialists, Frankl is uncomplete pessimistic nor antireligious. On the contrary, for a writer who faces fully the ubiquity of suffering and the forces of evil, he takes a surprisingly hopeful view of mans capacity to transcend his predicament and discover an adequate guiding truth. I recommend this l ittle book soft give awaytednessily, for it is a gem of dramatic narrative, focused upon the deepest of human problems.It has literary and philosophical merit and pro vides a compelling introduction to the most significant psychological movement of our day. GORDON W. ALLPORT Preface to the 1992 Edition This book has now lived to see nearly one hundred print ings in Englishin addition to having been published in twenty-one other languages. And the English editions alone have sold more than three million copies. These are the dry facts, and they whitethorn well be the reason why reporters of American newspapers and particularly of American TV send outs more often than not start their in terviews, later listing these facts, by exclaiming Dr.Frankl, your book has hold out a true bestsellerhow do you feel approximately such a success? Whereupon I react by reporting that in the firstinnate(p) emplacement I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and a ccomplishment on my part but rather an expression of the misery of our time if hun dreds of thousands of plurality reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails.To be sure, something else may have contributed to the impact of the book its endorse, theoretical part (Logother apy in a Nutshell) boils down, as it were, to the lesson one may di mute from the first part, the autobiographical account (Experiences in a Concentration Camp), whereas Part One 11 Gordon W. Allport, formerly a professor of psychology at Harvard University, was one of the foremost writers and teachers in the electron orbit in this hemisphere. He was author of a large number of original consummations on psychology and was the editor of the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.It is chiefly through the pioneering thrash of Professor All port that Dr. Frankls momentous theory was introduced to this co un deform moreover, it is to his credit that the interest shown here in logotherapy is growing by leaps and bounds. 12 Preface to the 1992 Edition Preface to the 1992 Edition 13 serves as the existential validation of my theories. Thus, both parts mutually support their credibility. I had none of this in mind when I wrote the book in 1945. And I did so within ix successive days and with the firm determination that the book should be published anonymously.In fact, the first printing of the original German version does not show my do on the cover, though at the last moment, just before the books initial publication, I did finally give in to my friends who had urged me to let it be published with my name at least on the title page. At first, however, it had been write with the sheer(a) conviction that, as an anonymous opus, it could neer earn its author literary fame. I had treasured simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning u nder any conditions, even the most miserable ones.And I thought that if the point were exhibit in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing. I therefore felt responsible for writing down what I had gone through, for I thought it might be helpful to people who are prone to despair. And so it is both strange and remarkable to me that among some dozens of books I have authoredprecisely this one, which I had intended to be published anonymously so that it could never build up any reputation on the part of the author, did choke a success.Again and once again I therefore admonish my students both in Europe and in America Dont aim at successthe more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of ones dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of ones bear to a person other than oneself. Happiness must devolve, and the same holds for success you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of our knowledge. past you will live to see that in the long runin the long run, I say success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it. The reader may ask me why I did not try to escape what was in store for me after Hitler had occupied Austria. Let me answer by recalling the following story. Shortly before the United States entered instauration War II, I received an invitation to come to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my immigration visa. My old parents were overjoyed because they evaluate that I would soon be allowed to go on Austria. I suddenly hesitated, however.The question beset me could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, large-mindeda or later, to a concentration camp, or even to a sup posed extermination camp? Where did my responsibility lie? Should I foster my brain child, logotherapy, by emigrating to fertile soil where I could write my books? Or should I concentrate on my duties as a real child, the child of my parents who had to do whatever he could to protect them? I pondered the problem this way and that but could not arrive at a solution this was the type of dilemma that do one wish for a hint from Heaven, as the phrase goes.It was whence that I visiting cardd a small-arm of marble lying on a table at home. When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece home because it was a part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, Which one is it? He answered, take note thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land. At that moment I headstrong to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse VIKTOR E. FRANKL Vienna, 1992. PART ONE Experiences in a Concentration Camp THIS BOOK DOES non CLAIM TO BE an account of facts and events but of personal experiences, experiences which millions of prisoners have suffered time and again. It is the inside story of a concentration camp, told by one of its survivors. This tale is not concerned with the great horrors, which have al stimulate been threadd often becoming (though less often believed), but with the multitude of small torments.In other words, it will try to answer this question How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner? most(prenominal) of the events described here did not take place in the large and famous camps, but in the small ones where most of the real extermination took place. This story i s not about the suffering and death of great heroes and martyrs, nor is it about the prominent Caposprisoners who acted as trustees, having special privilegesor well-known pris oners.Thus it is not so much concerned with the sufferings of the mighty, but with the sacrifices, the crucifixion and the deaths of the great army of unknown and unrecorded victims. It was these common prisoners, who bore no dis tinguishing marks on their sleeves, whom the Capos really despised. While these ordinary prisoners had little or noth- 18 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 19 ing to eat, the Capos were never hungry in fact many of the Capos fared better in the camp than they had in their entire lives.Often they were harder on the prisoners than were the guards, and beat them more cruelly than the SS men did. These Capos, of course, were chosen only from those prisoners whose characters promised to make them suitable for such procedures, and if they did not comply with what was expected of them, they were immediately demoted. They soon became much like the SS men and the camp wardens and may be judged on a similar psychologi cal basis. It is easy for the outsider to get the ill-treat conception of camp life, a conception mingled with sentiment and pity.Little does he know of the hard fight for existence which raged among the prisoners. This was an unrelenting strug gle for daily bread and for life itself, for ones own sake or for that of a good friend. Let us take the case of a transport which was officially announced to transfer a accepted number of prisoners to an other camp but it was a fairly safe guess that its final destination would be the gas chambers. A selection of grisly or feeble prisoners incapable of work would be sent to one of the big central camps which were fitted with gas chambers and crematoriums.The selection process was the signal for a free fight among all the prisoners, or of group against group. All that motioned was that ones own name and that of ones friend were crossed off the list of victims, though everyone knew that for each man saved another victim had to be found. A definite number of prisoners had to go with each transport. It did not really matter which, since each of them was nothing but a number. On their admission to the camp (at least this was the method in Auschwitz) all their docu- ments had been taken from them, together with their other possessions.Each prisoner, therefore, had had an oppor tunity to claim a fictitious name or profession and for vari ous reasons many did this. The authorities were interested only in the captives numbers. These numbers were often tattooed on their skin, and to a fault had to be sewn to a definite spot on the trousers, jacket, or coat. Any guard who wanted to make a charge against a prisoner just glanced at his number (and how we fear such glances ) he never asked for his name. To return to the convoy about to depart. There was nei ther time nor ent rust to consider moral or ethical issues.Every man was controlled by one thought only to keep himself alive for the family waiting for him at home, and to save his friends. With no hesitation, therefore, he would arrange for another prisoner, another number, to take his place in the transport. As I have already intimateed, the process of selecting Capos was a negative one only the most brutal of the pris oners were chosen for this job (although there were some happy exceptions). But apart from the selection of Capos which was undertaken by the SS, there was a sort of selfselecting process going on the whole time among all of the prisoners.On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence they were pre pared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracleswhatever one may choose to call themwe know the best of us did not return. Many factual accounts about concentration camps are al ready on record. Here, facts will be significant only as far as 20 Mans Search for MeaningExperiences in a Concentration Camp 21 they are part of a mans experiences. It is the exact nature of these experiences that the following essay will attempt to describe. For those who have been inmates in a camp, it will attempt to explain their experiences in the light of present-day knowledge. And for those who have never been inside, it may help them to comprehend, and above all to understand, the experiences of that only too small per centage of prisoners who survived and who now find life very difficult. These former prisoners often say, We dislike talking about our experiences.No explanations are needed for those who have been inside, and the others will under stand n all how we felt then nor how we feel now. To attempt a methodical present ation of the subject is very difficult, as psychology requires a authorized scientific de tachment. But does a man who makes his observations magical spell he himself is a prisoner possess the necessary detach ment? Such detachment is granted to the outsider, but he is too far removed to make any statements of real value. Only the man inside knows. His judgments may not be objective his evaluations may be out of proportion.This is inevita ble. An attempt must be make to avoid any personal bias, and that is the real difficulty of a book of this anatomy. At times it will be necessary to have the bravery to tell of very in timate experiences. I had intended to write this book anonymously, using my prison number only. But when the manuscript was completed, I saw that as an anonymous publication it would lose half its value, and that I must have the courage to state my convictions openly. I therefore refrained from deleting any of the passages, in spite of an terrible dislike of exh ibitionism.I shall leave it to others to di even the contents of this book into dry theories. These might become a contribution to the psychology of prison life, which was investigated after the First World War, and which acquainted us with the syndrome of barbed equip sickness. We are indebted to the Second World War for enriching our knowledge of the psychopathology of the masses, (if I may quote a varia tion of the well-known phrase and title of a book by LeBon), for the war gave us the war of nerves and it gave us the concentration camp.As this story is about my experiences as an ordinary pris oner, it is important that I mention, not without pride, that I was not employed as a psychiatrist in camp, or even as a doctor, except for the last few weeks. A few of my colleagues were lucky enough to be employed in poorly heated first-aid posts applying bandages made of scraps of barren paper. But I was Number 119,104, and most of the time I was digging and laying tracks for railway lines. At one time, my job was to dig a tunnel, without help, for a urine main under a road.This feat did not go unrewarded just before Christ mas 1944, I was presented with a gift of so-called premium coupons. These were issued by the construction firm to which we were practically sold as slaves the firm paid the camp authorities a fixed price per day, per prisoner. The coupons address the firm fifty pfennigs each and could be ex changed for six cigarettes, often weeks later, although they sometimes lost their validity. I became the proud owner of a token worth twelve cigarettes. But more important, the cig arettes could be interchanged for twelve soups, and twelve soups were often a very real respite from starvation.The privilege of actually fastball cigarettes was reserved for the Capo, who had his assured quota of weekly coupons or possibly for a prisoner who worked as a foreman in a warehouse or shop and received a few cigarettes in exchange for doing heartrending jobs. The only exceptions to this were those who had lost the will to live and wanted to enjoy their last days. Thus, when we saw a comrade smoking his own cigarettes, we knew he had given up faith 22 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 23 n his strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned. When one examines the vast amount of material which has been amassed as the result of many prisoners observa tions and experiences, three phases of the inmates mental reactions to camp life become apparent the period follow ing his admission the period when he is well entrenched in camp modus operandi and the period following his release and liberation. The symptom that characterizes the first phase is shock. Under certain conditions shock may even precede the pris oners formal admission to the camp.I shall give as an ex ample the circumstances of my own admission. Fifteen hundred persons had been traveling by train for several days and nights there we re eighty people in each coach. All had to lie on top of their luggage, the few rem nants of their personal possessions. The carriages were so full that only the top parts of the windows were free to let in the grey of dawn. Everyone expected the train to head for some munitions factory, in which we would be em ployed as forced labor. We did not know whether we were s money box in Silesia or already in Poland.The engines whistle had an uncanny sound, like a cry for help sent out in com miseration for the unhappy agitate which it was destined to lead into perdition. Then the train shunted, obviously nearing a main station. Suddenly a cry broke from the ranks of the anxious passengers, There is a sign, Auschwitz Everyones heart missed a beat at that moment. Auschwitzthe very name stood for all that was horrible gas chambers, crematoriums, massacres. Slowly, almost hesi tatingly, the train moved on as if it wanted to spare its passengers the dreadful realization as long as possible A uschwitzWith the progressive dawn, the outlines of an immense camp became visible long stretches of several rows of barbed wire fences watch towers search lights and long columns of ragged human figures, grey in the greyness of dawn, trekking along the straight desolate roads, to what destination we did not know. There were separated shouts and whistles of command. We did not know their meaning. My imagination led me to see gallows with people dangling on them. I was horrified, but this was just as well, because mensuration by step we had to become accustomed to a terrible and immense horror.Eventually we moved into the station. The initial silence was interrupted by shouted commands. We were to hear those rough, shrill tones from then on, over and over again in all the camps. Their sound was almost like the last cry of a victim, and yet there was a difference. It had a unsmooth hoarseness, as if it came from the throat of a man who had to keep shouting like that, a man who was being murdered again and again. The carriage doors were flung open and a small detachment of prisoners stormed inside. They wore striped uniforms, their heads were shaved, but they looked well fed.They spoke in every possible European tongue, and all with a certain amount of humor, which sounded fanciful under the circumstances. Like a drowning man clutching a straw, my inborn optimism (which has often controlled my feelings even in the most desperate situa tions) clung to this thought These prisoners look quite well, they depend to be in good spirits and even laugh. Who knows? I might manage to share their favorable position. In psychiatry there is a certain condition known as delu sion of hold over. The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute.We, too, clung to shreds of hope and believed to the last moment that it would not be so bad. Just the sight of the red cheeks and round faces of 24 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 25 those prisoners was a great encouragement. Little did we know then that they formed a specially chosen elite, who for years had been the receiving squad for new transports as they rolled into the station day after day. They took charge of the new arrivals and their luggage, including scarce items and smuggled jewelry. Auschwitz must have been a strange spot in this Europe of the last years of the war.There must have been unique treasures of gold and silver, platinum and diamonds, not only in the huge storehouses but also in the scripts of the SS. Fifteen hundred captives were cooped up in a shed built to accommodate probably two hundred at the most. We were cold and hungry and there was not enough room for everyone to squat on the bare ground, let alone to lie down. One five-ounce piece of bread was our only food in four days. nevertheless I heard the senior prisoners in charge of the shed bargain with one member of the receiving party about a tie-pin made of platinum and diamonds. Most of the profits would eventually be traded for liquorschnapps.I do not remember any more just how many thousands of marks were needed to purchase the mensuration of schnapps required for a gay even, but I do know that those long-term prisoners needed schnapps. Under such conditions, who could blame them for trying to potty themselves? There was another group of prisoners who got liquor supplied in al most unlimited quantities by the SS these were the men who were employed in the gas chambers and crematoriums, and who knew very well that one day they would be re lieved by a new shift of men, and that they would have to leave their enforced role of executioner and become victims themselves.Nearly everyone in our transport lived under the illusion that he would be reprieved, that everything would yet be well. We did not realize the meaning behind the scene that was to follow presently. We were told to leave our luggage in the train and to fall into two lineswomen on one side, men on the otherin order to file past a senior SS officer. Surprisingly enough, I had the courage to hide my haver sack under my coat. My line filed past the officer, man by man. I realized that it would be dangerous if the officer spotted my bag.He would at least knock me down I knew that from previous experience. Instinctively, I straightened on approaching the officer, so that he would not notice my backbreaking load. Then I was face to face with him. He was a tall man who looked slim and fit in his spotless uniform. What a business to us, who were untidy and grimy after our long journey He had assumed an attitude of careless ease, supporting his right elbow with his left hand. His right hand was lifted, and with the forefinger of that hand he pointed very leisurely to the right or to the left.None of us had the slightest idea of the sinister meaning behind that little movement of a mans finger, pointing now to the right and no w to the left, but far more frequently to the left. It was my turn. Somebody whispered to me that to be sent to the right side would mean work, the way to the left being for the sick and those incapable of work, who would be sent to a special camp. I just waited for things to take their course, the first of many such times to come. My haver sack weighed me down a bit to the left, but I made an effort to walk upright.The SS man looked me over, appeared to hesitate, then put both his pass on my shoulders. I tried very hard to look smart, and he turned my shoulders very slowly until I faced right, and I moved over to that side. The significance of the finger game was explained to us in the evening. It was the first selection, the first verdict made on our existence or non-existence. For the great ma jority of our transport, about 90 per cent, it meant death. Their sentence was carried out within the attached few hours. Those who were sent to the left were marched from the station str aight to the crematorium.This building, as I was 26 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 27 told by someone who worked there, had the word bath written over its doors in several European languages. On entering, each prisoner was handed a piece of gook, and then but mercifully I do not need to describe the events which followed. Many accounts have been written about this horror. We who were saved, the minority of our transport, found out the truth in the evening. I inquired from prisoners who had been there for some time where my colleague and friend P had been sent. Was he sent to the left side? Yes, I replied. Then you can see him there, I was told. Where? A hand pointed to the chimney a few hundred yards off, which was sending a column of flame up into the grey sky of Poland. It dissolved into a sinister cloud of smoke. Thats where your friend is, floating up to Heaven, was the answer. But I still did not understand until the truth was explained to me in p lain words. But I am telling things out of their turn. From a psycho logical point of view, we had a long, long way in front of us from the break of that dawn at the station until our first nights rest at the camp.Escorted by SS guards with loaded guns, we were made to run from the station, past electrically charged barbed wire, through the camp, to the cleansing station for those of us who had passed the first selection, this was a real bath. Again our illusion of reprieve found confirmation. The SS men seemed almost charming. Soon we found out their rea son. They were nice to us as long as they saw watches on our wrists and could persuade us in well-meaning tones to hand them over. Would we not have to hand over all our possessions anyway, and hy should not that relatively nice person have the watch? mayhap one day he would do one a good turn. We waited in a shed which seemed to be the anteroom to the disinfecting chamber. SS men appeared and spread out blankets into which we had to throw all our possessions, all our watches and jewelry. There were still naive prisoners among us who asked, to the amusement of the more sea soned ones who were there as helpers, if they could not keep a wedding ring, a medal or a good-luck piece. No one could yet grasp the fact that everything would be taken away.I tried to take one of the old prisoners into my confi dence. Approaching him furtively, I pointed to the roll of paper in the inner pocket of my coat and said, Look, this is the manuscript of a scientific book. I know what you will say that I should be grateful to escape with my life, that that should be all I can expect of fate. But I cannot help myself. I must keep this manuscript at all costs it contains my lifes work. Do you understand that? Yes, he was beginning to understand.A grin spread slowly over his face, first piteous, then more amused, mock ing, insulting, until he bellowed one word at me in answer to my question, a word that was ever present in the voca bu lary of the camp inmates gain At that moment I saw the plain truth and did what marked the culminating point of the first phase of my psychological reaction I enamored out my whole former life. Suddenly there was a stir among my fellow travelers, who had been standing about with pale, frightened faces, help lessly debating. Again we heard the hoarsely shouted com mands. We were driven with blows into the immediate anteroom of the bath.There we assembled around an SS man who waited until we had all arrived. Then he said, I will give you two minutes, and I shall time you by my watch. In these two minutes you will get fully undressed 28 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 29 and drop everything on the floor where you are standing. You will take nothing with you except your shoes, your smash-up or suspenders, and possibly a truss. I am starting to count now With unthinkable haste, people tore off their clothes. As the time grew shorter, they became incre asingly nervous and pulled clumsily at their underwear, belts and shoe laces.Then we heard the first sounds of whipping leather straps beating down on naked bodies. Next we were herded into another room to be shaved not only our heads were shorn, but not a hair was left on our entire bodies. Then on to the showers, where we lined up again. We hardly recognized each other but with great relief some people noted that real water dripped from the sprays. While we were waiting for the shower, our nakedness was brought home to us we really had nothing now except our bare bodieseven minus hair all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence.What else remained for us as a material link with our former lives? For me there were my ice-skating rinkes and my belt the latter I had to exchange later on for a piece of bread. There was an extra bit of excitement in store for the owners of trusses. In the evening the senior prisoner in charge of our hut welcomed us with a speech in which he ga ve us his word of honor that he would hang, personally, from that polishhe pointed to itany per son who had sewn money or precious stones into his truss. Proudly he explained that as a senior inhabitant the camp laws authorize him to do so. Where our shoes were concerned, matters were not so simple.Although we were supposed to keep them, those who had fairly decent pairs had to give them up after all and were given in exchange shoes that did not fit. In for real trouble were those prisoners who had followed the ap- parently well-meant advice (given in the anteroom) of the senior prisoners and had shortened their jackboots by cut ting the tops off, then smearing soap on the cut edges to hide the sabotage. The SS men seemed to have waited for just that. All suspected of this crime had to go into a small adjoining room. After a time we again heard the lashings of the strap, and the anticipates of tortured men.This time it lasted for quite a while. Thus the illusions some of us still held were destroyed one by one, and then, quite unexpectedly, most of us were overcome by a grim sense of humor. We knew that we had nothing to lose except our so ridiculously naked lives. When the showers started to run, we all tried very hard to make fun, both about ourselves and about each other. After all, real water did flow from the spraysl Apart from that strange kind of humor, another sensa tion seized us curiosity. I have experienced this kind of curiosity before, as a fundamental reaction toward certain strange circumstances.When my life was once endangered by a climbing accident, I felt only one sensation at the critical moment curiosity, curiosity as to whether I should come out of it alive or with a fractured skull or some other injuries. Cold curiosity predominated even in Auschwitz, some how detaching the mind from its surroundings, which came to be regarded with a kind of objectivity. At that time one cultivated this state of mind as a means of protection. We were a nxious to know what would happen next and what would be the consequence, for example, of our standing in the open air, in the chill of late autumn, stark naked, and still wet from the showers.In the next few days our curi osity evolved into astonishment surprise that we did not catch cold. There were many similar surprises in store for new ar- 30 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 31 rivals. The medical men among us learned first of all Textbooks tell lies Somewhere it is said that man cannot exist without sleep for more than a stated number of hours. Quite wrongl I had been convinced that there were certain things I just could not do I could not sleep without this or I could not live with that or the other.The first night in Auschwitz we slept in beds which were constructed in tiers. On each tier (measuring about six-and-a-half to eight feet) slept nine men, straightway on the boards. two blankets were shared by each nine men. We could, of course, lie o nly on our sides, crowded and huddled against each other, which had some advantages because of the savage cold. Though it was forbidden to take shoes up to the bunks, some people did use them secretly as pillows in spite of the fact that they were caked with mud. Otherwise ones head had to rest on the crook of an almost dislocated arm.And yet sleep came and brought oblivion and relief from vexation for a few hours. I would like to mention a few similar surprises on how much we could endure we were unable to clean our teeth, and yet, in spite of that and a severe vitamin deficiency, we had healthier gums than ever before. We had to wear the same shirts for half a year, until they had lost all ap pearance of being shirts. For days we were unable to wash, even partially, because of frozen water-pipes, and yet the sores and abrasions on detainment which were dirty from work in the soil did not suppurate (that is, unless there was frost bite).Or for instance, a light sleeper, who used to be dis turbed by the slightest dissension in the next room, now found himself lying pressed against a comrade who snored loudly a few inches from his ear and yet slept quite soundly through the noise. If someone now asked of us the truth of Dostoevskis statement that flatly defines man as a being who can get used to anything, we would reply, Yes, a man can get used to anything, but do not ask us how. But our psychological investigations have not taken us that far yet neither had we prisoners reached that point. We were still in the first phase of our psychological reactions.The thought of suicide was entertained by nearly every one, if only for a brief time. It was born of the hopelessness of the situation, the constant danger of death looming over us daily and hourly, and the closeness of the deaths suffered by many of the others. From personal convictions which will be mentioned later, I made myself a firm promise, on my first evening in camp, that I would not run into the w ire. This was a phrase used in camp to describe the most popular method of suicidetouching the electrically charged barbed-wire fence. It was not entirely difficult for me to make this decision.There was little point in commit ting suicide, since, for the average inmate, life expectation, calculating objectively and counting all likely chances, was very poor. He could not with any assurance expect to be among the small percentage of men who survived all the selections. The prisoner of Auschwitz, in the first phase of shock, did not fear death. Even the gas chambers lost their horrors for him after the first few daysafter all, they spared him the act of committing suicide. Friends whom I have met later have told me that I was not one of those whom the shock of admission greatly de pressed.I only smiled, and quite sincerely, when the follow ing episode occurred the morning after our first night in Auschwitz. In spite of strict orders not to leave our blocks, a colleague of mine, who had arrived in Auschwitz several weeks previously, smuggled himself into our hut. He wanted to calm and comfort us and tell us a few things. He had become so thin that at first we did not recognize him. With a show of good humor and a Devil-may-care attitude he gave us a few hurried tips Dont be afraid Dont fear the selections Dr.M (the SS medical chief) has a soft spot for doctors. (This was wrong my friends kindly 32 Mans Search for Meaning words were misleading. One prisoner, the doctor of a block, of huts and a man of some sixty years, told me how he had entreated Dr. M to let off his son, who was destined for gas. Dr. M in cold blood refused. ) But one thing I beg of you he continued, shave daily, if at all possible, even if you have to use a piece of glass to do it . . . even if you have to give your last piece of bread for it. You will look younger and the scraping will make your cheeks look ruddier.If you want to stay alive, there is only one way look fit for work. If you even limp, because, let us say, you have a small blister on your heel, and an SS man spots this, he will wave you aside and the next day you are sure to be gassed. Do you know what we mean by a Moslem? A man who looks miserable, down and out, sick and emaciated, and who cannot manage hard physical labor any longer . . . that is a Moslem. Sooner or later, usually sooner, every Moslem goes to the gas chambers. Therefore, remember shave, stand and walk smartly then you need not be afraid of gas.All of you standing here, even if you have only been here twenty-four hours, you need not fear gas, except perhaps you. And then he pointed to me and said, I hope you dont mind my telling you frankly. To the others he repeated, Of all of you he is the only one who must fear the next selection. So, dont worry And I smiled. I am now convinced that anyone in my place on that day would have done the same. Experiences in a Concentration Camp I think it was Lessing who once said, There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. Even we psychiatrists expect the reactions of a man to an abnormal situation, such as being com mitted to an asylum, to be abnormal in proportion to the degree of his normality. The reaction of a man to his admission to a concentration camp also represents an abnormal state of mind, but judged objectively it is a normal and, as will be shown later, typical reaction to the given circumstances. These reactions, as I have described them, began to change in a few days.The prisoner passed from the first to the second phase the phase of relative apathy, in which he achieved a kind of emotional death. Apart from the already described reactions, the newly arrived prisoner experienced the tortures of other most trouble oneselfful emotions, all of which he tried to deaden. First of all, there was his boundless longing for his home and his family. This often co uld become so acute that he felt himself consumed by longing. Then there was disgust disgust with all the ugliness which surrounded him, even in its mere external forms.Most of the prisoners were given a uniform of rags which would have made a scarecrow elegant by comparison. Between the huts in the camp lay pure filth, and the more one worked to clear it away, the more one had to come in contact with it. It was a darling practice to detail a new arrival to a work group whose job was to clean the latrines and remove the sewage. If, as usually happened, some of the evacuation splashed into his face during its transport over rough fields, any sign of disgust by the prisoner or any attempt to wipe off the filth would only be punished with a blow from a Capo.And thus the mortification of normal reactions was hastened. At first the prisoner looked away if he saw the punishment parades of another group he could not bear to see fellow prisoners march up and down for hours in the mire, t heir movements directed by blows. Days or weeks later things changed. Early in the morning, when it was still dark, the prisoner stood in front of the gate with his detachment, ready to march. He heard a scream and saw how 34 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 35 comrade was knocked down, pulled to his feet again, and knocked down once moreand why? He was feverish but had reported to sick-bay at an improper time. He was being punished for this irregular attempt to be relieved of his duties. But the prisoner who had passed into the second stage of his psychological reactions did not avert his eyes any more. By then his feelings were blunted, and he watched un moved. Another example he found himself waiting at sick bay, hoping to be granted two days of light work inside the camp because of injuries or perhaps edema or fever.He stood unmoved while a twelve-year-old boy was carried in who had been forced to stand at attention for hours in the snow or to work out side with bare feet because there were no shoes for him in the camp. His toes had become frost bitten, and the doctor on duty picked off the black gan grenous stumps with tweezers, one by one. Disgust, horror and pity are emotions that our lulu could not really feel any more. The sufferers, the dying and the dead, be came such commonplace sights to him after a few weeks of camp life that they could not move him any more.I spent some time in a hut for typhus patients who ran very high temperatures and were often delirious, many of them moribund. After one of them had just died, I watched without any emotional upset the scene that followed, which was repeated over and over again with each death. One by one the prisoners approached the still tender body. One grabbed the remains of a messy meal of potatoes another decided that the corpses wooden shoes were an improve ment on his own, and exchanged them. A third man did the same with the dead mans coat, and another was glad to be able to secure somejust imagine genuine string.All this I watched with unconcern. Eventually I asked the think of to remove the body. When he decided to do so, he took the corpse by its legs, allowing it to drop into the small corridor between the two rows of boards which were the beds for the fifty typhus patients, and dragged it across the bumpy earthen floor toward the door. The two steps which led up into the open air constantly constituted a prob lem for us, since we were exhausted from a degenerative lack of food. After a few months stay in the camp we could not walk up those steps, which were each about six inches high, without putting our hands on the door jambs to pull our selves up.The man with the corpse approached the steps. Wearily he dragged himself up. Then the body first the feet, then the trunk, and finallywith an uncanny rattling noise the head of the corpse bumped up the two steps. My place was on the opposite side of the hut, next to the small, sole window, which w as built near the floor. While my cold hands clasped a bowl of hot soup from which I sipped greedily, I happened to look out the window. The corpse which had just been removed stared in at me with glazed eyes. Two hours before I had spoken to that man.Now I continued sipping my soup. If my lack of emotion had not surprised me from the standpoint of professional interest, I would not remember this misfortune now, because there was so little feeling in volved in it. Apathy, the blunting of the emotions and the feeling that one could not care any more, were the symptoms arising during the second stage of the prisoners psychological re actions, and which eventually made him insensitive to daily and hourly beatings. By means of this insensibility the pris oner soon surrounded himself with a very necessary protec tive shell. 6 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 37 Beatings occurred on the slightest provocation, sometimes for no reason at all. For example, bread w as rationed out at our work site and we had to line up for it. Once, the man behind me stood off a little to one side and that lack of symmetry displeased the SS guard. I did not know what was going on in the line behind me, nor in the mind of the SS guard, but suddenly I received two acute blows on my head. Only then did I spot the guard at my side who was using his stick.At such a moment it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children) it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all. Strangely enough, a blow which does not even find its mark can, under certain circumstances, hurt more than one that finds its mark. Once I was standing on a railway track in a snowstorm. In spite of the weather our party had to keep on working. I worked quite hard at mending the track with gravel, since that was the only way to keep warm. For only one moment I paused to get my breath and to lean on my shovel. Unfortunately the guard turned around just then and thought I was loafing. The pain he caused me was not from any insults or any blows. That guard did not think it worth his while to say anything, not even a insist word, to the ragged, emaciated figure standing before him, which probably reminded him only vaguely of a human form. Instead, he playfully picked up a stone and threw it at me. That, to me, seemed the way to attract the attention of a beast, to call a domestic animal back to its job, a creature with which you have so little in common that you do not even punish it.The most painful part of beatings is the insult which they imply. At one time we had to carry some long, heavy girders over icy tracks. If one man slipped, he endangered not only himself but all the others who carried the same girder. An old friend of mine had a congenitally dislocated hip. He was glad to be capable of working in spite of it, since the physically disabled were almost certainly sent to death whe n a selection took place. He limped over the track with an especially heavy girder, and seemed about to fall and drag the others with him. As yet, I was not carrying a girder so I jumped to his assistance without stopping to think.I was immediately hit on the back, rudely repri manded and ordered to return to my place. A few minutes previously the same guard who struck me had told us deprecatingly that we pigs lacked the spirit of comrade ship. Another time, in a forest, with the temperature at 2F, we began to dig up the topsoil, which was frozen hard, in order to lay water pipes. By then I had grown rather weak physi cally. Along came a foreman with chubby rosy cheeks. His face definitely reminded me of a pigs head. I noticed that he wore lovely warm gloves in that bitter cold. For a time he watched me silently.I felt that trouble was brewing, for in front of me lay the galvanic pile of earth which showed exactly how much I had dug. Then he began You pig, I have been watching you the whole time Ill teach you to work, yet Wait till you dig dirt with your teethyoull die like an animal In two days Ill finish you off Youve never done a snapshot of work in your life. What were you, swine? A businessman? I was past caring. But I had to take his threat of killing me seriously, so I straightened up and looked him directly in the eye. I was a doctora specialist. What? A doctor?I bet you got a lot of money out of people. As it happens, I did most of my work for no money at all, in clinics for the poor. But, now, I had said too much. He threw himself on me and knocked me down, shouting like a madman. I can no longer remember what he shouted. I want to show with this apparently trivial story that 38 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 39 there are moments when scandal can rouse even a seemingly hardened prisonerindignation not about cruelty or pain, but about the insult connected with it. That time blood rushed to my head because I had to li sten o a man judge my life who had so little idea of it, a man (I must confess the following remark, which I made to my fellow-prisoners after the scene, afforded me childish relief) who looked so vulgar and brutal that the nurse in the outpatient ward in my hospital would not even have admitted him to the waiting room. Fortunately the Capo in my working party was obligated to me he had taken a liking to me because I listened to his love stories and matrimonial troubles, which he poured out during the long marches to our work site. I had made an impression on him with my diagnosis of his character and with my psychotherapeutic advice.After that he was grate ful, and this had already been of value to me. On several previous occasions he had reserved a place for me next to him in one of the first five rows of our detachment, which usually consisted of two hundred and eighty men. That favor was important. We had to line up early in the morn ing while it was still dark. Everybody was a fraid of being late and of having to stand in the back rows. If men were required for an offensive and disliked job, the senior Capo appeared and usually collected the men he needed from the back rows.These men had to march away to an other, especially dreaded kind of work under the command of strange guards. Occasionally the senior Capo chose men from the first five rows, just to catch those who tried to be clever. All protests and entreaties were silenced by a few well-aimed kicks, and the chosen victims were chased to the meeting place with shouts and blows. However, as long as my Capo felt the need of pouring out his heart, this could not happen to me. I had a guaranteed place of honor next to him. But there was another advan- tage, too. Like nearly all the camp inmates I was suffering from edema.My legs were so swollen and the skin on them so tightly stretched that I could scarcely bend my knees. I had to leave my shoes unlaced in order to make them fit my swollen feet. There would not have been space for socks even if I had had any. So my partly bare feet were always wet and my shoes always full of snow. This, of course, caused frostbite and chilblains. Every single step became real torture. Clumps of ice formed on our shoes during our marches over snow-covered fields. Over and again men slipped and those following behind stumbled on top of them. Then the column would stop for a moment, but not for long.One of the guards soon took action and worked over the men with the butt of his rifle to make them get up quickly. The more to the front of the column you were, the less often you were disturbed by having to stop and then to make up for lost time by running on your painful feet. I was very happy to be the personally appointed physician to His Honor the Capo, and to march in the first row at an even pace. As an additional payment for my services, I could be sure that as long as soup was being dealt out at lunchtime at our work site, he would, when my turn came, dip the ladle right to the bottom of the vat and lean out a few peas.This Capo, a former army officer, even had the courage to whisper to the foreman, whom I had quarreled with, that he knew me to be an unusually good worker. That didnt help matters, but he nevertheless managed to save my life (one of the many times it was to be saved). The day after the epi sode with the foreman he smuggled me into another work party. There were foremen who felt sorry for us and who did their best to ease our situation, at least at the building site. 40 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 41But even they kept on reminding us that an ordinary laborer did several times as much work as we did, and in a shorter time. But they did see reason if they were told that a normal workman did not live on 10-1/2 ounces of bread (theoreticallyactually we often had less) and 1-3/4 pints of thin soup per day that a normal laborer did not live under the mental stress we had to submit to, not having news of our families, who had either been sent to another camp or gassed right away that a normal workman was not threat ened by death continuously, daily and hourly.I even al lowed myself to say once to a kindly foreman, If you could learn from me how to do a brain operation in as short a time as I am learning this road work from you, I would have great respect for you. And he grinned. Apathy, the main symptom of the second phase, was a necessary mechanism of self-defense. Reality dimmed, and all efforts and all emotions were centered on one task pre serving ones own life and that of the other fellow. It was typical to hear the prisoners, while they were being herded back to camp from their work sites in the evening, sigh with relief and say, Well, another day is over. It can be readily understood that such a state of strain, coupled with the constant necessity of concentrating on the task of staying alive, forced the prisoners inner life down to a primitive level. Several of my colleagues in camp who were trained in psychoanalysis often spoke of a regression in the camp inmatea retreat to a more primitive form of mental life. His wishes and desires became obvious in his pipe dreams. What did the prisoner dream about most frequently? Of bread, cake, cigarettes, and nice warm baths.The lack of having these simple desires satisfactory led him to seek wishfulfillment in dreams. Whether these dreams did any good is another matter the dreamer had to wake from them to the reality of camp life, and to the terrible contrast between that and his dream illusions. I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man.Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At t hat moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him. Because of the high degree of undernourishment which the prisoners suffered, it was natural that the desire for food was the major primitive instinct around which mental life centered. Let us observe the majority of prisoners when they happened to work near each other and were, for once, not closely watched.They would immediately start discuss ing food. One fellow would ask another working next to him in the ditch what his favorite dishes were. Then they would exchange recipes and plan the menu for the day when they would have a reunionthe day in a distant future when they would be liberated and returned home. They would go on and on, picturing it all in detail, until suddenly a warning was passed down the trench, usually in the form of a special password or number The guard is coming. I al ways regarded the discussions about food as danger ous.Is it not wrong to provoke the organism with such detailed and affectional pictures of delicacies when it has somehow managed to adapt itself to extremely small rations 42 Mans Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 43 and low calories? Though it may afford momentary psycho logical relief, it is an illusion which phy