MARINA OPPENHEIMER BOOKS AND BLOG

  I just read with delight and for the third time Victor E. Frankl's book, The Unheard Cry for Meaning (Psychotherapy and Humanism ). Frankl states that, besides love and work, life never ceases to have meaning. According to Freud, love and work are the pillars of our humanity; however, according to Frankl, our main purpose is to search for the meaning of life even without an occupation or a lover to show us the way. The real task is to discover the meaning of existence in situations that only emanate despair. Even on the stormy nights of our life, if we look hard enough, we will discover the meaning of our suffering. Frankl’s thesis is something that, after professional successes and failures, deep and hopeless loves, I had also inferred. The true meaning of life has to do with suffering because suffering is the window to true knowledge. In other words, if we are able to live our days of pain with courage and the will to overcome them, we will be transforming our soul into a virtu...

El otro día se me ocurrió mirar una fotografía de la época de cuando iba al colegio; sería cuando tenía unos catorce años. Este era un colegio mixto en el que, a pesar de estar ubicado en Buenos Aires, en vez de aprender castellano, aprendíamos francés. Tal había sido la decisión de mis padres, y allí fui sin protestar. Resultó que, además de aprender francés como una francesa, me hice los mejores amigos que tuve en la vida. Esos fueron años mágicos que todavía conservo en la memoria como un tesoro al que recurro en mis horas de soledad. Aquellas horas transcurridas con mis compañeros de aula me acompa ñ arán hasta el último día. Pero a lo que me quería referir era que, a través de Facebook, me volví a conectar con uno de ellos; se llama Daniel. Si bien de joven era un poco distante, era sin duda uno de los mejores alumnos de la clase. Cuando le mandé un mensaje para preguntarle si él era el Daniel que yo buscaba, y me contestó que sí, sentí que había vuelto a recuperar un pedazo de m...

  I just read with delight and for the third time Victor E. Frankl's book,  The Unheard Cry for Meaning (Psychotherapy and Humanism ). Frankl states that, besides love and work, life never ceases to have meaning. According to Freud, love and work are the pillars of our humanity; however, according to Frankl, our main purpose is to search for the meaning of life even without an occupation or a lover to show us the way. The real task is to discover the meaning of existence in situations that only emanate despair. Even on the stormy nights of our life, if we look hard enough, we will discover the meaning of our suffering. Frankl’s thesis is something that, after professional successes and failures, deep and hopeless loves, I had also inferred. The true meaning of life has to do with suffering because suffering is the window to true knowledge. In other words, if we are able to live our days of pain with courage and the will to overcome them, we will be transforming our soul into a...