Search Results

Below are your search results. You can also try a Basic Search.

Gathering celebrates legacy of scholar

(10/31/05 10:00am)

Psychologists, psychiatrists and Holocaust survivors took over Houston Hall yesterday. They were coming together to celebrate the legacy of psychotherapist and author Viktor Frankl. This year marks the centennial of Frankl's birth, and the conference celebrated his legacy with a panel of speakers and a screening of The Choice is Yours, a documentary about Frankl. A Holocaust survivor himself, Frankl's drew on his personal struggles to study the search for meaning in man's life. His most acclaimed work, Man's Search for Meaning, was one of the most influential psychiatric works of the 20th century. Kate Ward-Gaus, the associate director of the Office of Health Education, opened the conference by noting the event's relevance to the entire student body. She stressed the importance of addressing the existentialist questions that Frankl posed, pointing out that all students grapple with figuring out how they fit into a "larger picture." Ann Matter, chairwoman of the University's Religious Studies Department, echoed this sentiment by calling on "the tools of the spiritual world to combat depression." Keynote speaker Shimon Cowen elaborated on Frankl's thesis that every man inherently has a specific mission in life that cannot be replaced or repeated. Cowen has a Ph.D. in social philosophy from Melbourne, Australia's Monash University and has written several essays exploring the relationship between religion and the arts, sciences and values of general civilization. He called Frankl a "cultural landmark" and read previously untranslated sections of Frankl's writings. Referring to Frankl as a "counterpart to Freud," Cowen connected Frankl's emphasis on the spiritual with Freud's attempt to "undo the animalistic." He discussed the function of man's soul, which Frankl deemed the driving force behind our ability to respond to challenges. Cowen also reviewed Frankl's ideology that meaning is not arbitrary. He concluded that every person, saint to sinner, behaves according to a set of values; "even terrorists have meaning in their lives," he said. Attendees, many of whom came with previous knowledge of Frankl's work, were pleased with the event. "As a psych major, I was especially eager to attend [the conference]. It provided new insights not accessible via textbooks alone," College senior Megan Goldman said.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2005/10/gathering_celebrates_legacy_of_scholar

PennConnects