Death is the outcome of a concentration camp.  A prison that sorts people based on their ability to work.  If a person could not be forced to work under the harsh conditions, or lack of food, they were sent to death.  A concentration camp is about suffering, but there are those who survived.  Those who had higher chances of survival found moments to overcome the suffering, and find mental habits to keep themselves from despair.  Those who survived found ways to imbue meaning in their life.  Finding meaning even in the tragic human experience of the concentration camp.

There were those who died from giving up hope, from a lack of a potential future.  Died from nothing to live for.  A physiological response, as those who deteriorated mentally, also deteriorated physically which made them vulnerable to every other threat.  To survive, to prevent despair, the prisoners found ways to imbue meaning into their experience.  Prisoners found momentary solace in retrospective thought.  Momentary bliss from thinking about loved ones.  Even some humor was used as a self-preservation mechanism. 

Finding meaning is the basis of logotherapy.  Meaning can be found through work, love, or even courage in difficult times.  There is much that is beyond the control of the individual, but the individual has the freedom to choose how to respond.  Cannot control what happens, but can control how the individual feels. 

 

Initially, the prisoners had some hope that they would keep their items.  But became apathetic, as a self-defense mechanism.  Everything began to be about self-preservation.  The prisoners crowed together for self-preservation, to not be conspicuous.  Alternatively, prisoners wanted time along with their thoughts. 

Prisoners who were chosen for death, had a delusion of reprieve.  An illusion of being spared in the last moment.  Those who were chosen for death were those who could not work.  In response, the prisoners tried to make themselves look younger, fit for work.  Viktor E. Frankl used psychological tools to become useful to the Capo, who saved Frankl from death.  Capos were prisoners who worked for the guards.  There were some really bad guards, in all can be found human kindness.

After the camp experience, former prisoners depersonalize their experience, as if they had been deceived and it did not happen.  Even though they wanted liberation, they also could not believe it happened.

 

Logotherapy is about the future, how people finding meaning.  By finding fulfillment in the future.  A tension between what was achieved, and has yet to be achieved.  People have the ability to change, and change the world.

Retrospective thought can be help, but can also be dangerous.  Retrospective thought can prevent people from seeing the opportunities of reality.  To not see opportunities to become better.

There is a survivorship bias in those who survived by using the methods.  As mentioned in the book, many of those who used the methods still died.  Without mentioning how many survived without using the methods.