One Note: Richard Froude
The particular speech patterns that arise to communicate forgiveness...
In One Note, Gabriel Blackwell asks writers for just that: one note, a single paragraph, on what they’re reading right now.
Today’s note comes courtesy of Richard Froude:
Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning has sold over 10 million copies in more than 20 languages. Inspired by his experiences as a concentration camp prisoner–and his efforts to prevent the suicide of fellow prisoners–the work introduces logotherapy, Frankl’s meaning-centered approach to psychotherapy. For Frankl, the desire to find meaning, even in the most dire circumstances, is the driving force of human life. Originally published in 1946, the book’s influence has been felt far beyond the discipline of psychotherapy and indeed, this note is less about the book itself than its echoes. Part of my work is to provide therapeutic interventions for late-stage oncology patients. During these interventions the patient is led through a series of questions meant to provoke a sense of self and meaning as well as communicating deep values with a focus on legacy. Known as Dignity Therapy, the process was developed by Dr. Harvey Chochinov who was in turn informed by the work of Dr. Frankl. If Chochinov is the father of the Dignity Therapy intervention, then Frankl is the grandfather. My own writing has become inextricably tied to the experience of providing Dignity Therapy. I don’t mean that I write exclusively or directly about the experience, but rather: the strange gesture the man opposite me makes when he knows he is about to break down; the particular speech patterns that arise to communicate forgiveness; the quiet triumph in articulation. The process of Dignity Therapy focuses on meaning in life, generativity, and the sense and preservation of self. Their prominence is inherited directly from Viktor Frankl.
Richard Froude is the author of FABRIC (Horse Less, 2011) and The Passenger (Skylight, 2012), as well as a book of translations of Charles Baudelaire, Tarnished Mirrors (Muffled Cry, 2004). He is a graduate of the English/Creative Writing PhD program at the University of Denver and currently a premedical student at the University of Colorado. He works with an interdisciplinary team investigating the benefits of narrative therapies for under-served cancer patients. www.richardfroude.com
