SIP future reference

-Make the connection between courage as applied to mentally ill/challenged, and then how it relates to a person in every day by using your original definition. Be clear that the courage to relate, engage socially connects with those who continue on with constant threat to their mental stability.

Suggestions from Dr. Wright on SIP presentation:

-Be somewhat biographical; reveal why you chose this topic

-Lewis' ideas about judgement

-Bring some of the psychological ideas into it, but don't get lost in the woods of abstract concepts

-Talk about courage in light of the different theories

-Give Dr. Wright 5 questions he can ask on the exam

-Dr. Wright was particularly interested in integration

-What have different authors said

-Nouwen

Integration analysis of Frankl, Yalom, Adler

Q's:

1.) what is paradoxical intention

Out of the District

"We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future, and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching...Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it it inevitable that we should never be so."-Blaise Pascal

None of us are special. We all live and try under the same sun. We all get caught in the same rain. Yet constantly I try to escape what I am by thinking of what is ahead. The present is only time we are ever real. What could keep us here and content? What could give us a sense of belonging even when we are far away from what we could call home, or when all the pieces of life have been exploded beyond recognition? I think it is simply the belief that our present is the architecture of our own maker. We are always attempting to understand God's plan--once again trying to look forward. But the perfect plan of our maker is best known through acceptance of the precise moment in time that we occupy.

Frankl and Courage

Out of Alfred Adler's theories came a greater appreciation for the positive aspects of the individual: his or her abilities to confront difficulties in the personality, the importance of altruism, sacrifice and service. These ideas of human nobility were largely ignored by Freud, or at least attached to darker ulterior motives and drives. But in contradiction with Freud (and often scorned by him), Adler set a trend for many psychiatrists and psychoanalysts who would follow him in their interest of the magnanimity of man. Victor Frankl was the next in line to receive notoriety for his interest in forwarding Positive Psychology. Courage played a key role both in Frankl's life, and in his development of his Logotherapy, though perhaps in a more implicit way than Adler's explicit use and understanding of the concept.

Frankl's notoriety and insight are not simply due to to his place in psychiatry, but also to his experiences. Frankl spent the years between 1942 and 1945 in Nazi concentration camps, living alone as his wife, mother and father were murder or died in separate camps. After his release from Auschwitz, Frankl would wrote the book "Man's Search for Meaning" in which he described his experiences and observations as a therapist, and then developed his theory of "Logotherapy". His theory centered on the idea that "meaning", in an existential or spiritual sense, is the reason the man lives--and in the case of the concentration camps, the reason a man could stay alive. Frankl's difficult and unique experiences gave him a window into the dignity and bravery of individuals, but also the depth of their despair. In such a situation, Frankl felt that man needed to be able to look beyond himself to overcome difficult circumstances, for he experienced that those who survived the concentration camps were often the ones who had something to live for outside of the camp. Being under perpetual physical abuse and taunts from the guards, but most of all the "mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all" (Frankl 1986 p. 42) caused many to give up hope. This ultimate despair he in concrete terms of saving cigarette vouchers that could be traded for soup, and "when we saw a comrade smoking his own cigarettes, we knew he had given up faith in strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned" (Frankl 1986 p. 26).

However, if a man could find a way to focus on an object, belief or experience that gave him purpose, Frankl believed he could survive and even flourish no matter how difficult the circumstances. Frankl recounted such an experience with the memory of his wife, though not being sure if she was dead or alive:

Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answer me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise (Frankl 1986 p. 57).

It was this image of his wife which Frankl said, helped him understand how "a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved" (Frankl 1986 p. 57). By cultivating these moments that kept his inner life vital, Frankl felt he was able to regain his courage, and fight off despair despite a constant attack to the stability of his psyche.

Frankl's ideas bear witness and similarity to Adler's, but ultimately, Frankl felt what a man derives meaning from must come from a more spiritual place than Adler. Adler saw his ideas of social interest and contribution as containing a sort of mystical or spiritual element to them, while Frankl saw concepts as incomplete in of themselves. Walter E O'Connell, an Adlerian, commented that "Frankl's spirituality seems to be Adler's social interest in diguise..." (O'Connell 1970 Journal of Religion and Health p. 136), while Frankl would have seen Adler's theory "within a reductionist view, reduced by psychodynamic and biological forces" (Hillmann 2004 Handbook of Motivational Counseling p. 358) Frankl understood this choice more existentially, as a man or woman's need for hope. This was explored in what he called the "will to meaning", rather than Freud's "will to pleasure", or the Adlerian "will to power" (the overcoming of inferiority" (Frankl 1986 p. 120). Adlerian's would disagree with Frankl, claiming he misunderstood Adler's conception of willing to power--simply in Adler's mind, "the ideal of expanded self-esteem and social interest" (O'Connell 1970 p. 135). This is understandable in Frankl's case, as a first hand experience of Nazism would have given him skepticism about the health of a theory based around social participation. Frankl had witnessed social participation and the drive for superiority become a driving force behind the conformity in Germany that led atrocity. But he saw that "man, is able to live and die for the sake of his beliefs and values" (Frankl 1986 p. 115), thereby making him an agent for courageous individual choices.

However, Frankl and Alder shared a common concept in that of treating Neuroses. But Frankl departs from Adler in the excavation of the inner life as a tool for health. Rather than a focus that is retrospective or introspective like Adler, asking the patient to face their therapeutic relationship or larger social relationships, Frankl saw Logotherapy as a forward pointing therapy. However, they shared a common view that the neurotic was someone who wanted to avoid the responsibilities of life. For Frankl, neurotic behavior would not be seen as a loss of courage, but rather the loss of meaning that would propel an individual to courage. The goal for Frankl was to see that the "self-centeredness of the neurotic is broken up instead of being continually fostered and reinforced" (Frankl 1986 p. 120). These neuroses, Frankl called Noogenic because they were not problems rooted in physiology, but in the mind (noos meaning "mind" in Greek), and originated not from "conflicts between drives and instincts, but rather from existential problems" (Frankl 1986 p. 123). A person who is suffering from a noogenic neurosis, might find that their lost meaning would result in somatic affectation. But this ultimately leads to feelings of emptiness, apathy, permanent boredom and weariness, or incessant chasing after pleasure (Hillmann 2004 p. 363). Thus, apathy undermines a person's courage for life choices and acts. Logotherapy, focuses on recovering meaning by placing courageous choice back in the hands of the patient. For as Frankl claimed, "each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to live he can only respond by being responsible. Thus logotherapy sees in responsibleness the very essence of human existence" (Frankl 1986 p. 131).

While Frankl thought of Adler's theory mainly for the purpose of dealing youthful or adolescent formation (O'Connell 1970), he was interested in helping people recover the meaning in their life at all states. The two main categories that his theory falls into are that of "self-distancing" and "self-transcendence" (Millmann 2004). The person who is able to act courageously is able to excercise both of the concepts. While self-transcendence looks toward the "logos" or purpose a person needs, self-distancing is done through small courageous acts towards the self. This applies most readily to those with anxiety disorders, phobias or panic disorders--any situation where all mental energy is focused on the fear itself. When neuroses reaches the level of affecting a person somatically, a cycle is developed where the physical symptom becomes mental anxiety of experiencing the symptom, which in turn perpetuates the physical symptom. The concept of self-distancing is expressed in the technique of "paradoxical intention", where the neurotic individual courageously chooses to wish for exactly what one fears (Millmann 2004). This choice may look something like the insomniac who chooses to wish not to go to sleep, and this works because, "the fear of falling asleep cannot coexist with the actual wish not to go to sleep" (H illmann 2004 p. 368). Here the obsessive pattern is broken, and the individual "experiences the self as strong, he evidences courage, seizes the "bull by the horns", and faces anxiety-filled situations intentionally and deliberately" (Lukas 2000 p. 105--quoted in Hillmann p. 367).

Humor has long been seen as a virtue that the brave individual carries into the face of fear. So too, the courageous act of self-distancing opens up the possibility of humor as a new paradigm through which to see the old anxiety. The person who attempts to wish themselves awake, "miserably fails in this project by immediately falling asleep" (Hillmann 2004 p. 368), and finds what once an object of fear, has now become laughable. However, it is not just the person suffering from crippling phobia that finds humor an appropriate expression of courage.

In his book, Find Meaning In Life, David Guttmann wrote about the use of humor for the elderly as they reach the end of their lives. He said, "humor, as the psychologist Reuven P. Bulka(1989) has said, is one of the most useful ways for the individual to gain distance from a given situation" (Guttmann 2008 p. 114). This ability to self-distance becomes important for the elderly as death seems imminent, and most of life has been live--existing for them to be analyzed and remembered. Humor allows for the expression of and shielding of one's mental courage. In speaking of concentration camp prisoners, Guttmann said of their humor: "it became an integral part of life in the camps. It protected the courage of the prisoners and raised their morale" (Guttmann 2008 p. ???)(Citing Cronstrom-Beskow 1991). Instead of attention being kept on the obsession, fear or threat, the patient learns to "ridicule them by irony and by applying paradoxical intention..." wherein the "the vicious circle is cut, the symptom diminishes, and the obsession finally atrophies" (Guttmann 2008 p. ???). So humor becomes the mark of the healthy neurotic, who gathers the courage to laugh at the ridiculousness of the obsession and the inhibition it causes.

But loss or requirement of courage may come from within (such as overcoming a phobia) or from without (facing death). Frankl said, "when we spoke about attempts to give a man in camp mental courage, we said that he had to be shown something to look forward to in the future. He had to be reminded that life still waited for him, that a human being was waiting for his return" (Frankl 1986 p. 114) Circumstances or environments can often be the hammer that drives a crack between an individual and his or her meaning. If the circumstances are exceptionally punishing, this may drive an individual to "hyper-reflection"(Hillman 2004 p. 368), an introspective trap that creates a maze of neurotic self-obsession (Guttmann 2008 pg. ???). Here is the moment where self-transcendence is needed. Comparisons can easily be made to the elderly, who are often thrust into foreign and isolating existences in nursing homes, They watch their bodies break down, and life-long relationships pass, without seemingly much to look forward to. Existence can become a chore, without meaning, causing them to turn inward. This hearkens back to Frankl's reminiscing about his wife while working in the concentration camp. Relationships and goals were what Frankl believed would lead someone to look beyond their "self-concern"(Hillmann 2004 p. 369). He stressed that we find meaning in three ways: "(1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering" (Frankl 1986 p. 133). The ability to turn outward to experience beauty, relationships, and see the rewards of your own work are all abilities that are inhibited by a painful environment or situation. But Frankl argued that there was meaning to be found even in suffering, if one new how to look at it. Once, when treating an elderly man who had lost his wife several years before, Frankl revealed to his patient, that if he (the patient) had died before his wife, she would have had to suffer his absence. This new perspective, that his suffering in turn meant that his wife did not have to, was a courageous paradigm to require. But in the end, the man found a meaning for his suffering (Frankl 1986 p. 135).

There is a real sense in which Frankl's opinion could be seen as simply avoiding the senselessness of evil and pain. But Frankl was not a niave optimist. He had seen the worst mankind could offer. He recognized in the above example that he could not change the patient's life or bring back his wife, but he was able instill courage when his lost meaning had the potential to drag him into existential despair. Frankl said that the "role played by the therapist is that of a eye specialist rather than that of a painter. A painter tries to convey to us a picture of the world as he sees it; an ophthalmologist tries to enable us to see the world as it really is" (Frankl 1986 p. 132). Frankl's final stage in logotherapy consisted of this new way of seeing, a rebuilt courage for a new paradigm. This is also referred to as "self-formation" (Hillmann 2004 p. 369). This is the personal growth established by the ability to self-distance, and self-transcend. Riedel, Deckart and Noyon commented that this new attitude toward struggle, suffering and adversity "is especially necessary if the problems that give rise to these attitudes cannot themselves be changed" (2002 p. 34). There is a recognition that the threat to mental health will not simply disappear, so techniques are built, courage established, and greater depth is gained by looking beyond the self, rather than within it. Frankl would be instrumental in directing the course of therapy away from Freudian psychoanalysis, and toward a more holistic approach to the psyche. Thus establishing room for the various existenial therapies that follow, and furthering the place of courage and man's nobility in that tradition.

In turning to Victor Frankl and courage, I think I should turn to focusing on the choices that are made in life that require courage despite meaningless circumstances. One of these aspects would be with the elderly, as they are on the tail end of life, and looking for ways in which they can finding meaning. Death is imminent, life seems behind, it has mostly been written now to be remembered and analyzed--what does the elderly then do to find purpose in the NOW? Adler focused much more on the present--being happy in the present by overcoming neurotic tendencies, and living contentedly through social interest and social contribution.

Does one need anything beyond this? How often must the elderly become discouraged in the sight of their decaying minds and bodies, do they still find help in their relationships with one another, or are they left simply to decay alongside those who are in the same state they are. What gives them meaning? Do we have to turn at this point to our beliefs? When we reach the end of life, are we kept alive by our relationships with our family or friends? Does that work anymore?

Alfred Adler and Courage

Considered one of the fathers of Positive Psychology, courage played a vital part in Alfred Adler's system of thinking. Adler understood each person primarily through their drive for perfection and superiority. What propels a human being forward in life, was for Adler, the inner desire to "Achieve! Arise! Conquer!" For him, "this feeling, this longing for the abrogations of every imperfection, is never absent." (Adler-Individual Psychology 1956 p. 103-104) With this ideal of achieving perfection, Adler was also very aware of its impossibility. And according to Adler, so are each one of us. In our awareness that the world is imperfect, our courage is the force that carries us to live in spite of the imperfection.

Adler's description of this struggle was stated this way: "to be human means to feel inferior" (Adler 1956 p. 115) This is the origin of what we now refer to as the Inferiority Complex. In examining the role of courage, inferiority must be seen as the reason for courage being required. In Adler's mind, some people are born into culture with a mind and a body that are both acceptable, but also valuable. These people are fortunate enough never to find their body or mind inadequate or unattractive in contributing to society. But for most, they will experience a lack in one or both of these areas. The experience of this is mainly felt and subjective (attribute to Ansbacher), but can be concrete as well, manifest in physical deformities, handicaps or abnormalities in the sexual organs. Anxiety is developed at this point, and "arises from being torn between our expectations and the discrepant realities" (Yang p. 6). This may mean that a non-athletic man may have to give up his dream of playing competitive sports, or that a bipolar woman may have to give up certain expectations about living "normally"--being able to have the same type of vocation, relationship, or family that she sees in those around her. However, it may be even more subjective, as in the feeling of inferiority possessed by a first-born child who struggles to measure up to the expectations of the family placed upon his role in the birth order. In this sense, inferiority feelings come from bearing a social role that may result in failure, or create the fear of failure. our feeling that we "are incapable of meeting the the demands of the world"(p. 6).

In this sense, these feelings become a "persistent threat to well-being". When the imiment threat that we might fail "grows larger than our fear...fear becomes anxiety"(p.5). In Adler's mind, this happens consistently throughout each person's life as they reach points of anxiety, yet most make the necessary adjustments for this both in their concept of themselves, and in how they contribute to society around them. This individual would be courageous in the eyes of Alder, for he or she learned live with what is real, rather than demand a solution according to an ideal. However, the person who cannot do this, who cannot give up the wish to be as beautiful, as talented, as fit as certain others, or who is simply hung upon fulfilling a familial role, becomes the Neurotic.

In his explanation of Adler's "neurotic", Wayland Vaughan stated that the words to escape the mouth of the neurotic individual would be something like: "think of what I might have been, had I not been so seriously handicapped"(Vaughn 1927 p. 361). This idea of the neurotic is attributed to Freud, but for Adler, rather than the abnormal out-workings of repressed drives, it was the condition of a person who had lost their courage. Adler likened this person to a anxious child, who in receiving comfort from its mother, realizes at some point that their anxiety can become a tool for manipulating the behavior of the mother (Adler 1956 p. 304). So too, the neurotic may actively attempt to dominate others, or passively attract attention to himself. Adler said that "fear of defeat is the only reason for the will to escape", but that the neurotic turns this into a "fictional form of anxiety, which the patient interprets to himself variously but never truly..." (Adler 1956 p. 305). As the neurotic individual resists responsibility, "discouragement," Adler said, "forces him to put a distance between himself and absolutely necessary decisions." The escape comes in the form of avoiding normal "tasks of life" (Adler 1956) the majority of which are relationships and social life.

This inferiority is inextricably tied to our ability to relate socially--the more inferior we feel, the more we are turned toward isolation. Courage then for Adler, is ultimately a movement towards social contribution and participation. If social life could be understood in terms of a battlefield, with a front and a rear, the neurotic "separates himself from the front of life" (Adler 1956 p. 305). This is where Adler's theory grew most emphatic, with his concept of gemeinschaftsgefühl-the word Adler used to describe someone's ideal state of mental health (Yang et al 2010). The best english understanding of the word is something like "social feeling". It is this aspect of the person that hinges on being encouraged or discouraged. For Adler, "social interest is not an inborn ability, but a potential for us to develop, such as learning to add or subtract, throw a football or cook a meal" (Yang et al. 2010 p. 18). In this respect, both the well-adjusted person, and the neurotic have to excercise the same muscle of courage in participating and contributing to their community. But what this means, is an actual investment in relationships.

Adler spoke of cooperation as a quality fundamental to the individual from birth. This begins with the child's dependent relationship with the mother, and expands to the family. Authors Yang, Milleren and Blagen sum up Adler's ideas by saying that social interest is "an innate potential that must be consciously developed" (Yang et al 2010 p. 18). The innate desire must be connected with the learned ability to associate oneself with others, and being willing to receive from them, and give out. For the person struggling to overcome a neurotic tendency, psychological disorder, or fight against an imposed family role, the challenge to cooperate is not a simple one. Ansbacher said of the inferiority that "a discouraged individual may use a real or assumed deficiency for the purpose of special benefit". This is precisely where the necessity for courage arrives. The individual must reach out in cooperation with others. For Adler, this often meant that therapuetic relationship was the first attempt at this cooperation. He said that the "task of the physician or psychologist is to give the patient the experience of contact with a fellow man, and then enable him to transfer this awakened social interest to others" (Adler 1956 p. 341) Adler saw this role like the role of a mother, who's responsibility it was to introduce the child to the world. If, he thought, the mother failed to do this, the responsibility often fell to the therapist later in the patient's life. By that time, that patient would have become much more set in his or her personality, making the shift to social interest allowed. The relationship with the therapist however, would provide a motherly safety net in allowing the patient to explore this interest. Here the patient begins to move from a place of discouragement (avoiding or being suspicious of society, or using relationships simply for recognition) to new and uncovered ground where the courage to participate is instilled by the therapist.

Adler saw neurosis and psychosis as the"alibi for non-participation and withdrawal"( Ansbacher 1956 p. 259) when a person has given up on their courage(Adler 1956 p. 343). So also he saw the relationship with the therapist as the model for social interest--resuming one's interest in another, by way of the therapist's will to put work into the relationship. What must follow a renewed interest in the community, is the desire to contribute to that community. Authors Yang, Milliren and Blagen state that "there is not a one-to-one correspondence between contribution and reward, and individuals must be able to give far more than they recieve" (Yang et al. 2010 p. 20) For the patient struggling to move out of isolation, the difficulty lies in having enough patience with oneself to realize that a lifetime of isolation will not allow him or her to quickly build good and healthy relationships. Courage takes form in the act of seeing the joy brought about in others by their interpersonal relationships, the give and take that is required but freely given in friendship, and choosing to contribute as well, without requirement. As interest at the world around one grows, so does the level of an individual's contribution to it--both environmently and relationally.

Adler argued that all schools of psychiatry in his day owed their success with neuroses mainly (and claimed this as the corner stone of Individual Psychology) to their relationship with the patient. That therapy existed mainly to show the individual what social interest looked like, and "to give him encouragement" (Adler 1956 343). In the context of this relationship, the therapist gives the patient the courage to look at the areas of possible failure or anxiety in life as obstacles to push through on the way to participation and relationship, rather than grow into fearful giants that threaten the stability of the psyche. Adler called courage the "health of the soul" (need source), and it was for him the sign that his patients were beginning to look beyond their own ailments to the world and benefit of others.

Courage Part I

I have a strong memory from boyhood that comes back to me often. I am sitting on the bench during a hockey game--shoulders hunched, head hanging with discouragement. It is late in the third period, my misfit team is exhausted and down by several goals; I have been called off the ice. The memory is of my father--a man who has known his share of struggle in life--pulling me aside and giving me a line from one of his heroes, Winston Churchill: "success is not final; failure is never fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Propelled by the Prime Minister's words, I threw myself back into the game to participate in a valiant loss.

These words of Churchill's encapsulate how we think of the virtue of courage. Let our imagination run with the concept and it might take us to a battlefield, perhaps somewhere in Rome. Exemplified in someone like Maximus, the hero of the movie Gladiator, we see courage as a response to the possibility of utter loss--loss of property, love, identity, or life. A soldier ignores the possibility of death; an activist stands out alone against an injustice. Maximus makes his return from being a overthrown General through the death-defying life of a Gladiator, Dr. King writes his letters, which are still a source of inspiration for many, from the Birmingham Jail. We know these kinds of men(and women) for their individual actions throughout history, but also for their ability to endure constant trial, and their resilience despite perpetual punishment or loss. However, they are the ones who are seen. We use them as examples, and we create art about their acts, which seemingly dwarf whatever we have done that we believe to be courageous. Yet perhaps what makes courage unique is not who or what makes it notorious, but the subtlety of its use. Any man or woman may face difficulties in life, but not all will face a struggle that is ongoing and relentless. For some, the choice to get out of bed, socially interact, or make it through a work day is an act of courage. It is in many of these cases, that the need for courage turns inward, to the mental life of a person.

There is a moment, part way through the child's story The Hobbit, where the protagonist Bilbo Baggins is given a choice. He can either kill the hideous creature Gollum unawares, or spare his life. Bilbo chooses pity for Gollum instead, setting forward a chain of events unforseeable to him. His decision is described in this way: "all these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in a another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped. No great leap for a man, but a leap in the dark" (Tolkien p. 96). Though Bilbo Baggin's choice is largely a moral one, it includes a psychological element. Some people exemplify courage, objectively though a lifetime. Others find it much like Bilbo Baggins, at small yet important impasses. But for a person grappling with courage of the mind, or psychological courage, nothing less than a lifetime of these moments is required. Psychological courage, is the willingness of the individual to struggle through situations, relationships, and circumstances that threaten psychic stability (Attribute to Finfgeld/Putman). This psychic stability is threatened by something as straightforward as chronic pain, or as difficult to overcome as a depressive mood disorder.

Author's Tim Hansel, and James Goldsmith exemplify this range. Hansel, author of a book called "You've Got to Keep Dancing", survived falling down an ice crevasse. He would go on to suffer from depression, and a lost marriage, thanks in part to excruciating back pain. His writing is his personal account of the moment in which he decided to move forward from the injury, in the face of incurable pain. He said of writing his book, "I don't want to 'celebrate pain', but more deeply understand the dignity of what can happen in it, through it, and because of it" (Need Source). Though Hansel experienced depression and suicidal inclinations, few know mental courage better than those who have struggled with psychological disorders. James Goldsmith was diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder in 1997, after several serious breakdowns. Having experienced abuse as a child, and as an result of the breakdowns, hospitalization as an adult, Goldsmith became a student of Psychology to better understand himself and how he interacts with the world. He speaks freely and openly about his "mental illness", channeling his experiences into lectures that he then shares with members of his church community. For Goldsmith, being at the mercy of emotions, never allows for a sense of normalcy (Chapter 5--better source needed). Threats that would go unnoticed to a healthy person, cause violent reactions in him, where behavior is impossible to control, unless with psychotropic drugs.

It is within this scope of mental struggle, that Positive Psychology seeks to engage with the "discouraged". Gathering much of its inspiration from Existential Philosophy, where, according to Sarte, "existence precedes essence"(Need source). It centers around the idea that a person's choice to do anything in the world, ultimately takes courage. Alfred Adler saw the need for courage in man's constant struggle against his natural inferiorities, his striving for perfection. Psychotherapist Victor Frankl experienced this in the concentration camps, when he observed a connection "between the state of mind of a man-his courage and hope, or lack of them-and the state of immunity of his body" (Search for Meaning, Source Needed).

Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man-his courage and hope, or lack of them-and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect.

his book is in no way meant to diminish the awfulness of pain, tragedy, and affliction. I don’t want to ‘celebrate pain,’ but more deeply understand the dignity of what can happen in it, through it, and because of it.”

And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. A

Rise and Rise

again and again
like the Phoenix
from the Ashes
until the Lambs
become Lions and
The Rule of Darkness
is no more.

- Maitreya The Friend of all Souls

Courage. I've spoken with James many times over the last couple of years, but only recently have I begun to know his story, and to appreciate the life he has lived. Several years ago, I wouldn't have felt comfortable writing these words, much less know how to respectfully engage someone's struggle in a way that reaffirms their dignity, as well as looks upon them with admiration. James is not someone I would try to get to know, normally. But something this last year clicked with me. I was offered his story, in a trusting gesture. Myself, in a place of great confusion, no longer felt threatened, but rather humbled by other circumstances, enough so that I could find a place in my thinking for James that truly recognizes him.

James exemplifies for me, what psychological courage means. When I think of courage, my first thought is of Maximus the Gladiator. Courage is required when we lose something, or loss of something in threatened. Romans prided themselves in their ability to put their lives at hazard. The cinematic story of Maximus, is of a Roman father with a murdered family, favored general with a dead emperor, and a captain without an army. These losses threaten to ruin him, they threaten his identity. But his ability to overcome these losses is what makes Maximus a Roman, what makes him courageous. He must overcome odds.

The journey of the mentally ill is different though. For someone such as James, courageous actions are not required by dangerous situations, but in the duties, relationships, and choices of each day. Mood disorders threaten the psyche of a person, in that, what is seen as the normal view of reality by most, is drastically altered by the disorder. It is a life where escape artists find ways to dull the pain, and the brave choose to live each day with the punishment their own personality delivers them.

Social Courage

I need to connect the psychology of courage, and it's use in disturbed personalities, and its relationship to Adler, and social isolation and social participation.

Isolation and Relationship

From Isolation to Relationship:

Our lives swing on the hinges of relationship, and whether or not we are open to the possibility of it, determines whether or not we are able to be completely alive in the presence of our fellow creatures and, whether we might find life in the presence of a creator. These two relationships have both finite and infinite significance. And I am operating from the assumption that God has been purposefully relating to man in space and time since creation—the infinite stooping to embrace the finite. Also that God as we know him from Jewish history, is relational by nature, and that human beings bear that quality in that they are made in the image of that relational being. But somewhere along the line, the hinges rust shut, or bust out of the doorframe. For some, relationships with their fellow human beings begin well in childhood, and flourishes throughout the rest of life. Whether this ever orientates them to peer down the well of existence, and ask any existential question about their relationship to God is another matter. But then there are those, who for some tragedy of neurotic parenting, struggle within a personality, or an injury to the psyche’s health find it difficult to reach out from themselves to find true relationship. This person may look normal in fact, but underneath any success or intelligence, this person is misunderstood, fearful, and most importantly, isolated. A gift that most take for granted--the ability to relate well to other human beings in a way that brings healthy and supportive relationships--is for them the most desired gift in the world, yet the most illusive.

CHARACTERIZATION:

Fyodor Dostoeyevsky was capable of creating some of the most complex characters in literature, and some of the most interesting relationships between his characters, yet he is known in his personal life for his reclusiveness, bitterness (his epilepsy must also be taken into account) and an almost vindictive attitude toward his fellow man (except for those he identified with, such as the poor and sick). Perhaps he never displayed the same qualities of striking goodness in his personal life, that is central to some of his fictional characters, yet in one work he said, “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” An isolated person is often highly creative, highly intelligent, and also extremely aware of what happens in the lives and relationships of those around them. What follows is a frustrating cycle of seeing the joy brought about in others by their interpersonal relationships, the give and take that is required but freely given in friendship. There is a handicap because of some deep-seated personality disturbance that refuses to allow them to be a participant in the lives of others (or let others participate in his own life)—and in a cosmic way, participating in the image bearing of God.

Where does this leave the isolated person? The struggle to relate can lead to narsiscissum in the individual, for when they are unable to make space for the talents, gifts and diversity of others within themselves because of the relational divide, they are left trying to turn up a dusty internal desert in search of few precious pieces of growing life. In such a place, cut off from the reality of relationship by his own perculiar perspective, this person becomes an expert cynic towards the world outside himself. Reality is dictated by what he finds within himself, whether it is good or bad “psychological material”. (Lewis)

But I am not interested in investigating how this person perceives reality, in so much as what happens to a person in this situation. A person simply cannot live their entire life within that kind of isolation when the desire for relationship still exists. Lack of relationship will lead to personality that is more ghostlike, than made of feelings, flesh and blood. If the hunger to relate, to love is there, this person must eventually despair, giving up the cynical world-view he has created to be open to meeting others as they are. But to suspend his cynical world, he must give up. What he must hold in suspension, and let go of is the complex idea of himself, or view of the self created by continually looking inward for life—the explanation he has given himself as to why he cannot connect explained in some other way than that simply, his ability to relate has been broken by circumstances beyond his control. A person who sees their own reality, their own story through the eyes of narsicissum, or interprets the world through cynicism will find this part of the process incredibly painful. What begins is a new and true self-awareness replacing the inward oriented one, which already, because of it’s self-focus, believes itself to be accurately self-aware. (selfishness)

What most follow is stripping of the relentless attachment this person has to the self—or their own fashioned idea of the self. A person caught in the self-defeat of isolation would prefer to express their helplessness, rather than ask for specific help. Yet at this point in a person’s thought process, asking for help requires much more strength than the repetitious self-disgust an addict expresses when attempting to quit smoking, or the self-effacing comments made by a person who depends upon the recognition and affirmation of others in an unhealthy manner.

As this process begins, the Isolated will try to become something in the context of relationship, yet the difficulty lies in a person having enough grace with themselves to realize that a lifetime of isolation is going to mean they will not quickly build good and healthy relationships. This will lead to bitterness towards others, blaming others for their inability to connect—a return to cynicism. Cynicism is the refuge of the disconnected. Ultimately, I think at this point, this individual is at his or her most vulnerable, for the Isolated can simply find some help and move on, content to always be somewhat disconnected from others, or if the discontent and bitterness awaken existential questions, the bitterness will then be directed at whatever, or whoever caused the Isolated to live this existence. Yet, this bitterness and anger if directed at ‘God’, is the direction of healing. It should be encouraged, for this struggle relates directly back to the Genesis story, and the tension man has found himself in, as he attempts to be himself autonomous and powerful, or the Judeo- Christian idea that true human identity is found by taking one’s place as a creator in relationship to its creator. While acceptance of this does not garuantee we will have leave our isolated heads to find relationships that are always fulfilling, grace is built into Christianity, and grace for oneself (despite the handicap in relationships) becomes the only way that person can begin to reach out.

Stray thoughts: Tillich, Peck, Non-being

Whatever it is that has brought me to look into this topic, began I think with the discovery of Paul Tillich's book "The Courage to Be". Since that time I have not bothered to investigate Tillich's systematic theology, nor has that book been something I've wanted to return to. Instead, it served as a jumping-off point about the idea of "being". Perhaps not in a philosophical sense, but out a dark period of depression, understanding what it might like to be a "non-being". At the time, I interpreted the isolation and despair as something existential. Though in the 2.5 years since then my certainties and beliefs about God and reality have shifted, they have not radically changed. I now understand most of the despair as the result of a very skewed perception of myself, the result of a hyper-analytical mind turned on itself. There are many other aspects to that. My relationship with my parents that was somewhat enmeshed, making it difficult throughout my life to express my own individuality. I experienced intense guilt and shame at any point of opposition with them. What I experienced during this time (or at least, the vocabulary I encountered at the time) was, as M. Scott Peck might put it, a shifting of my cognitive map of reality. We develop a map that defines our perception of life, but at some point, we find our map is asked to change because it is incomplete. It does not match reality. In a book on Religion and Spirituality in the Life Cycle, James Gollnick puts it this way:

"First human beings are not born with such maps, a great deal of effort is required to construct a moral and cognitive map of reality. The more we are able to perceive and appreciate reality, the more accurate the map will be. Peck maintains that many are

unwilling or unable to expend the time and energy to make the necessary changes to

the reality maps as life continues to unfold."

This process is also very tied to the necessity of courage, as the changing of cultivated ideas about oneself, the world and God are incredibly difficult to transform with new information about reality. In the midst of my mental map being challenged, my responses were childlike, a breadth of concerns and anxieties that asked for parental-like assurance. What I gained instead was the robust insistence of a counselor for "Courage!"

Courage and Alfred Adler

Courage. The meaning of
the term conjures the color red, a lion without a heart, a soldier in
a muddy trench, the special olympics. We associate courage with a loud act—a movement taken
when the heart could stop, when the body is in danger, when the tides
are turned in the wrong direction. But courage is not miraculous.
In the words of Cormac Mccarthy, courage is a form of constancy.

As an aspect of mental health, a person can be both En-couraged, and Dis-couraged. Most of the writing I am finding so far about the topic in the realm of psychology, has come from the Adlerian school of therapy. Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud's, turned away from the often cynical naturalism of psychoanalysis, and is to thank in part for positive psychology--focused upon the nobleness of human beings. In "the Psychology of Courage", the authors Yang, Milliren and Blangen (all Adlerians) examine courage as the response to a "persistent threat to well-being". It is a kind of psychological muscle, that deals with fear particularly when, the authors say," it grows larger than our fear. In that case, fear becomes anxiety"(p.5). In Adler's world, fear (the kind that becomes anxiety) is the cause of our Inferiority Complex, our feeling that we "are incapable of meeting the world's demands"(p. 6). This inferiority is inextricably tied to our ability to relate socially--the more inferior we feel, the more we are turned toward isolation. Courage then for Adler, is a movement towards social contribution and participation.

-Life Style is what Adler used to refer to the composite parts of each individual used to interact with the world, or "the totality of the behavioral strategies and safeguards that take us to our successes and failures"(8).

-Characterizations of Courageous individual: "the absence of self-serving interest, safeguards, exploitation and superiority, [as well as the presence of] aesthetics, agape, altruism, courage, hope, empathy, meaning, endurance, movement, stillness, coherence, encouragement, reconcilliation, wholeness, regeneration, and social connectedness"(8).