Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. . . . I refrained from telling him anything but instead confronted him with the question, "What would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive you?" "Oh," he said," "for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!" Whereupon I replied, "You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering--to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her." He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left my office. (135)
Sunday, January 31
Reading up for my thesis led me to this passage by logotherapist Dr. Viktor E. Frankl,
