#75: A psychiatrist worth listening to
Happy Friday!
This email comes to you from sunny Machynlleth where I am currently (all being well and the end of the world notwithstanding) in a comedy writers room for hit Radio Wales topical panel show The Leak, hosting by Tom Price.
To be honest, I have very little idea of what being in a comedy writers room entails - maybe listen to the show tonight and see if you can spot any of my jokes. I don't know what my jokes will sound like yet, or even if they'll use any of them. But hey - it'll be a great show so you haven't lost anything.
What I was originally going to write about in this email was an Idea I had. You know how I've been banging on about Victor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning? Well, I'm going to bang on about it a little more. Okay, a lot more.
I realised that the book is 140 pages long, and the main thrust of the narrative is only 84 pages. That's an incredibly short book and it punches well above its weight.
Then I thought: 84 is the product of 3 and 28. 140 is the product of 5 and 28. This cannot be a coincidence: this means you can read the full text in any calendar month by reading five pages a day. If that's too much for your busy schedule, you can read the main narrative with just three pages a day.
Then I thought: this sounds like the start of A CULT. I've always fancied starting a cult, maybe this is my chance!
Or maybe it's just a chance for me to read five pages of Frankl a day for four weeks and to reflect on what a megalomaniac I've become.
So in the spirit of my Idea, I would hereby like to announce the start of THIS ISN'T A CULT REALLY THIS IS JUST A BOOK CLUB month.
I'd like to post something on my blog every day, but realistically that's not going to happen. What will happen are sporadic updates from my reading, which I shall also link you to in these emails throughout the month of May. Aren't you lucky!
If you'd like to join me in this reading, I'd be delighted to hear from you. Just hit reply to this email or find me in the comments on my blog.
For the time being, I'll leave you with a quotation from Victor Frankl's preface to the 1992 edition of my new favourite book:
'[S]uccess, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.'
So, puny earthlings, surrender to your glorious leader!!!!!!! [Insert megalomaniacal cackle.]
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Another thing that happened this week is that I partook of my third session of Psychedelic Breathwork.
I wrote about this back in October so you can read some out-of-date-but-still-valid thoughts on that on my blog. In time, I intend to update that blog post with the lessons from my experience on Monday.
Suffice it to say that, about 20 minutes into an hour of hyperventilation, I was howling with laughter in a way that hasn't happened since I was a kid and my family beseiged me with tickles.
Whatever you think of people in floaty robes and therapies like 'sound healing', hyperventilation is one heck of a trip.
OUTPUT >>
As you may have noticed, this mailing list is the engine room of my blogging. Here's some you might have missed:
...COMING UP...
Loads more comedy at Machynlleth Comedy Festival.
Bank Holiday Foiled-writing mega-sesh!
Probably something after that as well.
28 Days of Frankl Part 1: The Prefaces
Gordon W Allport opens his preface to Man's Search for Meaning with an anecdote about Viennese psychiatrist-author Victor Frankl. Apparently he used to ask all his patients one question: 'Why do you not commit suicide?'
French existential philosopher Albert Camus considered this the only serious question of philosophy. For Frankl, this question is the key to his 'logotherapy': a meaning-centred psychotherapy that sees much of our modern mental anguish as consequences of a struggle with the apparent meaninglessness of our lives.
Frankl believed that the search and discovery of meaning is itself tremendously therapeutic - and even more fundamental to our existence than our drives for pleasure or power.
During the Second World War Frankl was a longtime prisoner in 'bestial' concentration camps, where his father, mother, brother and wife all perished. As Allport says: 'A psychiatrist who personally has faced such extremity is a psychiatrist worth listening to.'
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So yeah. Listen up to The Leak tonight. Have a wonderful weekend and may you find laughter in the most unexpected places.
Much love,
- dc
CREDITS
David Charles wrote this. When not writing this, David co-writes BBC Radio sitcom Foiled, does copywriting for The Bike Project and the Elevate Festival, and volunteers for refugee youth club Young Roots. He is almost always available for work. davidcharles.info // @dcisbusy
Police say incidents unrelated.
Via BBC News and @dcisbusy (me)