Edith Weisskopf-Joelson

 Edith Weisskopf-Joelson

"Logotherapy can help counteract certain unhealthy trends in the present day culture of the United States, where the incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it enobling."-Man's Search For Meaning (page 170-171)

Edith Weisskopf-Joelson was a college professor in Georgia in the 1980s that described the importance of logotherapy. Along with Viktor E. Frankl, she described the importance of finding meaning and purpose in life. We learn that Edith described the importance of seeing obstacles and difficulties as lessons instead of being discouraged. We learn from the writings of Viktor E. Frankl about the importance of having positive emotions and practicing gratitude everyday. We learn that instead of seeing obstacles and difficulties as something negative, we can learn to thrive even amidst not the best of times. We learn that there are lessons to be learned from experiences and that we can choose to thrive even amidst not so good times. 

We learn that there is a false presumption that individuals need to appear to be happy based on external things, when in fact, we can improve, having true joy, gratitude, and purpose based on paying attention to and prioritizing the intrinsic. This describes that we can persevere making sure that we have gratitude each day for the good things that we have and for being able to turn obstacles and circumstances into learning opportunities. We learn that even when there are difficulties, we can learn specific lessons. We learn that specific lessons can teach us that we can not practice sin and can not practice negative emotions that are not helpful and are not useful describing envy, bitterness, resentments, and coveting. Viktor E. Frankl described that having positive emotions and gratitude can prevent negative emotions. Positive Psychology describes in longitudinal studies about how getting rid of negative emotions and practicing gratitude and true joy leads to longevity.

We learn that instead of prioritizing the temporary, superficial, and external, we are able to prioritize gratitude and true joy. We learn that we obtain true joy by having gratitude to GOD Almighty and persevering with meaning and purpose. We learn that Edith described the manner that in the culture of the 1980s, in the United States, individuals needed to be happy based on consumerism and external things. Instead, logotherapy describes that we need to prioritize the instrinsic meaning and purpose that we have, practice gratitude, persevere with true joy, and remove negative emotions describing anger, bitterness, shame, and envy.

This wisdom allows us to persevere even amidst circumstances. We learn that Viktor E. Frankl described the manner that individuals can improve even amidst obstacles seeing the manner that he was able to publish his book while he persevered in concentration camps. We learn that instead of seeing obstacles and circumstances with negativity, we are able to persevere improving ourselves. We learn that having gratitude prevents us from believing the temporary lies of evil that want individuals to be discouraged. Instead of looking for happiness in extrinsic things like temporary material posessions, temporary wealth, consumerism, false "comparisons", "relationships" that want to lead to idolatry, and idolatry, we can persevere with encouragement knowing that we do not need those things. Instead we can improve acknowledging that our meaning and purpose is to persevere with gratitude and true joy in the worship of GOD Almighty. We can persevere being creative preaching and writing, accepting and confessing King Jesus Christ Eternal LORD and Savior, and using obstacles and circumstances to learn wisdom and lessons that prevent us from practicing sin, idolatry, and from being stagnated in vices, boredom, and the existential vacuum.

"Experiencing can be as valuable as achieving is therapeutic because it compensates for the one sided emphasis on the external world of achievement at the expense of the internal world of experience."- Man's Search For Meaning (page 170)