…macht mich stärker.

Many of have heard one Friedrich Nietzsche’s most famous quotes:

“Whatever does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

But as I am reading through Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are, I am reminded of what an impact he had on Viktor Frankl’s psychological theories and Logotherapy.

He wrote much on the idea of The Eternal Return – what if each moment in life, each decision, you are destined to relive over and over.  “This life as you now live and have lived it you will have to live once again and innumerable times again; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unspeakably small or great in your life must return to you, all in the same succession and sequence…”  If that were true, would you make the same decision in this moment?  Sounds a lot like Frankl’s “Meaning of the Moment” – that in each moment in life, we have the opportunity to choose meaning, or to choose to let it pass by.  Each is an exercise in mindful and meaningful decision making.

As Frankl instructs us that each and every one of us is unique and has our own unique purpose and tasks to fulfill in life – a course that only we can fulfill; Nietzsche writes, “There exists in the world a single path along which no one can go except you:  whither does it lead?  Do not ask.  Go along it.”

“God is dead, and we have killed him.”  Perhaps one of Nietzsche’s most famously misused statements.  It is more a reflection on what he saw as declining morals and values in his time, that “The world has never been so worldly, never poorer in love and goodness.” And that because of this moral decline, this absence of traditional values – in “killing God”, the former source of these values – that humankind must now design and implement it’s own value structure.  Where Nietzsche seems to leave civilization to ponder this, Frankl picks it up and says we must seek out and implement MEANINGFUL values and traditions in our lives for the good of ourselves, or families, our communities, and our world.

Frankl admits he was influenced by Nietzsche.  I would say that he took Nietzsche’s ideas a little further, and in a more positive direction.  If you’re interested in reading more, definitely take a look at Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are.  If you’d like to learn a little bit more about Frankl’s ideas for meaning living, and discuss them with others, have a look at the beta test of The Meaning Project.