“SUPER-SENSE” IN LOGOTHERAPY OF HOPELESSNESS

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the experience of Socratic dialogues with a person who suffered from the frustration of hopelessness caused by an incurable disease and doom to imminent death. She was agnostic about religion and did not have a personally meaningful mission in which she could “plunge headlong” – “to make it”. Therefore, she concluded that it would be better for herself and her family to get rid of the suffering caused by her illness as soon as possible, which makes a “neat” suicide possible. The main conclusion from the results of the Socratic dialogues with this person and other terminally ill patients is that the frustration of hopelessness of the terminally ill can and does have a super-sense – a humanistic belief in God, which applies to both agnostics and atheists. The sincere believers are protected from such frustration by their faith. If an agnostic or atheist is “cool” and distrustful of churches and priests, a psychotherapist / psychologist can and should attract and engage him or her in the super-sense. In the process of socratic dialogues with such a person, he or she should try to form a reasoned agreement on the high probability of the existence of the Transcendent with the help of rational arguments based on relevant facts, life realities, reflections of powerful thinkers, and the latest scientific discoveries, whose personalized subjects (God, angels, saints) “patronize” our earthly world from the standpoint of love and care for it, which gives a high, though incomprehensible to the human mind, meaning to the existence of humanity and the life of each person. This agreement sets the mood for sanitizing optimistic hope and sincere love (Faith–Hope–Love).
The discourse of rational argumentation of the super-sense is presented. It is proved that not only the grace of conversion, but also the rational and intellectual agreement with the super-sense can be a reliable mental “outpost” of subjective self-defense against the frustrations of hopelessness, loss, etc. Such agreement gives the hopeless subject hope for a happy ending to his or her earthly suffering and encourages him or her to be imbued with his or her love for and care for the family, and thus to set himself or herself the super-task corresponding to the super-sense, which is to complete his or her earthly journey with dignity despite suffering. Such movements of sacrificial love (agape) “push down” the burden of despair and hopelessness and fill with the light energy of emotion and admiration for one's love, responsibility, care, and concern, which has a healing effect on the subject's psyche and significantly alleviates his or her suffering “here and now”.