Psychotherapy with Dignity

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Elisabeth Lukas. Psychotherapy with Dignity

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Elisabeth Lukas – Heidi Schönfeld

PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH DIGNITY

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Lukas: You are right that, from the point of view of meaning, the self is not the centre point of spiritual endeavours. The divide between selfishness and altruism, however, is an illusory one. If one wants to commit oneself to another person, one has to keep oneself in good shape. People who overwork massively and treat themselves like slaves are not behaving meaningfully – even if they are slaving away for the service of others. Their service will continually diminish in quality, as will their own competence. We are also familiar with the opposite evil: people who are only interested in themselves and their own welfare are sucked into an existential vacuum that robs them of joy in life. Soon they are bored by everything, because they are no longer good for anything or for anyone. Meaning is just the guardian of the balance between being for something or for someone, and carefully polishing up one's own being, to make it shine. Meaning is always meaning for everyone who is involved in a given life situation.

Ahrendt: Clearly this means that one must be sensitive enough to recognise the meaning in a situation, but it could also make it necessary to say no to someone else's wishes and thereby appear harsh to others.

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