Stillness and Concentration: Logotherapy Applied to Tinnitus and Chronic Illness

Chronic illnesses exact a toll--the symptoms are ever-present and whittle away at the individual's energy and experience. Tinnitus is an example of an ongoing series of symptoms that can create havoc in a person's inner life. In this book, Lukas uses tinnitus as an example of a chronic illness that can be addressed by finding an inner point of stillness and concentration. The book ends with a section on "reflections on a psychotherapy with dignity." From the book: "Tinnitus carries its own challenge and message, which could be put like this: You will have to acquire new hearing, not that of physical ears, but rather of the heart's ears. You must develop what Frankl called your organ of meaning, the conscience, which hears the daily and hourly call knocking on your door, the call to a concretely meaningful form of existence.… The person who is attuned to his or her conscience is quite simply tuned in some octaves higher than the one who is only picking up the noise of the daily invasive din." (p. 3) "There is a most meaningful path for every person, with signposts to unique tasks that we-and only we-can and ought to fulfill. All human beings are awaited by something in particular which can and ought to be theirs; there is something intended for each of us in this world." (p. 77)