Comparing The Depressed Self In Man's Search For Meaning '

“The camp looked as though it had been through an epidemic: empty and dead” (47); even when there is a break in between the horror and pain of working for Nazis in concentration camps and suffering from hunger, it is dead, empty and inhuman; this meaningful passage about the complete and utter truth of concentration camps comes from a memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel. Vocabulary in this passage, is nothing short of exemplary, the words completely compliment the message being shared in this quote. Elie Wiesel describes the atrocious Buna camp as if it were through an epidemic, an outbreak, rendering people empty and dead due to starvation, lack of sleep, and over exertion. This paints a complete and thorough visual of how he viewed concentration

Camp life changed the prisoner’s life as a person by having them do jobs that the Kommandos didn't want to do. At the camps the prisoners experienced starvation and harsh conditions. They changed as a person by having hope in some situations and then losing hope at times. Some of the time they had to be up at five in the morning and run. When they changed to other camps they had to take baths in petrol and hot showers to become disinfected. After that they ceased to be men.

They were reduced to objects, selected like merchandise, and subjected to unspeakable acts of violence and cruelty. Wiesel's experiences as he goes through camps change his identity irreversibly, directly shaping who he is. In concentration camps, prisoners are stripped of their identities and

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl tells the honest story of his own experiences as an inmate in a concentration camp during World War II. In his book, Frankl answers the question “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?” (Frankl, 2006, p. 3) He describes the physical, emotional, and psychological torment that he endured as well as the effect that the camp had on those around him. He breaks down the psychological experience as a prisoner into three stages: the initial shock upon admission into the camp, apathy, and the mental reactions of the prisoner after liberation. He highlights certain emotions experienced throughout the time in the camp such as delusions of reprieve, hope, curiosity, surprise, and even humor.

Firstly,the author writes that depression is "clarifying force", and "adaptive response to affliction", then he illustrates it by giving the saying of psychiatrist Andy Thomson “…even if you are depressed for a few months, the depression might be worth it if

The officers scream, “Faster you tramps, you flea-ridden dogs…”(Wiesel 85). As the prisoners run themselves sick, the officers are shouting invective statements to them. The Jews are treated as if they are animals, but they do not care, they cannot do anything about it. They can not escape the camp. They are trapped like animals inside the brutal entrapments. With the SS officers dehumanizing the Jews by treating them like property, the Jews begin to lose hope to ever get out. Once they become a prisoner, mentally, they are a prisoner for

According to Hilberg, concentration entailed the segregation of the Jewish community from the rest of the population. Their economic ties would as well be cut or restricted. Concentration entailed the containment of the Jews in special houses where they lived in poor conditions to prove to them that they had been subordinated. The concentration was also another tool used to engage them in forced labor leaving them under the control of the Nazi who controlled the manner in which food would get into the concentration camps. Completely cut off from the society and without money, the Jews were now defenseless and at the mercy of the Nazis. Spiegelman account had it that the Jewish prisoners would be forced to live in tents in the autumn cold weather feeding on crusts of bread. The Polish prisoners were better placed in heated cabins and were assured of two meals per day. Vladek had been put in the concentration camp after killing a German soldier whom he was forced to carry for burial. Although it was cold, Vladek would go to the river to bathe as a control measure to the lice that were making the life at the camps to be difficult. Vladek was, however, hopeful that he would leave the camp that was characterized with forced hard labor that could be equated to flattening mountains. In a dream, he dreamt with his grandfather who told him there could be chances of getting released in the day

In concentration camps, inmates were subjected to constant humiliation, degradation, and psychological abuse. They were stripped of their dignity, reduced to mere numbers, and treated as subhuman entities by their captors. Any sense of self-worth or personal achievement was systematically eroded, leaving prisoners feeling utterly demoralized and powerless. They shaved off every hair on their body. Elie says, “Their clippers tore out our hair, shaved every hair on our bodies” (Weisel 35).

The experiences of a Jewish person sent to a concentration camp run by the Nazis were harsh and horrific. These people were mistreated, lived in fear, lost their sense of freedom, dehumanized, lacked sanitation and were forced to do labor work.

They had no rights or control over anything. They were separated from their families. The father had to leave their undeveloped child while they worked. The father was usually sent to a labor camp and had to shave his head. They had no dignity and Hitler made sure of that. They were striped from all personal identity. The prisoners had to stand in rows for the longest amount of time when they first awoke. The leaders or Nazis of the camp would call attendance and give them orders of the day. Their days were filled with executions and work they did not want to do. Concentration camps were used to torture and imprison political opponents, Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, Union organizers, etc. Concentration camps is not a place anyone would want to

Imagine a life without talking to your friends, and having to wake up early in the morning from a hard, scratchy, straw filled mattress and eating nothing but bread and soup everyday! Well that is what many innocent people had to go through in the concentration camps during World War II but that wasn’t all!

Imagine being taken from your home, rushed away from your family, and stripped from everything you once knew. This is what the prisoners in the concentration camps were faced to handle. The concentration camps in Germany, created by Hitler, consisted of strict rules, and the Nazis had no regard or care for the prisoners trapped there.

I do not know much about depression and I knew this would be a great book to read about depression since it has many great reviews and is Styron’s bestseller. Styron goes in detail of how he thinks his depression started and his path to recovery. Styron compares his battle of depression with Abraham Lincoln, writers Romain Gary, poet Randall Jarrell, and many more. Styron believes that there is a connection between suicide and depression and he attempts to prove his point by giving examples of

The Holocaust is regarded as one of the worst events in human history. In fact, the vast majority of those who were sent to a concentration camp perished there. When prisoners view the despair all around them, they find it hard to see meaning behind all the suffering. Life is no longer worth living, so many prisoners see suicide as the only option to escape the pain. As a psychiatrist who was sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp notorious for its crematoriums, Viktor Frankl has a special perspective on the loss of the will to live that those imprisoned exhibit. In his own words, “Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths”(Frankl 94). Frankl discovers in himself not only the shock and apathy he displays, but also the strange hope that comes with imagining his freedom. The brutality of the Holocaust changes Frankl and brings out his true self while teaching him that he and others can survive the worst of terrors by setting a purpose in life, which only they can individually determine.

Concentration camps are used to imprison and kill prisoners of war. The Nazi’s concentration camps were soon liberated by the Allied powers after taking the lives of over eleven million people. Although the Nazi concentration camps has been liberated, it has left a mark on the world as one of the most brutal killing