The Impeachment Of Bill Clinton Essays - Lewinsky Scandal

The Impeachment Of Bill Clinton The Impeachment of Bill Clinton The legislature of the United States controls innumerable undertakings on the planet. They control everything from the money to the court frameworks. People are assume to have the option to confiding in your administration framework, which has not been the situation in a wide range of conditions. From Richard Nixon to the Whitewater embarrassment, the legislature has been everything except for legitimate. Besides the President has not been straightforward either. He was the most youthful legislative leader of Arkansas and has been granted with various distinctions and still has abused his capacity. Bill Clinton has blocked equity, carried on an undertaking while in administration, and manhandled his capacity in office. He has likewise dedicated two checks of prevarication and has lied after swearing to tell the truth over and over. President Clinton ought to be denounced because of these incalculable demonstrations of unfortunate behavior. Clinton has apologized ordinarily for an assortment of rates that he has submitted. A semantics teacher, Debroah Tannen read a clock Magazine that ...men scarcely ever apologize in light of the fact that doing so involves conceding deficiency and that shows weakness...(Carlson 44). Clinton has showed up on TV commonly conceding numerous things and saying 'sorry' for them. In the start of the Monica Lewinsky circumstance, Clinton said that he had not had a relationship with that lady, so ...for what reason would Clinton now, following seven months of supported lying, unexpectedly pick sincerely? (Carlson 44). Numerous individuals state that it began when he was given a lot of intensity at the early age of 32. Clinton began his life in the province of Arkansas and keeping in mind that he was still in secondary school, he had contemplations of being a specialist or a correspondent. In the wake of meeting John F. Kennedy, his advantage changed into governmental issues and went on to school where he got his law degree in 1973. He wedded Hillary Rodham in 1975 and after two years, he turned into the most youthful senator, in the country, of Arkansas, at 32 years old. He was reappointed multiple occasions for the province of Arkansas (DeGregorio 2). In 1992, William Clinton ran for President on the majority rule ticket. His musings for the nation were to make numerous occupations, lower charges for the working class, and help national medical coverage. Albeit numerous individuals assaulted him about an episode when he avoided military assistance and afterward attempted to cover it up, he won the run and pick Senator Al Gore as his VP. He beat Republican Bush and Independent gathering Perot. President Clinton would be reappointed again and he would have numerous issues while in his last term (DeGregorio 3). Clintons first issue happened in 1994, when Paula Jones asserted that Bill Clinton propositioned her and presented himself to her while he was legislative leader of Arkansas. Clinton denied everything from the earliest starting point. In 1997, Clinton offered $700,000 to settle the case, yet Jones just needed an expression of remorse. On the off chance that Clinton didn't do anything incorrectly, at that point for what reason would he pay a heavy fine to excuse the case? April first of this current year, the Jones case was dropped, yet was revived in November. Jones came out with a recorded $800,000 settlement (Froomkin 1). The concerns didn't stop at the Jones case however. In 1995, Clinton supposedly began to have an unsanctioned romance with one of his assistants, Monica Lewinsky who was 21 years of age at that point. Nobody thought about these supposed undertakings among Monica and the President, and after he quit seeing her, is when Lewinsky made a move. Clinton, similarly as during the Jones case, denied everything. Individuals began to get dubious about not one, yet now two allegations against the President. Clinton said that he didnt have a relationship with her, which was right, as indicated by his meaning of relationship. Clinton later changed his old story...to having an improper relationship with her (Aubrey 3). While Lewinsky was getting together proof to help her case, Independent Council, Kenneth Starr, offered to support her. Lewinsky concurred and revealed to Starr everything about the relationship. On September 9, 1998, Starr discharged his Starr Report that told about the Presidents undertaking. Prior to the arrival of the Report, Lacayo cited Washington is preparing itself for the content dissimilar to anything it has ever taken care of, with intermissions that depict, in very interesting subtlety, ...commitment

International stratigic marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Global stratigic promoting - Essay Example t force the estimations of displaced people onto another culture, then again, the subsequent standpoint is universalist commonly which guarantees that morals are actualized anyplace and wherever on the planet. Thus, the Universalist methodology depends on mental just as financial ground. Subsequently, so as to determine both the viewpoints, it is desirable over endeavor the understanding of the social imperatives that are fit for recognizing home just as overseas’ recognitions to the different structures and features of pay off, which additionally adds to the primary measure in the adjustment. Following that is the second step which is the improvement of a global or neighborhood set of principles which empowers flexibility inside the ancient region. A definitive result could be an advancing code which obliges numerous parameters of pay off for each nation’s current circumstance, in a way that is pacification between the moral, mental and monetary estimations of an emigr ant’s business foundation and of the provincial experts (Perry, 1992). Universal advertising is multifaceted for the sole explanation that remote environs are not at all like the home environs, for example, they differ on physical, moral, lawful, financial, distributive and serious parameters (Ball and McCulloch, 1996). Because of these environs, it is workable for advertisers to oblige portions of the promoting blend for each outside nation or part. For example, an association may will in general change its bundling, notices and dissemination directs in every one of its universal markets which are not hard to get acclimated with. As Armstrong et al cited, such issues of promoting blend are not only the ones going up against universal

Is Valentines Day a Fake Holiday

Is Valentines Day a Fake Holiday Is Valentines Day a Fake Holiday? Is Valentines Day a Fake Holiday?Would you believe that Valentines Day got its start 2,000 years ago as a drunken Roman fertility festival?Last year, Americans spent almost 20 billion dollars on Valentine’s Day. And sure, a lot of them got in good with their respective partners and boos. But was that really money well spent?After all, isn’t Valentine’s Day a fake holiday invented by Big Greeting Card to sell, well, cards and also chocolates and candy and stuffed teddy bears and restaurant reservations and carriage rides? (Don’t even get us started on Big Carriage Ride.)Actually, no. Valentine’s Day wasn’t “invented by the greeting card companies.” It has a long and storied history. And so does the charge that Valentine’s Day is becoming “too commercialized.” People have been saying that for well over 150 years.Here’s how it all went down…Valentine’s Day 1.0 was a wild and crazy Roman fertility festival.Back in the glory days of the Roman Empire, Roman citi zens had this little fertility festival called “Lupercalia.” It was celebrated from February 13thâ€"15th and involved sacrificing various animals like goats and dogs.Oh, and women would also get whipped by the men using the hides of the animals they had just killed. Apparently, it was supposed to make them fertile.Would it surprise you to learn that this festival involved a lot of drinking?The festival also had, ahem, interesting features like a matchmaking lottery” where men and women would be randomly paired up, sort of like a proto-key party.All in all, the affair was extremely Roman. But other than the “fertility” theme, it bore little resemblance to modern Valentine’s Day.So what happened? Well, the festival was popular enough that it lasted well into the 5th century AD, which is when the Catholic Church got involved.Pope Gelasius I and the mystery of the multiple Saint Valentines.In the 5th century AD, Pope Gelasius I was faced with a popular holiday that did not e xactly reflect good Christian ideals. So he created the feast of Saint Valentine. This holiday would also be celebrated in mid-February, and Lupercalia was essentially absorbed into it.But here’s the funny thing about that: nobody is really sure which Saint Valentine the feast day is meant to celebrate.You see, there were a couple of saints named Valentine, both of whom were put to death by the Romans. And even their origin stories are kind of murky.One legend says that Valentine was a priest who was put to death because he refused to stop marrying Christian couples. Another legend said that Valentine was a prisoner who fell in love with his jailer’s blind daughter.It’s very likely that the Saint Valentine commemorated by the feast day was an amalgam of these different figures. Still, it’s a little funny to think about a holiday where nobody understands what or who is being celebrated.Like Arbor Day. People say that holiday’s about “trees” or something. But that … no that just can’t be right. Sorry.The Middle Ages, Chaucer, and “Your Valentine.”As the Middle Ages progressed, Valentine’s Day gained a reputation for being the lover’s holiday.Some scholars credit the famed English poet Chaucer as the man who turned Valentine’s Day into the  day to celebrate romantic love. (You might remember Chaucer from freshman year English and literally no place else.) In his poem, Parliament of Foules, Chaucer asserts that Valentine’s Day is the day when birds choose their mates.One of the earliest recorded uses of “Your Valentine” as a romantic sign-off came in 1415, in a letter sent by the Duke of Orleans to his wife after he had been captured at the Battle of Agincourt. He wrote: “I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine.”(Being “sick of love” doesn’t sound very romantic, just saying.)And speaking of Agincourt, William Shakespeare referenced Valentine’s Day in his little-known and rarely performed play  Hamlet. When Ophelia goes off her rocker, she sings: “Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine.”Anyway, before we go on and quote half the Western Canon at you, let’s skip ahead to the time when Valentine’s Day started getting commercialized…Victorians. Loved. Valentine’s Day.By the latter half of the 18th century, the tradition of sending romantic Valentine’s Day poems to your partner/the person you would like to be your partner had become culturally entrenched in England. Along with the poems, it was tradition to send your love an actual Valentineaka a fancy card done up with colors and lace.Turns out that the notion of celebrating romantic or “courtly” love was catnip to Victorian society. And as printing technology improved, so did the number of pre-made Valentines.By the 1840’s, stationery stores and craftsmen had realized that they could make a pretty penny on Valentine’s Day and would advertise their Valentine’s Day cards and other wares in the local papers.People started to take notice of how commercialized Valentine’s Day was getting. In 1847, an article ran in the New York Daily Tribune decrying this newfangled, money-grubbing version of the holiday:“There was a time when Valentine’s Day meant something. Then it was a business of real lovers and there was sweetness under its delicate shy disguise We hate this modern degeneracy, this miscellaneous and business fashion. Send a Valentine by the penny post too? Bah! Give us the sweet old days when there was a mystery about it.”The holiday only got more commercial from there.In 1848, a Massachusetts woman named Esther Howland started making the first ever mass-produced Valentine’s Day cards. Her sales quickly rose to over $75,000 a year. That’s over 2 million in today’s dollars.In 1861, the British chocolate maker Richard Cadbury started selling special boxes of Valentine’s Day chocolates. Can you guess ho w those boxes were shaped? That’s right: They were shaped like hearts.Fast forward to the 20th century. In 1907, the Hershey’s Company introduced their now-iconic chocolate kisses. And in 1913, the Hallmark Company started selling their own brand of Valentine’s Day cards.So the next time someone tells you that Big Greeting Card invented Valentine’s Day, you can tell them that “Big Greeting Card” was half-a-century late to that particular party.If you want to read more stories from financial history, check out these related posts and videos from OppLoans:How Much Do People in Your State Spend on Valentine’s Day?The 12 Worst Financial Scandals In History25 Little-Known Presidential Money FactsGive Me Some Credit: The History of Modern Credit CardsWhat kinds of financial histories would you like to learn more about? We  want to hear from you!  You can  email us  or you can find us on  Facebook  and  Twitter.

Ethical Issues Essay - 1300 Words

Phase 2 Individual Project INTD670-1303A-01 Scenario Joe Smith a sales representative is one of Tom Tramlins top people in sales for UWEAR and PALEDENIM. Bill Bateman the CEO of the Peninsula Hotel chains met with Joe through Tom through the last contract and is meeting with him again to discuss the renewal of the contract for supplying uniforms for their employees at the hotel. Joe has become good friends with Bill and his wife and have received many perks since the last signing of the contract, like being invited to go on their yacht, social events, and staying at the hotel which is very beautiful and has an excellent swimming pool with a waterfall that the kids absolutely love. Joe landed the last contract by pricing the uniforms†¦show more content†¦Since the policy at UWEAR states, that it is unethical to have contact or discuss business with a client that the management team does not approve of. Since this got Joe in trouble last time with management by pricing uniforms lower to win the contract, he should be ca utious of his decision. Discuss with Bill your thoughts and tell him you will get back with him as soon as you can, or you could just explain to Bill, that there can be no discussion of the contract they are working on and it only is a family fun day out on the yacht between friends. Joe should analyze the businesses code of ethics, make the decision, and realize what effects his decision will have on all stakeholders, and anyone that will be affected. How will the decision you make affect stakeholders if the decision you make turns out the way you plan? How will it affect everyone involved if your decision to go with Bill does not go as planned and backfires? Ethical Theory of Joes response to Bill Joe has a duty and this duty is to be responsible and has an obligation to UWEAR, its employee’s, and his family. The theory of deontological is a moral system that focuses on moral duties and rules. By knowing, what our moral duties are and what rules exist, to regulate those duties will help with a decision to go with Bill on the yacht without telling management, or discuss the matter with management and reassure them that is not business related. IfShow MoreRelatedThe Ethical Issues On Civil Journalism2970 Words   |  12 Pagesmodels and the exponential increase in â€Å"publishing† capabilities, there is an urgent need to identify news sources that are genuinely journalistic.’ (Meyers, Wyatt, Borden, Wasserman.) What I wish to bring out and elaborate in this paper are the ethical issues on how civil journalism, despite the acceptance and cooperation with professional journalism, is differentiated from its professional and vetted track. With the growth of technology and the ability to capture images, videos, and sounds alongRead MoreEthical Issues, Shareholder Or Stakeholder Responsibility, Regulatory Relationships Or Sexual Harassment Or Discrimination?2561 Words   |  11 Pagesspecific problem of ethical leadership, such as environmental issues, shareholder or stakeholder responsibility, regulatory relationships or sexual harassment or discrimination. â€Å"Ethical leadership is leadership that is directed by respect for ethical beliefs and values and for the dignity and rights of others. It is thus related to concepts such as trust, honesty, consideration, charisma and fairness.† Face the complexity involved in making ethical choices: Openly talk about the ethical hazy areas andRead MoreEthical Issue : Ethical Issues952 Words   |  4 PagesEthical Issues: When it comes to ethical issues in this case it really surrounds the question is the â€Å"healthy† snack is truly healthy and whether or not it will make individuals sick? Questions like what would happen to the reputation of the company are also in play? Finally, the fact that the employee came from another company and you, the company are assuming that what your employee is telling you is true. The company might also be liable in a way, from that employee squeaking about the otherRead MoreEthical Issues1128 Words   |  5 PagesEthics Issues University of Phoenix MGT 216 Organizational Ethics and Social Responsibility 20th July, 2009 Ethics Issues Less than a year ago a regional property supervisor working for California Commercial Investment found an accountant stealing from the company. More specifically, the accountant was posting charges for one of our buildings (i.e. labor and supplies for painting), cutting checks, misleading the owner to sign them and cashing them for himself. He was able to steal a few thousandRead MoreEthical Issue1171 Words   |  5 Pagesadopt, it is very essential, in order to deliver reason to what would or else it’s being a very complicated case as with society. People who build and use the technology, it’s their responsible to confirm that it is applied in a responsible and ethical conduct. It just as with society does not suggest any real safe, because sustains complete social cooperation or noncooperation of developing moral code, for controlling the misuse of technology. Ethics in Security Most organizations bargainRead MoreEthical Issues With Ethical Marketing Essay1333 Words   |  6 PagesIssues with Ethical Marketing Ethical problems in marketing starts with conflicts and disagreements. Each party in the marketing transaction brings expectations of how the business relationship will exist and how the transaction should be conducted. Some ethical problems in marketing research aren’t always the invasion of privacy and stereotyping. Selective marketing is used to discourage the demand from undesirable markets or just by disenfranchising them altogether. Examples of unethical marketRead MoreEthical Scenarios : Ethical And Ethical Issues1414 Words   |  6 PagesEthical Scenario Mid Term The scenario presented comes with several ethical issues that can be discussed. The treatment of two clients that are in a relationship or related puts a practitioner in a difficult ethical position and can pose as a threat to the practitioners practice and reputation if situations are not handled in an appropriate manner. In the case of Hillary and Matthew, the practitioner should have considered their relationship when it was first disclosed to them. The ending situationRead MoreEthical Issues3368 Words   |  14 PagesEthical Issues in Gerontology Ethical Issues in Gerontology Nowadays, nurses who provide elder care are faced with several legal and ethical dilemmas in a daily basis. Besides to the social and legal dilemma it creates, elder abuse, neglect or also known as elder mistreatment is a massive health care crisis that can lead to long term health complications and even death (Fulmer Greenberg, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to review the literature and examine the nature ofRead MoreEthical Ethics And Ethical Issues1180 Words   |  5 PagesEthical issues in organizations are inevitable and are always on the horizon. These ethical concerns can directly impact the overall health of an organization in both positive and negative aspects. In order to be prepared for the ethical issues that will arise and to create an organizational competitive advantage, an intentional focus and effective communication of the code of ethics must be incorporated as a part of strategic planning. Sherwin (1983) indicates the that the term ethics, â€Å"refer s toRead MoreEthical Implications Of Ethical Issues Essay1147 Words   |  5 PagesEthical issues are becoming very essential and critical topic for examining the organization’s performance. According to Chang, (2011) nowadays, every organization has realized the vitality that ethical functionality gives to a business and need of attention to this emerging responsibility of organizations. 1.1. Growth and Ethics Consumer’s Perspective According to Shaw and Shiu, (2003) the concerns for ethical issues have been well documented in the ethical literature. They showed that there

Essay about Feminism in The Awakening - 986 Words

In the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin the critical approach feminism is a major aspect of the novel. According to dictionary.reference.com the word feminism means, â€Å"The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.† The Awakening takes place during the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds, in New Orleans. The novel is about Edna Pontellier and her family on a summer vacation. Edna, who is a wife and mother, is inferior to her husband, Leonce, and must live by her husband’s desires. While on vacation Edna becomes close friends with Adele Ratignolle, who helps Edna discover she must be â€Å"awakened†. Adele is a character who represents the ideal woman. She is loving,†¦show more content†¦However, many women did not have the courage to stand up for themselves, and kept living miserable, and boring lives. They were not allowed to voice their opinions, or have any rights. The main charact er, Edna, portrays the motherly woman, who does not like the tasks society has deemed acceptable for women. Moreover, as Edna begins to become free she is more rebellious and begins to question everything. According to â€Å"Women of Color in The Awakening† by Elizabeth Ammons, â€Å" It is the story of a woman of one race and class who is able to dream of total personal freedom because an important piece of that highly individualistic ideal†¦ has been brought to her.† This means that this novel follows the theme of many other works of literature, in that a heroine is trying to seek free control because she knows she can obtain freedom. Women’s roles play a key factor to the feminism shown throughout the novel. Women characters also depict the feminist critical approach throughout the novel. Society views women as being inferior to men. For example, The Awakening states that Mr. Pontellier, â€Å"†¦ looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage,† (3), which shows he does not appreciate his wife. He treats Edna as if she was an object that he owned, and had full possession of. Although it takes a while for these women to break free, they end up realizingShow MoreRelatedFeminism In The Awakening1562 Words   |  7 Pagesissue of feminism, it is a sensitive topic that must be inclusive of all genders. The modern term of ‘feminism’ is defined as giving both men and women the same rights and privileges as each other. Basic human rights would give others the notion that this is how all humans should have been treated from the beginning. However, this is far from the truth. Books like The Awakening, give us an inside loo k at how women were treated around 100 years ago. When Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening, she createdRead MoreFeminism; the Awakening868 Words   |  4 PagesThe Emergence of Feminism In the 19th century women were supposed live by concept of Republican Motherhood. Republican Motherhood is the idea that American women had a few main roles, to stay in their homes, to train their children to be good American citizens and to follow the demands of their husbands. This reinforced the idea of that a domestic womens life should be separate from the public world of men. Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equalRead MoreFeminism In The Awakening1329 Words   |  6 PagesThough it was not common during the 1800’s, some women did not want to assume the traditional role of a typical Victorian lady. In Kate Chopin s The Awakening, this is just the case; she introduces us to Edna Pontellier a mother and wife during the said era. Throughout the story, we follow Edna s journey of self-discovery and self-expression through emotions, art, and sex thanks to the help of people she meets along the way. Chopin decides to end the book with Edna’s suicide to try to convey aRead MoreFeminism In The Awakening1193 Words   |  5 PagesTHE AWAKENING LAP TOPIC #3- EXPLORE HOW EACH MAN IN EDNA’S LIFE ATTEMPTED TO CONTROL AND/OR REPRESS HER EXISTENCE.. NICHOLE NARINEBRIJBASI In the time era of the 1800s, women were regarded as the weaker sex to society. Gender equality wasn’t the focal point of society as yet, leading to the oppressive mindsets of women. Men were viewed as â€Å"superior† because of their masculinity and righteousness that society had implanted into our view of socialRead MoreFeminism In The Awakening1506 Words   |  7 PagesThe Awakening LAP Topic 1 By: Lourdes Rivera AP Literature Mr. Amoroso Rivera 1 Courageous, brave, and valiant are all characteristics that are necessary for one to possess in order to be heroic. The actions an individual takes dictates the kind of person they are and the actions of a hero reflect these characteristics. If the world is against a group of people, it takes a heroic person to break away from the oppression set to hold them down. Women have faced tremendous oppression from the ideologyRead MoreFeminism In The Awakening2069 Words   |  9 PagesThough it was uncommon during the 1800’s, some women didn’t want to assume the traditional role of a typical Victorian lady. Such is the case in Kate Chopin s The Awakening; she introduces us to Edna Pontellier a mother and wife during the said era. Throughout the story, we follow Edna s journey of self-discovery and self-expression through emotions, art, and sex thanks to the help of people she meets along the way. Chopin decides to end the book with Edna’s suicide in an attempt to convey a senseRead MoreThe Awakening Feminism Essay1262 Words   |  6 PagesAfter reading The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, I believe the text is feminist. Whether Kate Chopin was deliberately writing for early feminists or not, the book has many early feminist ideas and it is shown through the main characters awakening by being eccentric. The author uses Edna Pontellier as an anti-conv entional woman, breaking societal laws that govern her life, in search for individuality in a society that represses her. From a reader’s perspective in the early 1900’s, Edna would be a mentallyRead MoreThe Awakening Feminism Essay1689 Words   |  7 PagesComing into the nineteenth century, women were looked at as feminist. â€Å"Feminism,† as we know the term today, was nonexistent in nineteenth-century America (Cruea 187). Feminist describes as someone embracing the beliefs that all people are entitled to freedom and liberty within reason. Gender, sexual orientations, skin color, ethnicity, religion, culture or lifestyle should not be considered as a form of discrimination. Women roles, in the nineteenth century, were to take care of the cooking, cleaningRead MoreThe Rise Of Feminism In The Awakening By Kate Chopin711 Words   |  3 PagesFeminism is the liberation of women and their rights as human beings. The feminism that we see today started in 1960s, but the issue began way before the 1960s. In the 1890s, Kate Chopin wrote a novella called The Awakening to tell the story of the rise of feminism within a character named Edna. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin creates feminism before it’s time by using Edna’s attitude toward her lovers, the freeness of the scenery, and her motherly attitude. These traits that Edna possesses are extremelyRead MoreAnalysis Of Proto-Feminism In The Awakening By Kate Chopin838 Words   |  4 PagesProto-Feminism is defined as a philosophical idea in which feminism existed in a time period it was expected to be unknown. Before the 20th century, women’s liberation was not a familiar concept to society, however a great variety of literature from this time period displayed how women defended themselves for the independence and freedom they lacked. Along with the many novels written in this time period, The Awakening written by Kate Chopin in 1899 justifies this philosophy. Edna Pontellie r, the

V.Frankl †Man’s Search for Meaning Free Essays

string(54) " the healing beauties of nature—a tree or a sunset\." With more than 4 million copies in print in the English language alone, Man’s Search for Meaning, the chilling yet inspirational story of Viktor Frankl’s struggle to hold on to hope during his three years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, is a true classic. Beacon Press is now pleased to present a special gift edition of a work that was hailed in 1959 by Carl Rogers as†one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years. † Frankl’s training as a psychiatrist informed every waking moment of his ordeal and allowed him a remarkable perspective on the psychology of survival. We will write a custom essay sample on V.Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning or any similar topic only for you Order Now His assertion that â€Å"the will to meaning† is the basic motivation for human life has forever changed the way we understand our humanity in the face of suffering. Man’s Search for Meaning AN INTRODUCTION TO LOGOTHERAPY Fourth Edition Viktor E. Frankl PART ONE TRANSLATED BY ILSE LASCH PREFACE BY GORDON W. ALLPORT BEACON PRESS TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER, Beacon Press 25 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892 www. beacon. org Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.  © 1959, 1962, 1984, 1992 by Viktor E. Frankl All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First published in German in 1946 under the title Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. Original English title was From Death-Camp to Existentialism. 05 04 03 02 01 Contents Preface by Gordon W. Allport 7 Preface to the 1992 Edition II PART ONE 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Experiences in a Concentration Camp 15 PART TWO Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frankl, Viktor Emil. [Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. English] Man’s search for meaning: an introduction to logotherapy / Viktor E. Frankl; part one translated by Use Lasch; preface by Gordon W. Allport. — 4th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 0-8070-1426-5 (cloth) 1. Frankl, Viktor Emil. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939—1945)— Personal narratives. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)— Psychological aspects. 4. Psychologists—Austria—Biography. 5. Logotherapy. I. Title. D810J4F72713 1992 i5o. ig’5—dc2o 92-21055 Logotherapy in a Nutshell 101 POSTSCRIPT 1984 The Case for a Tragic Optimism 137 Selected English Language Bibliography of Logotherapy 155 About the Author Preface Dr. Frankl, author-psychiatrist, sometimes asks his pa ­ tients who suffer from a multitude of torments great and small, â€Å"Why do you not commit suicide? † From their an ­ swers he can often find the guide-line for his psychotherapy: in one life there is love for one’s children to tie to; in another life, a talent to be used; in a third, perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving. To weave these slender threads of a broken life into a firm pattern of mean ­ ing and responsibility is the object and challenge of logotherapy, which is Dr. Frankl’s own version of modern exis ­ tential analysis. In this book, Dr. Frankl explains the experience which led to his discovery of logotherapy. As a longtime prisoner in bestial concentration camps he found himself stripped to naked existence. His father, mother, brother, and his wife died in camps or were sent to the gas ovens, so that, except ­ ing for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps. How could he—every possession lost, every value destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting extermination—how could he find life worth preserving? A psychiatrist who personally has faced such extremity is a psychiatrist worth listening to. He, if anyone, should be 8 Preface able to view our human condition wisely and with compassion. Dr. Frankl’s words have a profoundly honest ring, for they rest on experiences too deep for deception. What he has to say gains in prestige because of his present position on the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna and because of the renown of the logotherapy clinics that today are springing up in many lands, patterned on his own famous Neurological Policlinic in Vienna. One cannot help but compare Viktor Frankl’s approach to theory and therapy with the work of his predecessor, Sigmund Freud. Both physicians concern themselves primarily with the nature and cure of neuroses. Freud finds the root of these distressing disorders in the anxiety caused by conflicting and unconscious motives. Frankl distinguishes several forms of neurosis, and traces some of them (the noogenic neuroses) to the failure of the sufferer to find meaning and a sense of responsibility in his existence. Freud stresses frustration in the sexual life; Frankl, frustration in the â€Å"will-to-meaning. In Europe today there is a marked turning away from Freud and a widespread embracing of Preface 9 existential analysis, which takes several related forms—the school of logotherapy being one. It is characteristic of Frankl’s tolerant outlook that he does not repudiate Freud, but builds gladly on his contributions; nor does he quarrel with other forms of existential therapy, but welcomes kinship with them. The present narrative, brief though it is, is artfully constructed and gripping. On two occasions I have read it through at a single sitting, unable to break away from its spell. Somewhere beyond the midpoint of the story Dr. Frankl introduces his own philosophy of logotherapy. He introduces it so gently into the continuing narrative that only after finishing the book does the reader realize that here is an essay of profound depth, and not just one more brutal tale of concentration camps. From this autobiographical fragment the reader learns much. He learns what a human being does when he suddenly realizes he has â€Å"nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life. † Frankl’s description of the mixed flow of emotion and apathy is arresting. First to the rescue comes a cold detached curiosity concerning one’s fate. Swiftly, too, come strategies to preserve the remnants of one’s life, though the chances of surviving are slight. Hunger, humiliation, fear and deep anger at injustice are rendered tolerable by closely guarded images of beloved persons, by religion, by a grim sense of humor, and even by glimpses of the healing beauties of nature—a tree or a sunset. You read "V.Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning" in category "Essay examples" But these moments of comfort do not establish the will to live unless they help the prisoner make larger sense out of his apparently senseless suffering. It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffer ­ ing and in dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself, and must accept t h e responsibility that his answer prescribes. If he succeeds he will continue to grow in spite of all indignities. Frankl is fond of quoting Nietzsche, â€Å"He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how. In the concentration camp every circumstance conspires to make the prisoner lose his hold. All the familiar goals in life are snatched away. What alone remains is â€Å"the last of human freedoms†Ã¢â‚¬â€the ability to â€Å"choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances. † This ultimate freedom, recognized by the ancient Stoics as well as by modern existentialists, takes on vivid significance in Frankl’s story. Th e prisoners were only average men, but some, at least, by choosing to be â€Å"worthy of their suffering† proved man’s capacity to rise above his outward fate. As a psychotherapist, the author, of course, wants to 0 Preface know how men can be helped to achieve this distinctively human capacity. How can one awaken in a patient the feeling that he is responsible to life for something, however grim his circumstances may be? Frankl gives us a moving account of one collective therapeutic session he held with his fellow prisoners. At the publisher’s request Dr. Frankl has added a state ­ ment of the basic tenets of logotherapy as well as a bibliog ­ raphy. Up to now most of the publications of this â€Å"Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy† (the predecessors being the Freudian and Adlerian Schools) have been chiefly in German. The reader will therefore welcome Dr. Frankl’s supplement to his personal narrative. Unlike many European existentialists, Frankl is neither pessimistic nor antireligious. On the contrary, for a writer who faces fully the ubiquity of suffering and the forces of evil, he takes a surprisingly hopeful view of man’s capacity to transcend his predicament and discover an adequate guiding truth. I recommend this little book heartily, for it is a gem of dramatic narrative, focused upon the deepest of human problems. It has literary and philosophical merit and pro ­ vides a compelling introduction to the most significant psychological movement of our day. GORDON W. ALLPORT Preface to the 1992 Edition This book has now lived to see nearly one hundred print ­ ings in English—in addition to having been published in twenty-one other languages. And the English editions alone have sold more than three million copies. These are the dry facts, and they may well be the reason why reporters of American newspapers and particularly of American TV stations more often than not start their in ­ terviews, after listing these facts, by exclaiming: â€Å"Dr. Frankl, your book has become a true bestseller—how do you feel about such a success? † Whereupon I react by reporting that in the first place I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part but rather an expression of the misery of our time: if hun ­ dreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails. To be sure, something else may have contributed to the impact of the book: its second, theoretical part (â€Å"Logother ­ apy in a Nutshell†) boils down, as it were, to the lesson one may distill from the first part, the autobiographical account (â€Å"Experiences in a Concentration Camp†), whereas Part One 11 Gordon W. Allport, formerly a professor of psychology at Harvard University, was one of the foremost writers and teachers in the field in this hemisphere. He was author of a large number of original works on psychology and was the editor of the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. It is chiefly through the pioneering work of Professor All ­ port that Dr. Frankl’s momentous theory was introduced to this country; moreover, it is to his credit that the interest shown here in logotherapy is growing by leaps and bounds. 12 Preface to the 1992 Edition Preface to the 1992 Edition 13 serves as the existential validation of my theories. Thus, both parts mutually support their credibility. I had none of this in mind when I wrote the book in 1945. And I did so within nine successive days and with the firm determination that the book should be published anonymously. In fact, the first printing of the original German version does not show my name on the cover, though at the last moment, just before the book’s initial publication, I did finally give in to my friends who had urged me to let it be published with my name at least on the title page. At first, however, it had been written with the absolute conviction that, as an anonymous opus, it could never earn its author literary fame. I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones. And I thought that if the point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing. I therefore felt responsible for writing down what I had gone through, for I thought it might be helpful to people who are prone to despair. And so it is both strange and remarkable to me that— among some dozens of books I have authored—precisely this one, which I had intended to be published anonymously so that it could never build up any reputation on the part of the author, did become a success. Again and again I therefore admonish my students both in Europe and in America: â€Å"Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of our knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say! —success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it. † The reader may ask me why I did not try to escape what was in store for me after Hitler had occupied Austria. Let me answer by recalling the following story. Shortly before the United States entered World War II, I received an invitation to come to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my immigration visa. My old parents were overjoyed because they expected that I would soon be allowed to leave Austria. I suddenly hesitated, however. The question beset me: could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, sooner or later, to a concentration camp, or even to a so-called extermination camp? Where did my responsibility lie? Should I foster my brain child, logotherapy, by emigrating to fertile soil where I could write my books? Or should I concentrate on my duties as a real child, the child of my parents who had to do whatever he could to protect them? I pondered the problem this way and that but could not arrive at a solution; this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for â€Å"a hint from Heaven,† as the phrase goes. It was then that I noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home. When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece home because it was a part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, â€Å"Which one is it? † He answered, â€Å"Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land. At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse VIKTOR E. FRANKL Vienna, 1992. PART ONE Experiences in a Concentration Camp THIS BOOK DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE an account of facts and events but of personal experiences, experiences which millions of prisoners have suffered time and again. It is the inside story of a concentration ca mp, told by one of its survivors. This tale is not concerned with the great horrors, which have already been described often enough (though less often believed), but with the multitude of small torments. In other words, it will try to answer this question: How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner? Most of the events described here did not take place in the large and famous camps, but in the small ones where most of the real extermination took place. This story is not about the suffering and death of great heroes and martyrs, nor is it about the prominent Capos—prisoners who acted as trustees, having special privileges—or well-known pris ­ oners. Thus it is not so much concerned with the sufferings of the mighty, but with the sacrifices, the crucifixion and the deaths of the great army of unknown and unrecorded victims. It was these common prisoners, who bore no dis ­ tinguishing marks on their sleeves, whom the Capos really despised. While these ordinary prisoners had little or noth- 18 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 19 ing to eat, the Capos were never hungry; in fact many of the Capos fared better in the camp than they had in their entire lives. Often they were harder on the prisoners than were the guards, and beat them more cruelly than the SS men did. These Capos, of course, were chosen only from those prisoners whose characters promised to make them suitable for such procedures, and if they did not comply with what was expected of them, they were immediately demoted. They soon became much like the SS men and the camp wardens and may be judged on a similar psychologi ­ cal basis. It is easy for the outsider to get the wrong conception of camp life, a conception mingled with sentiment and pity. Little does he know of the hard fight for existence which raged among the prisoners. This was an unrelenting strug ­ gle for daily bread and for life itself, for one’s own sake or for that of a good friend. Let us take the case of a transport which was officially announced to transfer a certain number of prisoners to an ­ other camp; but it was a fairly safe guess that its final destination would be the gas chambers. A selection of sick or feeble prisoners incapable of work would be sent to one of the big central camps which were fitted with gas chambers and crematoriums. The selection process was the signal for a free fight among all the prisoners, or of group against group. All that mattered was that one’s own name and that of one’s friend were crossed off the list of victims, though everyone knew that for each man saved another victim had to be found. A definite number of prisoners had to go with each transport. It did not really matter which, since each of them was nothing but a number. On their admission to the camp (at least this was the method in Auschwitz) all their docu- ments had been taken from them, together with their other possessions. Each prisoner, therefore, had had an oppor ­ tunity to claim a fictitious name or profession; and for vari ­ ous reasons many did this. The authorities were interested only in the captives’ numbers. These numbers were often tattooed on their skin, and also had to be sewn to a certain spot on the trousers, jacket, or coat. Any guard who wanted to make a charge against a prisoner just glanced at his number (and how we dreaded such glances! ); he never asked for his name. To return to the convoy about to depart. There was nei ­ ther time nor desire to consider moral or ethical issues. Every man was controlled by one thought only: to keep himself alive for the family waiting for him at home, and to save his friends. With no hesitation, therefore, he would arrange for another prisoner, another â€Å"number,† to take his place in the transport. As I have already mentioned, the process of selecting Capos was a negative one; only the most brutal of the pris ­ oners were chosen for this job (although there were some happy exceptions). But apart from the selection of Capos which was undertaken by the SS, there was a sort of selfselecting process going on the whole time among all of the prisoners. On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were pre ­ pared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles—whatever one may choose to call them—we know: the best of us did not return. Many factual accounts about concentration camps are al ­ ready on record. Here, facts will be significant only as far as 20 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 21 they are part of a man’s experiences. It is the exact nature of these experiences that the following essay will attempt to describe. For those who have been inmates in a camp, it will attempt to explain their experiences in the light of present-day knowledge. And for those who have never been inside, it may help them to comprehend, and above all to understand, the experiences of that only too small per ­ centage of prisoners who survived and who now find life very difficult. These former prisoners often say, â€Å"We dislike talking about our experiences. No explanations are needed for those who have been inside, and the others will under ­ stand neither how we felt then nor how we feel now. † To attempt a methodical presentation of the subject is very difficult, as psychology requires a certain scientific de ­ tachment. But does a man who makes his observations while he himself is a prisoner possess the necessary detach ­ ment? Such detachment is granted to the outsider, but he is too far removed to make any statements of real value. Only the man inside knows. His judgments may not be objective; his evaluations may be out of proportion. This is inevita ­ ble. An attempt must be made to avoid any personal bias, and that is the real difficulty of a book of this kind. At times it will be necessary to have the courage to tell of very in ­ timate experiences. I had intended to write this book anonymously, using my prison number only. But when the manuscript was completed, I saw that as an anonymous publication it would lose half its value, and that I must have the courage to state my convictions openly. I therefore refrained from deleting any of the passages, in spite of an intense dislike of exhibitionism. I shall leave it to others to distill the contents of this book into dry theories. These might become a contribution to the psychology of prison life, which was investigated after the First World War, and which acquainted us with the syndrome of â€Å"barbed wire sickness. † We are indebted to the Second World War for enriching our knowledge of the â€Å"psychopathology of the masses,† (if I may quote a varia ­ tion of the well-known phrase and title of a book by LeBon), for the war gave us the war of nerves and it gave us the concentration camp. As this story is about my experiences as an ordinary pris ­ oner, it is important that I mention, not without pride, that I was not employed as a psychiatrist in camp, or even as a doctor, except for the last few weeks. A few of my colleagues were lucky enough to be employed in poorly heated first-aid posts applying bandages made of scraps of waste paper. But I was Number 119,104, and most of the time I was digging and laying tracks for railway lines. At one time, my job was to dig a tunnel, without help, for a water main under a road. This feat did not go unrewarded; just before Christ ­ mas 1944, I was presented with a gift of so-called â€Å"premium coupons. † These were issued by the construction firm to which we were practically sold as slaves: the firm paid the camp authorities a fixed price per day, per prisoner. The coupons cost the firm fifty pfennigs each and could be ex ­ changed for six cigarettes, often weeks later, although they sometimes lost their validity. I became the proud owner of a token worth twelve cigarettes. But more important, the cig ­ arettes could be exchanged for twelve soups, and twelve soups were often a very real respite from starvation. The privilege of actually smoking cigarettes was reserved for the Capo, who had his assured quota of weekly coupons; or possibly for a prisoner who worked as a foreman in a warehouse or workshop and received a few cigarettes in exchange for doing dangerous jobs. The only exceptions to this were those who had lost the will to live and wanted to â€Å"enjoy† their last days. Thus, when we saw a comrade smoking his own cigarettes, we knew he had given up faith 22 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 23 n his strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned. When one examines the vast amount of material which has been amassed as the result of many prisoners’ observa ­ tions and experiences, three phases of the inmate’s mental reactions to camp life become apparent: the period follow ­ ing his admission; the period when he is well entrenched in camp routine; and the period following his release and liberation. T he symptom that characterizes the first phase is shock. Under certain conditions shock may even precede the pris ­ oner’s formal admission to the camp. I shall give as an ex ­ ample the circumstances of my own admission. Fifteen hundred persons had been traveling by train for several days and nights: there were eighty people in each coach. All had to lie on top of their luggage, the few rem ­ nants of their personal possessions. The carriages were so full that only the top parts of the windows were free to let in the grey of dawn. Everyone expected the train to head for some munitions factory, in which we would be em ­ ployed as forced labor. We did not know whether we were still in Silesia or already in Poland. The engine’s whistle had an uncanny sound, like a cry for help sent out in com ­ miseration for the unhappy load which it was destined to lead into perdition. Then the train shunted, obviously nearing a main station. Suddenly a cry broke from the ranks of the anxious passengers, â€Å"There is a sign, Auschwitz! † Everyone’s heart missed a beat at that moment. Auschwitz—the very name stood for all that was horrible: gas chambers, crematoriums, massacres. Slowly, almost hesi ­ tatingly, the train moved on as if it wanted to spare its passengers the dreadful realization as long as possible: Auschwitz! With the progressive dawn, the outlines of an immense camp became visible: long stretches of several rows of barbed wire fences; watch towers; search lights; and long columns of ragged human figures, grey in the greyness of dawn, trekking along the straight desolate roads, to what destination we did not know. There were isolated shouts and whistles of command. We did not know their meaning. My imagination led me to see gallows with people dangling on them. I was horrified, but this was just as well, because step by step we had to become accustomed to a terrible and immense horror. Eventually we moved into the station. The initial silence was interrupted by shouted commands. We were to hear those rough, shrill tones from then on, over and over again in all the camps. Their sound was almost like the last cry of a victim, and yet there was a difference. It had a rasping hoarseness, as if it came from the throat of a man who had to keep shouting like that, a man who was being murdered again and again. The carriage doors were flung open and a small detachment of prisoners stormed inside. They wore striped uniforms, their heads were shaved, but they looked well fed. They spoke in every possible European tongue, and all with a certain amount of humor, which sounded grotesque under the circumstances. Like a drowning man clutching a straw, my inborn optimism (which has often controlled my feelings even in the most desperate situa ­ tions) clung to this thought: These prisoners look quite well, they seem to be in good spirits and even laugh. Who knows? I might manage to share their favorable position. In psychiatry there is a certain condition known as â€Å"delu ­ sion of reprieve. † The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute. We, too, clung to shreds of hope and believed to the last moment that it would not be so bad. Just the sight of the red cheeks and round faces of 24 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 25 those prisoners was a great encouragement. Little did we know then that they formed a specially chosen elite, who for years had been the receiving squad for new transports as they rolled into the station day after day. They took charge of the new arrivals and their luggage, including scarce items and smuggled jewelry. Auschwitz must have been a strange spot in this Europe of the last years of the war. There must have been unique treasures of gold and silver, platinum and diamonds, not only in the huge storehouses but also in the hands of the SS. Fifteen hundred captives were cooped up in a shed built to accommodate probably two hundred at the most. We were cold and hungry and there was not enough room for everyone to squat on the bare ground, let alone to lie down. One five-ounce piece of bread was our only food in four days. Yet I heard the senior prisoners in charge of the shed bargain with one member of the receiving party about a tie-pin made of platinum and diamonds. Most of the profits would eventually be traded for liquor—schnapps. I do not remember any more just how many thousands of marks were needed to purchase the quantity of schnapps required for a â€Å"gay evening,† but I do know that those long-term prisoners needed schnapps. Under such conditions, who could blame them for trying to dope themselves? There was another group of prisoners who got liquor supplied in al ­ most unlimited quantities by the SS: these were the men who were employed in the gas chambers and crematoriums, and who knew very well that one day they would be re ­ lieved by a new shift of men, and that they would have to leave their enforced role of executioner and become victims themselves. Nearly everyone in our transport lived under the illusion that he would be reprieved, that everything would yet be well. We did not realize the meaning behind the scene that was to follow presently. We were told to leave our luggage in the train and to fall into two lines—women on one side, men on the other—in order to file past a senior SS officer. Surprisingly enough, I had the courage to hide my haver ­ sack under my coat. My line filed past the officer, man by man. I realized that it would be dangerous if the officer spotted my bag. He would at least knock me down; I knew that from previous experience. Instinctively, I straightened on approaching the officer, so that he would not notice my heavy load. Then I was face to face with him. He was a tall man who looked slim and fit in his spotless uniform. What a contrast to us, who were untidy and grimy after our long journey! He had assumed an attitude of careless ease, supporting his right elbow with his left hand. His right hand was lifted, and with the forefinger of that hand he pointed very leisurely to the right or to the left. None of us had the slightest idea of the sinister meaning behind that little movement of a man’s finger, pointing now to the right and now to the left, but far more frequently to the left. It was my turn. Somebody whispered to me that to be sent to the right side would mean work, the way to the left being for the sick and those incapable of work, who would be sent to a special camp. I just waited for things to take their course, the first of many such times to come. My haver ­ sack weighed me down a bit to the left, but I made an effort to walk upright. The SS man looked me over, appeared to hesitate, then put both his hands on my shoulders. I tried very hard to look smart, and he turned my shoulders very slowly until I faced right, and I moved over to that side. The significance of the finger game was explained to us in the evening. It was the first selection, the first verdict made on our existence or non-existence. For the great ma ­ jority of our transport, about 90 per cent, it meant death. Their sentence was carried out within the next few hours. Those who were sent to the left were marched from the station straight to the crematorium. This building, as I was 26 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 27 told by someone who worked there, had the word â€Å"bath† written over its doors in several European languages. On entering, each prisoner was handed a piece of soap, and then but mercifully I do not need to describe the events which followed. Many accounts have been written about this horror. We who were saved, the minority of our transport, found out the truth in the evening. I inquired from prisoners who had been there for some time where my colleague and friend P had been sent. â€Å"Was he sent to the left side? â€Å"Yes,† I replied. â€Å"Then you can see him there,† I was told. â€Å"Where? † A hand pointed to the chimney a few hundred yards off, which was sending a column of flame up into the grey sky of Poland. It dissolved into a sinister cloud of smoke. â€Å"That’s where your friend is, floating up to Heaven,† was the answer. But I still did not understand until the truth was explained to me in plain words. But I am telling things out of their turn. From a psycho ­ logical point of view, we had a long, long way in front of us from the break of that dawn at the station until our first night’s rest at the camp. Escorted by SS guards with loaded guns, we were made to run from the station, past electrically charged barbed wire, through the camp, to the cleansing station; for those of us who had passed the first selection, this was a real bath. Again our illusion of reprieve found confirmation. The SS men seemed almost charming. Soon we found out their rea ­ son. They were nice to us as long as they saw watches on our wrists and could persuade us in well-meaning tones to hand them over. Would we not have to hand over all our possessions anyway, and hy should not that relatively nice person have the watch? Maybe one day he would do one a good turn. We waited in a shed which seemed to be the anteroom to the disinfecting chamber. SS men appeared and spread out blankets into which we had to throw all our possessions, all our watches and jewelry. There were still naive prisoners among us who asked, to the amusement of the more sea ­ soned ones who were there as helpers, if they could not keep a wedding ring, a medal or a good-luck piece. No one could yet grasp the fact that everything would be taken away. I tried to take one of the old prisoners into my confi ­ dence. Approaching him furtively, I pointed to the roll of paper in the inner pocket of my coat and said, â€Å"Look, this is the manuscript of a scientific book. I know what you will say; that I should be grateful to escape with my life, that that should be all I can expect of fate. But I cannot help myself. I must keep this manuscript at all costs; it contains my life’s work. Do you understand that? † Yes, he was beginning to understand. A grin spread slowly over his face, first piteous, then more amused, mock ­ ing, insulting, until he bellowed one word at me in answer to my question, a word that was ever present in the vocabu ­ lary of the camp inmates: â€Å"Shit! † At that moment I saw the plain truth and did what marked the culminating point of the first phase of my psychological reaction: I struck out my whole former life. Suddenly there was a stir among my fellow travelers, who had been standing about with pale, frightened faces, help ­ lessly debating. Again we heard the hoarsely shouted com ­ mands. We were driven with blows into the immediate anteroom of the bath. There we assembled around an SS man who waited until we had all arrived. Then he said, â€Å"I will give you two minutes, and I shall time you by my watch. In these two minutes you will get fully undressed 28 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 29 and drop everything on the floor where you are standing. You will take nothing with you except your shoes, your belt or suspenders, and possibly a truss. I am starting to count— now! † With unthinkable haste, people tore off their clothes. As the time grew shorter, they became increasingly nervous and pulled clumsily at their underwear, belts and shoe ­ laces. Then we heard the first sounds of whipping; leather straps beating down on naked bodies. Next we were herded into another room to be shaved: not only our heads were shorn, but not a hair was left on our entire bodies. Then on to the showers, where we lined up again. We hardly recognized each other; but with great relief some people noted that real water dripped from the sprays. While we were waiting for the shower, our nakedness was brought home to us: we really had nothing now except our bare bodies—even minus hair; all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence. What else remained for us as a material link with our former lives? For me there were my glasses and my belt; the latter I had to exchange later on for a piece of bread. There was an extra bit of excitement in store for the owners of trusses. In the evening the senior prisoner in charge of our hut welcomed us with a speech in which he gave us his word of honor that he would hang, personally, â€Å"from that beam†Ã¢â‚¬â€he pointed to it—any per ­ son who had sewn money or precious stones into his truss. Proudly he explained that as a senior inhabitant the camp laws entitled him to do so. Where our shoes were concerned, matters were not so simple. Although we were supposed to keep them, those who had fairly decent pairs had to give them up after all and were given in exchange shoes that did not fit. In for real trouble were those prisoners who had followed the ap- parently well-meant advice (given in the anteroom) of the senior prisoners and had shortened their jackboots by cut ­ ting the tops off, then smearing soap on the cut edges to hide the sabotage. The SS men seemed to have waited for just that. All suspected of this crime had to go into a small adjoining room. After a time we again heard the lashings of the strap, and the screams of tortured men. This time it lasted for quite a while. Thus the illusions some of us still held were destroyed one by one, and then, quite unexpectedly, most of us were overcome by a grim sense of humor. We knew that we had nothing to lose except our so ridiculously naked lives. When the showers started to run, we all tried very hard to make fun, both about ourselves and about each other. After all, real water did flow from the spraysl Apart from that strange kind of humor, another sensa ­ tion seized us: curiosity. I have experienced this kind of curiosity before, as a fundamental reaction toward certain strange circumstances. When my life was once endangered by a climbing accident, I felt only one sensation at the critical moment: curiosity, curiosity as to whether I should come out of it alive or with a fractured skull or some other injuries. Cold curiosity predominated even in Auschwitz, some ­ how detaching the mind from its surroundings, which came to be regarded with a kind of objectivity. At that time one cultivated this state of mind as a means of protection. We were anxious to know what would happen next; and what would be the consequence, for example, of our standing in the open air, in the chill of late autumn, stark naked, and still wet from the showers. In the next few days our curi ­ osity evolved into surprise; surprise that we did not catch cold. There were many similar surprises in store for new ar- 30 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 31 rivals. The medical men among us learned first of all: â€Å"Textbooks tell lies! † Somewhere it is said that man cannot exist without sleep for more than a stated number of hours. Quite wrongl I had been convinced that there were certain things I just could not do: I could not sleep without this or I could not live with that or the other. The first night in Auschwitz we slept in beds which were constructed in tiers. On each tier (measuring about six-and-a-half to eight feet) slept nine men, directly on the boards. Two blankets were shared by each nine men. We could, of course, lie only on our sides, crowded and huddled against each other, which had some advantages because of the bitter cold. Though it was forbidden to take shoes up to the bunks, some people did use them secretly as pillows in spite of the fact that they were caked with mud. Otherwise one’s head had to rest on the crook of an almost dislocated arm. And yet sleep came and brought oblivion and relief from pain for a few hours. I would like to mention a few similar surprises on how much we could endure: we were unable to clean our teeth, and yet, in spite of that and a severe vitamin deficiency, we had healthier gums than ever before. We had to wear the same shirts for half a year, until they had lost all ap ­ pearance of being shirts. For days we were unable to wash, even partially, because of frozen water-pipes, and yet the sores and abrasions on hands which were dirty from work in the soil did not suppurate (that is, unless there was frost ­ bite). Or for instance, a light sleeper, who used to be dis ­ turbed by the slightest noise in the next room, now found himself lying pressed against a comrade who snored loudly a few inches from his ear and yet slept quite soundly through the noise. If someone now asked of us the truth of Dostoevski’s statement that flatly defines man as a being who can get used to anything, we would reply, â€Å"Yes, a man can get used to anything, but do not ask us how. † But our psychological investigations have not taken us that far yet; neither had we prisoners reached that point. We were still in the first phase of our psychological reactions. The thought of suicide was entertained by nearly every ­ one, if only for a brief time. It was born of the hopelessness of the situation, the constant danger of death looming over us daily and hourly, and the closeness of the deaths suffered by many of the others. From personal convictions which will be mentioned later, I made myself a firm promise, on my first evening in camp, that I would not â€Å"run into the wire. † This was a phrase used in camp to describe the most popular method of suicide—touching the electrically charged barbed-wire fence. It was not entirely difficult for me to make this decision. There was little point in commit ­ ting suicide, since, for the average inmate, life expectation, calculating objectively and counting all likely chances, was very poor. He could not with any assurance expect to be among the small percentage of men who survived all the selections. The prisoner of Auschwitz, in the first phase of shock, did not fear death. Even the gas chambers lost their horrors for him after the first few days—after all, they spared him the act of committing suicide. Friends whom I have met later have told me that I was not one of those whom the shock of admission greatly de ­ pressed. I only smiled, and quite sincerely, when the follow ­ ing episode occurred the morning after our first night in Auschwitz. In spite of strict orders not to leave our â€Å"blocks,† a colleague of mine, who had arrived in Auschwitz several weeks previously, smuggled himself into our hut. He wanted to calm and comfort us and tell us a few things. He had become so thin that at first we did not recognize him. With a show of good humor and a Devil-may-care attitude he gave us a few hurried tips: â€Å"Don’t be afraid! Don’t fear the selections! Dr. M (the SS medical chief) has a soft spot for doctors. † (This was wrong; my friend’s kindly 32 Man’s Search for Meaning words were misleading. One prisoner, the doctor of a block, of huts and a man of some sixty years, told me how he had entreated Dr. M to let off his son, who was destined for gas. Dr. M coldly refused. ) â€Å"But one thing I beg of you†; he continued, â€Å"shave daily, if at all possible, even if you have to use a piece of glass to do it . . . even if you have to give your last piece of bread for it. You will look younger and the scraping will make your cheeks look ruddier. If you want to stay alive, there is only one way: look fit for work. If you even limp, because, let us say, you have a small blister on your heel, and an SS man spots this, he will wave you aside and the next day you are sure to be gassed. Do you know what we mean by a ‘Moslem’? A man who looks miserable, down and out, sick and emaciated, and who cannot manage hard physical labor any longer . . . that is a ‘Moslem. ‘ Sooner or later, usually sooner, every ‘Moslem’ goes to the gas chambers. Therefore, remember: shave, stand and walk smartly; then you need not be afraid of gas. All of you standing here, even if you have only been here twenty-four hours, you need not fear gas, except perhaps you. † And then he pointed to me and said, â€Å"I hope you don’t mind my telling you frankly. † To the others he repeated, â€Å"Of all of you he is the only one who must fear the next selection. So, don’t worry! † And I smiled. I am now convinced that anyone in my place on that day would have done the same. Experiences in a Concentration Camp I think it was Lessing who once said, â€Å"There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. Even we psychiatrists expect the reactions of a man to an abnormal situation, such as being com ­ mitted to an asylum, to be abnormal in proportion to the degree of his normality. The reaction of a man to his admission to a concentration camp also represents an abnormal state of mind, but judged objectiv ely it is a normal and, as will be shown later, typical reaction to the given circumstances. These reactions, as I have described them, began to change in a few days. The prisoner passed from the first to the second phase; the phase of relative apathy, in which he achieved a kind of emotional death. Apart from the already described reactions, the newly arrived prisoner experienced the tortures of other most painful emotions, all of which he tried to deaden. First of all, there was his boundless longing for his home and his family. This often could become so acute that he felt himself consumed by longing. Then there was disgust; disgust with all the ugliness which surrounded him, even in its mere external forms. Most of the prisoners were given a uniform of rags which would have made a scarecrow elegant by comparison. Between the huts in the camp lay pure filth, and the more one worked to clear it away, the more one had to come in contact with it. It was a favorite practice to detail a new arrival to a work group whose job was to clean the latrines and remove the sewage. If, as usually happened, some of the excrement splashed into his face during its transport over bumpy fields, any sign of disgust by the prisoner or any attempt to wipe off the filth would only be punished with a blow from a Capo. And thus the mortification of normal reactions was hastened. At first the prisoner looked away if he saw the punishment parades of another group; he could not bear to see fellow prisoners march up and down for hours in the mire, their movements directed by blows. Days or weeks later things changed. Early in the morning, when it was still dark, the prisoner stood in front of the gate with his detachment, ready to march. He heard a scream and saw how 34 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 35 comrade was knocked down, pulled to his feet again, and knocked down once more—and why? He was feverish but had reported to sick-bay at an improper time. He was being punished for this irregular attempt to be relieved of his duties. But the prisoner who had passed into the second stage of his psychological reactions did not avert his eyes any more. By then his feelings were blunted, and he watched un ­ moved. Another example: he found himself waiting at sick  ­ bay, hoping to be granted two days of light work inside the camp because of injuries or perhaps edema or fever. He stood unmoved while a twelve-year-old boy was carried in who had been forced to stand at attention for hours in the snow or to work outside with bare feet because there were no shoes for him in the camp. His toes had become frost ­ bitten, and the doctor on duty picked off the black gan ­ grenous stumps with tweezers, one by one. Disgust, horror and pity are emotions that our spectator could not really feel any more. The sufferers, the dying and the dead, be ­ came such commonplace sights to him after a few weeks of camp life that they could not move him any more. I spent some time in a hut for typhus patients who ran very high temperatures and were often delirious, many of them moribund. After one of them had just died, I watched without any emotional upset the scene that followed, which was repeated over and over again with each death. One by one the prisoners approached the still warm body. One grabbed the remains of a messy meal of potatoes; another decided that the corpse’s wooden shoes were an improve ­ ment on his own, and exchanged them. A third man did the same with the dead man’s coat, and another was glad to be able to secure some—just imagine! —genuine string. All this I watched with unconcern. Eventually I asked the â€Å"nurse† to remove the body. When he decided to do so, he took the corpse by its legs, allowing it to drop into the small corridor between the two rows of boards which were the beds for the fifty typhus patients, and dragged it across the bumpy earthen floor toward the door. The two steps which led up into the open air always constituted a prob ­ lem for us, since we were exhausted from a chronic lack of food. After a few months’ stay in the camp we could not walk up those steps, which were each about six inches high, without putting our hands on the door jambs to pull our ­ selves up. The man with the corpse approached the steps. Wearily he dragged himself up. Then the body: first the feet, then the trunk, and finally—with an uncanny rattling noise— the head of the corpse bumped up the two steps. My place was on the opposite side of the hut, next to the small, sole window, which was built near the floor. While my cold hands clasped a bowl of hot soup from which I sipped greedily, I happened to look out the window. The corpse which had just been removed stared in at me with glazed eyes. Two hours before I had spoken to that man. Now I continued sipping my soup. If my lack of emotion had not surprised me from the standpoint of professional interest, I would not remember this incident now, because there was so little feeling in ­ volved in it. Apathy, the blunting of the emotions and the feeling that one could not care any more, were the symptoms arising during the second stage of the prisoner’s psychological re ­ actions, and which eventually made him insensitive to daily and hourly beatings. By means of this insensibility the pris ­ oner soon surrounded himself with a very necessary protec ­ tive shell. 6 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 37 Beatings occurred on the slightest provocation, sometimes for no reason at all. For example, bread was rationed out at our work site and we had to line up for it. Once, the man behind me stood off a little to one side and that lack of symmetry displeased the SS guard. I did not know what was going on in the line behind me, nor in the mind of the SS guard, but suddenly I received two sharp blows on my head. Only then did I spot the guard at my side who was using his stick. At such a moment it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all. Strangely enough, a blow which does not even find its mark can, under certain circumstances, hurt more than one that finds its mark. Once I was standing on a railway track in a snowstorm. In spite of the weather our party had to keep on working. I worked quite hard at mending the track with gravel, since that was the only way to keep warm. For only one moment I paused to get my breath and to lean on my shovel. Unfortunately the guard turned around just then and thought I was loafing. The pain he caused me was not from any insults or any blows. That guard did not think it worth his while to say anything, not even a swear word, to the ragged, emaciated figure standing before him, which probably reminded him only vaguely of a human form. Instead, he playfully picked up a stone and threw it at me. That, to me, seemed the way to attract the attention of a beast, to call a domestic animal back to its job, a creature with which you have so little in common that you do not even punish it. The most painful part of beatings is the insult which they imply. At one time we had to carry some long, heavy girders over icy tracks. If one man slipped, he endangered not only himself but all the others who carried the same girder. An old friend of mine had a congenitally dislocated hip. He was glad to be capable of working in spite of it, since the physically disabled were almost certainly sent to death when a selection took place. He limped over the track with an especially heavy girder, and seemed about to fall and drag the others with him. As yet, I was not carrying a girder so I jumped to his assistance without stopping to think. I was immediately hit on the back, rudely repri ­ manded and ordered to return to my place. A few minutes previously the same guard who struck me had told us deprecatingly that we â€Å"pigs† lacked the spirit of comrade ­ ship. Another time, in a forest, with the temperature at 2 °F, we began to dig up the topsoil, which was frozen hard, in order to lay water pipes. By then I had grown rather weak physi ­ cally. Along came a foreman with chubby rosy cheeks. His face definitely reminded me of a pig’s head. I noticed that he wore lovely warm gloves in that bitter cold. For a time he watched me silently. I felt that trouble was brewing, for in front of me lay the mound of earth which showed exactly how much I had dug. Then he began: â€Å"You pig, I have been watching you the whole time! I’ll teach you to work, yet! Wait till you dig dirt with your teeth—you’ll die like an animal! In two days I’ll finish you off! You’ve never done a stroke of work in your life. What were you, swine? A businessman? † I was past caring. But I had to take his threat of killing me seriously, so I straightened up and looked him directly in the eye. â€Å"I was a doctor—a specialist. † â€Å"What? A doctor? I bet you got a lot of money out of people. † â€Å"As it happens, I did most of my work for no money at all, in clinics for the poor. † But, now, I had said too much. He threw himself on me and knocked me down, shouting like a madman. I can no longer remember what he shouted. I want to show with this apparently trivial story that 38 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 39 there are moments when indignation can rouse even a seemingly hardened prisoner—indignation not about cruelty or pain, but about the insult connected with it. That time blood rushed to my head because I had to listen o a man judge my life who had so little idea of it, a man (I must confess: the following remark, which I made to my fellow-prisoners after the scene, afforded me childish relief) â€Å"who looked so vulgar and brutal that the nurse in the outpatient ward in my hospital would not even have admitted him to the waiting room. † Fortunately the Capo in my working party was obligated to me; he had taken a liking to me because I listened to his love stories and matrimonial troubles, which he poured out during the long marches to our work site. I had made an impression on him with my diagnosis of his character and with my psychotherapeutic advice. After that he was grate ­ ful, and this had already been of value to me. On several previous occasions he had reserved a place for me next to him in one of the first five rows of our detachment, which usually consisted of two hundred and eighty men. That favor was important. We had to line up early in the morn ­ ing while it was still dark. Everybody was afraid of being late and of having to stand in the back rows. If men were required for an unpleasant and disliked job, the senior Capo appeared and usually collected the men he needed from the back rows. These men had to march away to an ­ other, especially dreaded kind of work under the command of strange guards. Occasionally the senior Capo chose men from the first five rows, just to catch those who tried to be clever. All protests and entreaties were silenced by a few well-aimed kicks, and the chosen victims were chased to the meeting place with shouts and blows. However, as long as my Capo felt the need of pouring out his heart, this could not happen to me. I had a guaranteed place of honor next to him. But there was another advan- tage, too. Like nearly all the camp inmates I was suffering from edema. My legs were so swollen and the skin on them so tightly stretched that I could scarcely bend my knees. I had to leave my shoes unlaced in order to make them fit my swollen feet. There would not have been space for socks even if I had had any. So my partly bare feet were always wet and my shoes always full of snow. This, of course, caused frostbite and chilblains. Every single step became real torture. Clumps of ice formed on our shoes during our marches over snow-covered fields. Over and again men slipped and those following behind stumbled on top of them. Then the column would stop for a moment, but not for long. One of the guards soon took action and worked over the men with the butt of his rifle to make them get up quickly. The more to the front of the column you were, the less often you were disturbed by having to stop and then to make up for lost time by running on your painful feet. I was very happy to be the personally appointed physician to His Honor the Capo, and to march in the first row at an even pace. As an additional payment for my services, I could be sure that as long as soup was being dealt out at lunchtime at our work site, he would, when my turn came, dip the ladle right to the bottom of the vat and fish out a few peas. This Capo, a former army officer, even had the courage to whisper to the foreman, whom I had quarreled with, that he knew me to be an unusually good worker. That didn’t help matters, but he nevertheless managed to save my life (one of the many times it was to be saved). The day after the epi ­ sode with the foreman he smuggled me into another work party. There were foremen who felt sorry for us and who did their best to ease our situation, at least at the building site. 40 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 41 But even they kept on reminding us that an ordinary laborer did several times as much work as we did, and in a shorter time. But they did see reason if they were told that a normal workman did not live on 10-1/2 ounces of bread (theoretically—actually we often had less) and 1-3/4 pints of thin soup per day; that a normal laborer did not live under the mental stress we had to submit to, not having news of our families, who had either been sent to another camp or gassed right away; that a normal workman was not threat ­ ened by death continuously, daily and hourly. I even al ­ lowed myself to say once to a kindly foreman, â€Å"If you could learn from me how to do a brain operation in as short a time as I am learning this road work from you, I would have great respect for you. † And he grinned. Apathy, the main symptom of the second phase, was a necessary mechanism of self-defense. Reality dimmed, and all efforts and all emotions were centered on one task: pre ­ serving one’s own life and that of the other fellow. It was typical to hear the prisoners, while they were being herded back to camp from their work sites in the evening, sigh with relief and say, â€Å"Well, another day is over. It can be readily understood that such a state of strain, coupled with the constant necessity of concentrating on the task of staying alive, forced the prisoner’s inner life down to a primitive level. Several of my colleagues in camp who were trained in psychoanalysis often spoke of a â€Å"regression† in the camp inmate— a retreat to a more primitive form of mental life. His wishes and desires became obvious in his dreams. What did the prisoner dream about most frequently? Of bread, cake, cigarettes, and nice warm baths. The lack of having these simple desires satisfied led him to seek wishfulfillment in dreams. Whether these dreams did any good is another matter; the dreamer had to wake from them to the reality of camp life, and to the terrible contrast between that and his dream illusions. I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him. Because of the high degree of undernourishment which the prisoners suffered, it was natural that the desire for food was the major primitive instinct around which mental life centered. Let us observe the majority of prisoners when they happened to work near each other and were, for once, not closely watched. They would immediately start discuss ­ ing food. One fellow would ask another working next to him in the ditch what his favorite dishes were. Then they would exchange recipes and plan the menu for the day when they would have a reunion—the day in a distant future when they would be liberated and returned home. They would go on and on, picturing it all in detail, until suddenly a warning was passed down the trench, usually in the form of a special password or number: â€Å"The guard is coming. † I always regarded the discussions about food as danger ­ ous. Is it not wrong to provoke the organism with such detailed and affective pictures of delicacies when it has somehow managed to adapt itself to extremely small rations 42 Man’s Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 43 and low calories? Though it may afford momentary psycho ­ logical relief, it is an illusion which phy How to cite V.Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning, Essay examples

Watches Western Civilization Essay Example

Watches Western Civilization Essay History of Clocks As long as 4000 years ago, the Babylonian priests of Mesopotamia began a careful and systematic study of the movements and patterns of the sun, moon, stars, and seasons. They folded all of their accumulated knowledge into a calendar, which very much resembles the one that we use today. The Babylonians established a system of timekeeping based on twelve months, seven days per week, and twenty four hour long days. In fact, the only thing that is different between the ancient calendar and the one we use today is that the Babylonians assigned thirty days to each month. When they realized that was about five days too few, they added a thirteenth month to the calendar every six years. The Romans modified this to have months of varying lengths within a twelve-month framework, and from then on, we have universally used the same standard divisions to track time. From then on gifted minded individuals searched for a mechanism to use for accurate timekeeping, which led us to the origins of the clock. By 1500, most villages across Europe consisted of a large clock tower, as well as watchman who would call out the time periodically through out the day. At the time larger perpetual clocks tended to be fairly inaccurate, but there was an interest among the mechanically inclined to come up with newer and smaller versions for accurate personal use. It was around this time that a locksmith from Nuremberg, Germany named Peter Henlein invented the first pocket watch. Unlike a large clock which was driven by weights, Henleins small portable clocks were powered by a coiled mainspring used in conjunction with a ratchet system. The incredible thing is that the mechanism used in the very first watch is not all that different from the way in which many watches are run today. From the earliest days of mankind, people have been interested in time. Dating well before written history, humans were believed to have used the movement of the sun and the moon to tell time. The original timepiece was the sundial, but as civilization grew more complicated, so did their need to have accurate way to keep track of the hours and minutes of the day. This is the fascinating history and modern life of a brilliant invention that most of us take for granted: THE WATCH! I LOVE WATCHES!! We will write a custom essay sample on Watches Western Civilization specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Watches Western Civilization specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Watches Western Civilization specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Watches improved with the Nuremberg eggs as the first watches were known to be large oval esigns, they were worn on a belt or neck chain. They had no crystal covering the face, and only the hour hand. The early watches were far from accurate timekeepers: there was really no point in having a minute hand, let alone a second hand. They were entirely handmade, primarily of iron components assembled with pins and rivets. Within 50 years, the iron works were replaced with brass fittings. It was also around this time that the Swiss watch industry was born. In 1525 a Swiss mechanic living Prague named Jacob Zech invented a component that revolutionized matchmaking. It was called the fuse, and it was an element which solved as normous problem with early watches: as they would wind down the movement of the hour hand also slowed down. The Fusee, which was perfected by another Swiss man named Gruet, equalized the inner mechanism of the watch and thereby dramatically improved the timekeeping ability of the piece. Watches before the fusse more functional. Toa point that is: it was not until early 1700s that watches became precise enough to warrant including a minute hand. In the 1600s, watches really took off in popularity. It might not occur to a modern reader that only a select few had watches in the 17th Century, they were prohibitively expensive and were nly owned by the nobility. Wearing a watch was a status symbol, a sign of wealth and importance. The most interesting thing about that fact is that even today a high end watch is every bit a status sign as it was in the 17th Century. Royals and their watches, in the 1600s watches were considered toys for the nobility. Each watch was entirely hand made with a large price tag to match. The aristocracy treated their watches as any other decorative accessory in their Jewelry box, an adornment to enhance their outfits, not a functional necessity. Because the watch was viewed as ewelry, watch makers came up with increasingly beautiful designs to entice their wealthy clients to want them. They were designed to be wearable works of art and tied in with the other fashion of the day. Watches were created to resemble tiny insects, flowers, musical instruments and animals. Mary Queen of Scots was even known to have had one in the shape of a skull in her Jewelry collection. fledging watch making industry was largely based in England, France, and The Switzerland. Each nation had its own unique style when it came to creating timepieces. English watches tended to be heavy, sturdy and reliable. Swiss watches were renowned for their accuracy Just as they are today. In France, the emphasis was on creating exquisitely beautiful cases, something which they did exceedingly well. French watches were handmade in interesting sculptural forms, hand painted with remarkable tiny scenes, and decorated with the finest available materials, such as enamel. Tortoiseshells and precious gems. Being a Swiss watchmaker in Geneva was a highly respectable position in society. Precision and well executed technique were highly prized by the Swiss, and the men who made the watches had these qualities in abundance. It was a Swiss man named Nicholas Facio who invented a technique that is still the gold standard in watch making today: the use of rubies and sapphires inside the watch workings. The precious gems were not placed inside the watches to make them more valuable, but rather to reduce the friction of the internal mechanisms. Holes could be drilled in the tiny gems and bearings placed into the centers to reduce friction. The ingenious idea reduced the wear and tear on the watches and made them more accurate timekeepers. Nearly four hundred years later, Geneva is still the world capital of top quality watches. As time passed and new technologies were adopted in the leading countries of , the Swiss , the French and eventually also the Americans adapted new technologies that made their watches lighter, thinner, and quicker to produce, the English stubbornly stuck with their tried and true techniques, which led to the eventual demise of the English watch industry. Water clocks are sometimes still used today, and can be examined in places such as ancient castles and museums. The Salisbury Cathedral Clock built in 1386, is considered to be the worlds oldest surviving mechanical clock that strikes the hours. Between 1280 and 1320, there is an increase in the number of references to clocks and horologes in church records, and this probably indicates that a new type of clock mechanism had been devised. Existing clock mechanisms that used water power controlled by some form of oscillating mechanism, probably derived from existing bell-ringing or alarm devices. This controlled release of power the escapement- marks the beginning of the true mechanical clock. Besides the Chinese astronomical clock, in Europe there were the clocks constructed by Richard of Wallingford in St Albans and by Giovanni de Dondi in Padua from 1348 to 1364. They no longer exist, but detailed descriptions of their design and construction survive, and modern reproductions have been made. They illustrate how quickly the theory of the mechanical clock had been translated into practical constructions, and also that one of the many impulses to their development had been the desire of astronomers to investigate celestial phenomena. Wallingfords clock had a large astrolabe-type dial, showing the sun, the moons age, phase, and node, a star map, and possibly the planets. In addition, it had a wheel of fortune and an indicator of the state of the tide t London Bridge. Bells rang every hour, the number of strokes indicating the time. Dondis clock was a seven-sided construction, 1 meter high, with dials showing the time of day, including minutes, the motions of all the known planets, an automatic calendar of fixed and movable feasts, and an eclipse prediction hand rotating once every 18 years. It is not known how accurate or reliable these clocks would have been. They were probably adjusted manually every day to compensate for errors caused by wear and imprecise manufacture. The measurement of time all starts with the number 12! Youll notice that 60 and 24 share a factor of 12 (the greatest common multiple, if you want to dig all the way to elementary school math). 12 is a generally useful number, a good size for things. Its not too few, and not too many to wrap your head around. Its got 3 divisors (two 2s and a 3, which lets you break things into small units in several different ways) compared to 10, which only has 2 and 5. So early peoples often broke things into 12s, which gave it an almost magical air (12 zodiac signs, 12 people in a Jury, 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles). We get 12 months out of the 12 zodiac signs. That made 12 a nice number to divide the day into, so you can have half-days, quarter-days, and thirds-of-a-day Just by counting hours (and easy to compute on a sundial). The Egyptians did that as early as 1500 BC. The Greeks added another 12 to count the hours of the night. (Who needed to count hours at night? You are supposed to be asleep, since its dark out! ) That gives us 24 hours. 60 minutes to the hour comes from the same sort of thinking, but was actually originally different. 360 is a good number for examining a circle: each of the angles of an equilateral triangle is 60 degrees, and 6 of those make up a circle. Equilateral triangles are very easy to draw precisely using primitive equipment. There are 60 degrees in the each corner of an equilateral triangle because 60 starts with that same 12 and adds another factor of 5, which lets you divide 60 up into lots and lots of useful things. So Greek astronomers subdivided the whole world into 360 degrees, the first division of that into 60 parts was called the first minute and the next division of each of second Just like we do today in measuring degrees, minutes, and seconds on a map. The application of those to time came along later.