Investing in Savings Bonds Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Investing in Savings Bonds - Coursework Example They have been done on an annual basis from January 2011 to January 2012. The calculations are for $ 50, $ 100, $ 500, and $ 5,000. Series Denom Issue date Next accrual Final maturity Issue price Interest Interest rate Value EE $ 50 01/2011 02/2012 01/2041 $ 25.00 $ 0.12 0.60% $ 25.12 EE $ 100 01/2011 02/2012 01/2041 $ 50.00 $ O.24 0.60% $ 50.24 EE $ 500 01/2011 02/2012 01/2041 $ 250.00 $ 1.20 0.85% $ 251.20 EE $ 5000 01/2011 02/2012 01/2041 $ 2,500.00 $ 12.00 0.60% $ 2,512.00 EE $ 50 01/2011 02/2012 01/2041 $ 50.00 $ 0.76 3.06% $ 50.76 EE $ 100 01/2011 02/2012 01/2041 $ 100.00 $ 1.52 3.06% $ 101.52 EE $ 500 01/2111 02/2012 01/2041 $ 500.00 $ 7.60 3.06% $ 507.60 EE $ 5,000 01/2011 02/2012 01/2041 $ 5,000.00 $ 76.00 3.06% $5,076.00 EE savings bonds EE Savings bonds are low risk savings that are safe and pay interests basing on the current market rates. These savings bonds may be purchased directly via TreasuryDirect. If one is a owner of an account in TreasuryDirect then he can purcha se, manage, and redeem the bonds through a web browser (Thau, 20010. These savings bonds can be used to fund education, complement retirement income, and offered as a gift. The current interest rate of these savings bonds is at 0.60% which is a fixed rate. The minimum purchase is $ 25 while the maximum is $ 10,000. E savings bonds This savings were introduced in 1941. These savings bonds were being promoted as war bonds by the government of United States between 1941 and 1980. The minimum purchase is $ 25 while the maximum is $ 10,000. These savings bonds were advertised through the media and other channels thus they became popular during those times until 1980.in 1980 the series was substituted by the EE savings bonds. The savings bonds had two maturity periods of 40 years and 30 years respectively (Lasser, 2011). I savings bonds These are the newest savings bonds and they are almost similar to the EE bonds. The difference between the two comes in the calculation of their reset int erest rates. These begin earning interest immediately after issue. These savings binds can be redeemed at any time after a one year holding period. Their security is accrual-type and if they have any interest it is usually included to the bond every month. They are low risk and they earn interest while at the same time protecting the owner from inflation. They may be purchased via TreasuryDirect or with IRS tax refund. They can also be purchased directly from ones web browser. The least purchase for this is $ 50 while buying paper bonds with IRS tax refund and $ 25 when purchased directly via TreasuryDirect. The maximum value that can be purchased is $ 10,000 in TreasuryDirect and $ 5,000 with IRS tax refund. Their current rates are at 3.06% and this will remain all through to the end of April 2012 (Lasser, 2011). Savings Notes These are also referred to as freedom shares. They were issued at a discount of 81 percent of the face amount which could vary. The savings notes were mainly introduced to encourage people in United States to save by investing. This began in 1967 whereby they came alongside the E series savings bonds. They are redeemable at anywhere any time at the most recent semiannual accrual value. The original maturity for this was four and half years however there are optional extensions of two 10-year periods (Thau, 2001). The savings notes

Bureaucracy Notes Essay Example for Free

Bureaucracy Notes Essay The Nature of Bureaucracy A bureaucracy is the name given to a large organization that is structured hierarchically to carry out specific functions. They are generally characterized by an organization chart. Public bureaucracies are basically any organization. They do not have a single set of leaders; they serve the citizenry. Private bureaucracies are those that have a single set of leaders-it’s board of directors. Government bureaucracies are not organized to make a profit. The Weberian Model of the modern bureaucracy which was developed by the German sociologist Max Weber, who viewed bureaucracies as rational, hierarchical organizations in which decisions are based on logical reasoning. The Acquisitive Model of bureaucracy that views top-level bureaucrats as seeking to expand the size of their budgets and staffs to gain greater power. Â  The Monopolistic Model is a model of bureaucracy that compares bureaucracies to monopolistic business firms. Lack of competition in either circumstance leads to inefficient and costly operations. Administrative Agencies are a federal, state, or local government unit established to perform a specific function. Administrative agencies are created and authorized by legislative bodies to administer and enforce specific laws. The Size of the Bureaucracy Excluding the military, the federal bureaucracy includes approximately 2.7 government employees. Since the 1970’s the growth of bureaucracy has been mainly at the and local levels. The Organization of the Federal Bureaucracy The executive branch, which employs most of of the government’s staff, has four major types of structures: Cabinet Departments One of the 15 departments of the executive branch (State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Energy, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs). They are the major organizations of the federal government. Each department is headed by a Secretary and has several levels of undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and so on. President’s theoretically have considerable control over these departments, however, sometimes they fail to follow the President’s wishes. Independent Executive Agencies are bureaucratic organizations that are not located within a department but report directly to the president, who appoints their chief officials. Independent Regulatory Agencies are typically responsible for a specific type of public pol icy. Their function is to make and implement rules and regulations in a particular sphere of action to protect the public interest. It is an agency outside the major executive departments charged with making and implementing rules and regulations. Members of regulatory agency boards are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate. The President can influence them by appointing people of their own parties or individuals who share their political views when vacancies occur., in particular when the chair is vacant. Government Corporation an agency of government that administers a quasi-business enterprise. These corporations are used when activities are primarily commercial. It differs from public and private corporations. Private corporations have shareholders who elect a board of directors, who in turn choose the corporate officers, such as the president and vice president. When it makes a provide, it has to pay taxes. A government corporation has a board of directors and managers but not stockholders. We cannot buy shares of stock under this. Profits remain in within the corporation under the government corporation. Capture is the act by which an industry being regulated by a government agency gains direct or indirect control over agency personnel and decision makers. Challenges to the Bureaucracy The federal bureaucracy is both complex and very specialized. Every department has it’s own goals, missions, and constituents. Some of these problems that occur within each department require more than one agency, causing overlapping jurisdictions to cause confusion and problems that no one has the authority to potentially solve. Terrorism was a challenge because it needed to be organized in order to stop it. The main problem with this was integrating agencies whose missions were very different.. Another was dealing with natural disasters. Natural Disasters leave people without power and without a home, and potentially causing many deaths. So many agencies and levels of government must be coordinated that sometimes responses are delayed and aid does not get to the victims in a timely way. It’s the struggle of the citizens themselves. Staffing the Bureaucracy Two categories of bureaucrats: Political Appointees The president can make political appointments to most of the top jobs in the federal bureaucracy. Civil Servants The president can also appoint ambassadors to foreign posts. The rest of the national governments’ employees belong to the civil service and obtain their jobs through a much more formal process. Civil Service Act of 1883 The size of the bureaucracy increased by 300 percent between 1851 and 1881, the cry for civil service reform became louder. Spoils System is an application of the principle that to the victor belong the spoils. It’s the awarding of government jobs to political supporters and friends. Pendleton Act (Civil Service Reform Act) was passed placing the first limits on the spoils system. It is an act that established the principle of employment on the basis of merit and created the Civil Service Commission to administer the personnel service. Merit System is the selection, retention, and promotion of government employees on the basis of competitive examinations. Civil Service Commission is the initial central personnel agency of the national government, created in 1883. Modern Attempts at Bureaucratic Reform The most important actual and proposed reforms in the last several decades include: Sunshine Laws The Government in the Sunshine Act is a law that requires all committee directed federal agencies to conduct their business regularly in public session. Sunshine laws, today, exist at all levels of government. Sunset Laws The Sunset Legislation are laws requiring that existing programs be reviewed regularly for their effectiveness and be terminated unless specifically extended as a result of these reviews. It places government programs on a definite schedule for Congressional consideration. This idea was originally suggested by Franklin D. Roosevelt, however his proposal was never adopted. Privatization is the replacement of government services with services provided by private films. It occurs when government services are replaced by services from the private sector. Some people believe that they could be provided more efficiently. It is most successful at the local level. Incentives for Efficiency to make things better, state governments focus on maximizing the efficiency and productivity of government workers by providing incentives for improved performance. More Protection for so-called Whistleblowers Whistleblowers are people who bring public attention gross governmental inefficiency or an illegal action. They may be clerical workers, managers, or even specialists, like scientists. Some state and federal laws encourage employees to blow the whistle on their employers’ wrongful actions by providing monetary incentives to the whistleblowers. Bureaucrats as Political and Policy Makers Because Congress is unable to oversee the day-to-day administration of its programs, it must delegate certain powers to administrative agencies. Enabling Legislation is a statute enacted by Congress that authorizes the creation of an administrative agency and specifies the name, purpose, composition, functions, and powers of the agency being created. The agencies should put into effect laws passed by Congress. They provide relatively little guidance to agency administrators as to how the laws should be implemented; meaning that the agencies must decide how best to carry out the wishes of Congress. In the rule making environment EXAMPLE: Suppose that Congress passes a new air pollution law. The Environmental Protection Agency might decide to implement the new law through a technical regulation on factory emission. This proposed regulation would be published in the Federal Register, a daily government publication, so that interested parties would have an opportunity to comment on it. Individuals and companies that opposed the rule might then try to convince the EPA to revise it. Some parties might try to persuade the agency to withdraw the legislation. There is a 60-day waiting period before the rule can be enforced. Bureaucrats are policy makers. The Iron triangle is the three-way alliance among legislators, bureaucrats, and interest groups to make or preserve policies that benefit their respective interests. Issue Network is a group of individuals or organizations which may consist of legislators and legislative staff members, interest group leaders, bureaucrats, the media, scholars, and other experts that supports a particular policy position on a given issue. It describes the policy making process. Members of a particular issue network work together to influence the president, member of Congress, administrative agencies, and the courts to affect public policy on a specific issue. Each policy issue may involve conflicting positions taken by two or more issue networks. Congressional Control of the Bureaucracy Congress has the power of the purse and theoretically could refuse to authorize or appropriate funds for a particular agency. Congress has the legal authority to decide whether to fund or not to fund administrative agencies and can exercise oversight over agencies through investigations and hearings. Congressional Committees conduct investigations and hold hearings to oversee an agency’s actions, reviewing them to ensure compliance with congressional intentions. The agency’s officers and employees can be ordered to testify before a committee about the details of an action. Through these oversight activities, especially int eh questions and comments of member of the House of Representatives or the Senate during the hearings, Congress indicates its positions on specific programs and issues. One theory of Congressional control over the bureaucracy suggests that Congress cannot possibly oversee all of the bureaucracy. Two possible approaches police control and the fire alarm approach. The fire alarm approach is more likely to discover gross inadequacies in a bureaucracy’s job performance. Congress and its committees react to scandal, citizen disappointment, and massive negative publicity by launching a full-scale investigation into whatever agency is suspected of wrongdoing.

Case Study Fuala Choclates Company Marketing Essay

Case Study Fuala Choclates Company Marketing Essay Fuala Company considered as one of the most famous chocolate companies in the UAE, this company has been established in 2002 moreover it has many branches in all Emirates states. The name of Fuala comes from the hospitality of UAE people. This report will cover many points such as business description, unique selling point, Company advertising, Strengths plus weaknesses, Company problems in addition to the solutions and Companys market share. LiRead phonetically khaleejia.blogspot.com/Fuala-Emirati-à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ½ 2. Business Description  Dictionary View detailed dictionary noun introduction prelude preface preamble foreword premise vanguard advance guard proem adjective headlong adverb fore pFuala pride identity of the UAE is a national company specializing in making all kinds of sweets and chocolate, founded in 2002 to be the sample of local industry with excellent quality, belief in the importance of participating in the report of development and experience of those who made it paid to the challenge of all that is imported to begin with the idea of manufacturing Fuala inspired from the date of the UAE and the taste of the community and his love disease. Fuala makes marvelous cakes, cookies, in addition to biscuit with high quality dates filled by different kind of nuts. If you need to make an official gift Fuala makes dazzling gift-sets, perfectly decorated on the big plate or in basket .Often local emirate buy them for el- Edie, weddings ,moreover baby birth .I usually buy them when I go to visit my dear friends or occasion . Faula has shops all over UAE cities with the same price also company offers 80 flavors. www.thenational.ae//Ramadans-sweetest-job Fuala companys by the general manager detection Radwan ALHosni built a large factory special with its products in the city of Dubai In 2007 at total cost of up to AED 50 million, noting that there are continuous efforts to expand the plant to meet the needs and demands increased and contributes to the increase in production for the opening of stations selling. www.facebook.com/fuala 3. Unique selling point The company has several rival of foreign companies, but depends section to accept the consumer industries and products, and at the same time the company try to get a high level to be with global companies, despite the major differences, the field of providing products that beat their quality from other companies such as sweets the most impressive kind of date, dry figs apricots and biscuits. The company makes fresh chocolates simple as that. Our difference is double The taste Fair trade part sourced this will make a difference to both your taste flower and to cocoa growers conscience clear! vimeo.com/tag: snacks/page:8/sort: newest The design of the basket and checkout has been a labor of love to try and give customers all the options they need in a simple interface. Customers can choose to collect their order (and save money) or have the Chico delivered. They can also choose multiple recipients to send any www.flickr.com/photos/again/31159915 number of containers to, with a note for each and even decide how the tins should be packed-either individually to letter box size or in a single pack. The company goes step by step to be more famous than another competitor in UAE plus all over the world in next view year because it use some thing special to make their products, furthermore it has managements enjoys ability along with renewable goals with provides the best. According Fuala became an associate to all society members in all occasion and availed its powers to record great results. www.facebook.com/fuala?v=wallviewas=0à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ½ 4. Company advertising Fuala company from time to time dose several things for the advancement of the definition of its products for example in the firstly, advertise in newspapers and magazines to attach some pictures + Posting some of the paragraphs concerning chocolates Secondly, its offer programs for the company and shows products through television channels with the work of a television program are displayed some of the products Company. Thirdly, shows products through the screens in malls in the State Assembly. Fourthly, its shows products in exhibitions by using some kinds to explained how its tasty and delicious .Finaly,Fuala use the internet to advertising the products in several website ØÙ„ØØ ³ÃƒËœÃ‚ ªÃƒâ„¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ÃƒËœÃƒËœÃ‚ ¹ قؠ±ÃƒËœÃƒËœÃ‚ ¡ÃƒËœÃ‚ © Ø µÃƒâ„¢Ã‹â€ ÃƒËœÃ‚ ªÃƒâ„¢Ã…  ÃƒËœÃ‚ © للكلÙ†¦ÃƒËœÃƒËœÃ‚ ª ØلقØÙ†¦Ãƒâ„¢Ã‹â€ ÃƒËœÃ‚ ³ Ø ¹ÃƒËœÃ‚ ±ÃƒËœÃ‚ ¶ ØلقØÙ†¦Ãƒâ„¢Ã‹â€ ÃƒËœÃ‚ ³ Øلن¦Ãƒâ„¢Ã‚ ÃƒËœÃ‚ µÃƒâ„¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ ØØ ³Ãƒâ„¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ reinforcement article.wn.com/view/chocolate 5. Strengths and weaknesses All companies have something good and bad all over the word for example, the strengths in Fuala the brand which the company take it from UAEs hospitality which people used to have it in the past and still have it now .The tasty of the chocolates and the flavors when you try it for the first time you will never forget it at all, so in the next time you will need more.. Products experts specialize in the art of pastries, citrus and chocolate. annmariemcqueen.blogspot.com The company has an experience of international chefs are trained by the chefs of Europe. Its use the best types of dates, figs and apricots in their products so its make them delicious and more needs from customers. Select the best types of raw materials as well as they use of best natural products .Fuala has modern shops with new machines and their staff the know how to management them in right way in all condition without any problems. The weaknesses in Fuala Company are a little put still effect their work for example, it has limited scope of work within the State only. The company provide expert foreign to offer training courses for workers in it so it cost DH 50000 during the week .On the other hand some Arab workers inexperienced for the variety work so they need for continuous training, which cost the company a lot. Some sweets attitude a high amount of sugar, which can unhealthy for users. Although it has shops in all emirate cities put, it has only one warehousing it based in Abu Dabi. ØÙ„ØØ ³ÃƒËœÃ‚ ªÃƒâ„¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ÃƒËœÃƒËœÃ‚ ¹ قؠ±ÃƒËœÃƒËœÃ‚ ¡ÃƒËœÃ‚ © Ø µÃƒâ„¢Ã‹â€ ÃƒËœÃ‚ ªÃƒâ„¢Ã…  ÃƒËœÃ‚ © للكلÙ†¦ÃƒËœÃƒËœÃ‚ ª ØلقØÙ†¦Ãƒâ„¢Ã‹â€ ÃƒËœÃ‚ ³ Ø ¹ÃƒËœÃ‚ ±ÃƒËœÃ‚ ¶ ØلقØÙ†¦Ãƒâ„¢Ã‹â€ ÃƒËœÃ‚ ³ Øلن¦Ãƒâ„¢Ã‚ ÃƒËœÃ‚ µÃƒâ„¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ ØØ ³Ãƒâ„¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ attenuating circumstances www.facebook.com/fuala 6. Company problems and the solutions All company has problems some are similar and another are different for example in Fuala company they have many problem firstly it hasnt any support form the government so that it will be always keep it in risk. Then the company is new in the market, so it might be failure at any time. Next, it sales their products in UAE so the profit will not increase like if it has external work .Finally, The rent of the shops were it sale their products is very high so the profit will be decrease. The solutions to solve the problems the company open a big factory in Dubai to use it for providing more products, which can seals to other countries. The company started to open shops in out side boarder for example, Oman, Qatar and KSA so this plan will make more profit for the company and it will be famous all over the world. The company try to create some thing new in the market so it will be good for customers to have a new tasty product ,so it will be satisfied them so the profits will increase. Vimeo.com/fualaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ½ 7. Companys market share However, this company begins by less than one million dirhams step by step they became good company with good reputation. In 2007 they spent about 50 millions just to built new factory in Dubai. If we think about the history of this company as we mentioned before it started in 2002 by less than 1million as well as in 2007 they built new factory cost 50 million this tell us that this company still developing furthermore this is indicate to high amount of people who are dealing with this company. 8. Conclusion Fuala Company now is hard challenger to other chocolates companies and there is plan to offer some types of sweets in other countries such as France and Italy. Absolutely it will attract many people and this will give us good reputation for Arabic sweet. www.facebook.com/fuala

Motivelessness :: Violence Personal Narrative Papers

Motivelessness The city of Tucson is quite literally surrounded on all sides by exquisitely rugged natural beauty. To the north lie the Santa Catalina mountains, home of Mt. Lemmon and the southernmost ski resort in the continental US. To the east are the Rincons, after which many local Tucson businesses are named. To the west are the Tucson mountains, from which one can on a clear day (clear days abound) see California. To the south are the Santa Ritas and eventually the mysterious Mexican Madres. Some people like the utter suburbanness of the place, or the weather; but, if you ask Tucsonians why they decided to relocate in Tucson of all places from New York or LA or Mexico City, they'll tell you that they love the Tucson sunsets. The quality of Tucson that the sunset epitomizes, attracts hippies and cowboys and big city folk alike to my home town. The sun rises over Salsa Verde to the Rincons and ever so slowly eases down like prickly pear jelly among the Tucson mountains in the late afternoon. I f you make the hike up to Gate's Pass, there's nothing but sunset and desert for a million miles to Hollywood. Either I was talking about the sunset, or it was sunset, because I definitely remember the sun, when I was walking and talking with my hippie friend Adam outside Agua Caliente park three years ago. I also remember that I was wearing baggy green corduroy pants and a black t-shirt with the picture of a South American tree frog perched on it (we were nature-lovers), and that Adam wore a sandlewood beaded necklace. The clothes we were wearing would later become critically important after the six teenagers who attacked us claimed to the police that the attack had been gang-related and retaliatory. I wasn't hurt at all. Frankly, my assault had more the character of a badly choreographed TV rumble than the military precision one finds in big city violent crime. Adam was slightly worse off than I was, probably because his attacker was the older and more emotionally unbalanced leader of the group, Raymond G. Harder, who was armed with what later turned out to be a metal pipe stuck in a wooden door handle. Ultimately, Ray was the only one of the group that Adam and I would send to juvie with the signing of a pen, thanks to the provisions of the Arizona Victims of Violent Crime Act.

V.Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning

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.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, B eacon 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 AuthorPreface 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 o wn 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 Universit y 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 characteristi c 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 de tached 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. 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. The 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 a ccount 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 th e 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 ex istential 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 ther efore 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 comman ds 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 l and, 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 camp, 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 priv ileges—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 v ictim 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 fami ly 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 MeaningExperiences 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 psycholo gy 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 c ontents 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, m y 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. The 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 ba d. 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 ch arge 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 beh ind 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 t he 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 ca rried 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 wh ere 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 c ould 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, unt il 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 b rief 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—afte r 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 h ave 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 objectively it is a normal and, as will be shown later, typi cal 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 t o 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 pati ents 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 constit uted 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, se emed 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 tha t 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 m arches 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 n evertheless 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 41But 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 m anaged 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

The Science Behind How Popcorn Pops

The Science Behind How Popcorn Pops Popcorn has been a popular snack for thousands of years. Remnants of the tasty treat have been found in Mexico dating back to 3600 BC. Popcorn pops because each popcorn kernel is special. Heres a look at what makes popcorn different from other seeds and how popcorn pops. Why It Pops Popcorn kernels contain oil and water with starch, surrounded by a hard and strong outer coating. When popcorn is heated, the water inside the kernel tries to expand into steam, but it cannot escape through the seed coat (the popcorn hull or pericarp). The hot oil and steam gelatinizes the starch inside the popcorn kernel, making it softer and more pliable. When the popcorn reaches a temperature of 180 C (356 F),  the pressure inside the kernel is around 135 psi (930 kPa), which is sufficient pressure to rupture the popcorn hull, essentially turning the kernel inside-out. The pressure inside the kernel is released very quickly, expanding the proteins and starch inside the popcorn kernel into a foam, which cools and sets into the familiar popcorn puff. A popped piece of corn is about 20 to 50 times larger than the original kernel. If popcorn is heated too slowly, it wont pop because steam leaks out of the tender tip of the kernel. If popcorn is heated too quickly, it will pop, but the center of each kernel will be hard because the starch hasnt had time to gelatinize and form a foam. How Microwave Popcorn Works Originally, popcorn was made by directly heating the kernels. Bags of microwave popcorn are a bit different because the energy comes from microwaves rather than infrared radiation. The energy from the microwaves makes the water molecules in each kernel move faster, exerting more pressure on the hull until the kernel explodes. The bag that microwave popcorn comes in helps trap the steam and moisture so the corn can pop more quickly. Each bag is lined with flavors so when a kernel pops, it strikes the side of the bag and gets coated. Some microwave popcorn presents a health risk not encountered with regular popcorn because the flavorings are also affected by the microwave and get into the air. Does all corn pop? Popcorn that you buy at the store or grow as popcorn for a garden is a special variety of corn. The commonly cultivated strain is Zea mays everta, which is a type of flint corn. Some wild or heritage strains of corn will also pop. The most common types of popcorn have white or yellow pearl-type  kernels, although white, yellow, mauve, red, purple, and variegated colors are available in both pearl and rice shapes. Even the right strain of corn wont pop unless its moisture content has a moisture content around 14 to 15%. Freshly harvested corn pops, but the resulting popcorn will be chewy and dense. Sweet Corn and Field Corn Two other common types of corn are sweet corn and field corn. If these types of corn are dried so they have the right moisture content, a small number of kernels will pop. However, the corn that pops wont be as fluffy as regular popcorn and will have a different flavor. Attempting to pop field corn using oil is more likely to produce a snack more like Corn Nuts, where the corn kernels expand but dont break apart. Do other grains pop? Popcorn is not the only grain that pops! Sorghum, quinoa, millet, and amaranth grain all puff up when heated as the pressure from expanding steam breaks open the seed coat.