The whole chapter was interesting to read, but there were two things that really stuck out to me the first being the section on health. I like how Frankl introduced the term final freedom. It was defined as "the stand we take toward a fate we no longer can change." The section then goes on to say, "the goal of health care communication ethics is to protect and promote a sense of gratitude and knowledge of a final freedom-our response to health, its absence, and eventuality of death." This example tied directly in with the story the chapter gave of the young man asking the old man how he was.
To summarize the story the old man was a major benefactor in a company who had to carry around oxygen with him. The old man responded in a comic, yet truthful manner. He told the young man how do you think I am, I have to carry around my oxygen. Then the old man met with other members of the board, knowing that when he passes away his company will never be the same. But before he left the young man he left him with the message, "do something with your life and if this happens to you, then you too can provide a response that invokes guilt in the young to do something with their lives." This story shows how the Final freedom works, and how we can look back on our lives and the knowledge we have gained, and above all share it.
The concept of final freedom is a little sad. I like how you chose to mention that in your post. As the book notes, "Health care communication ethics understands health not in what happens to us, but in our response to that which meets us" (195). Responding to a serious health problem requires us to take on the problem realistically which sometimes, unfortunately, involves accepting that at some point there is nothing more we can do to preserve our health.
ReplyDeleteI did not like the idea of final freedom at all. As I was pondering on this chapter I was wondering how I would feel in my ladder part of life. I don't want to be seen as a final freedom or even feel like I am in my final stages. I would imagine most people don't think this way. Or maybe they do? I understand that we all get old and it is a given that we are not immortal. We have to remember to just take life as it is and keep pushing no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI remember when my dad was in a comma and the doctors told us he was too ill to come out of it. Well he must have heard that and woke up because he is alive and kicking today. I don't know if I believe in miracles so I have to believe he was watching us from outside his body. Another reason I don't feel this chapter holds true with this notion of final freedoms is because I almost died as well.
You see, one night I had too much to drink and my heart somehow stopped while I was walking home. I was only a few blocks away but never got home. I was actually found by the police and I remember the officer above me breaking my ribs as he did compression's. I was unresponsive for the whole next day. The night after I was fine it seemed until I began to have seizures every 2 minutes or so. I saw everything that was going on around me and knew that I needed to keep kicking. My time on this earth was not going to end like this.
My point of my stories is that I never thought of a final freedom I thought about living and continuing to live. I was able to see so much when I was unconscious each time that I had a new perspective on life but I would be weary to call it a, final freedom.