Thursday, July 16, 2009

A New View, After Diagnosis

Experimental Group Therapy Aims to Help Cancer Patients Find Meaning in Face of Mortality.

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Dr. Breitbart based his program in part on the writings of Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist who survived Auschwitz with the conviction that people can endure any suffering if they know their life has meaning. The eight-week program helps patients with Stage 3 or 4 cancer reconnect with the many sources of meaning in life—love, work, history, family relationships—and teaches them that when cancer produces an obstacle in one, they can find meaning in another.

“We help cancer patients understand that they are not dead yet,” says Dr. Breitbart. “The months or years of life that remain can be times of extraordinary growth.”

In fact, anyone can benefit from reflecting on what’s most meaningful in life, he says. “Every human being wrestles with the question: How can you live knowing that you’re going to die? “Most of us are too distracted to think about it. But ask yourself, ‘What accomplishments are you most proud of? What do you want your legacy to be?’ It’s never too late,” he says.

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