T
he term individuality is easily defined: it is the quality or qualities that set one person apart from others. However, the question of when and how a person be- comes an individual is a little harder to answer. The popular notion is that we are all individu- als from conception and anything we think, say, or do expresses our individuality. Let’s examine this idea to see if it makes sense.If everyone were unique, imitation would be rare. Indeed, it might not exist at all. We’d find little similarity in dress, speech patterns, and mannerisms, let alone viewpoints. Yet even a ca- sual glance at people reveals a different picture. Count the number of young men’s feet in un- laced high top sneakers. Tally the number of de- signer labels on male or female jeans. Notice how many businessmen wear suits, shirts, and ties in the current style. See how many business- women have hemlines precisely where this year’s fashion experts de- clared they should be.
Note speech patterns, observe mannerisms, and listen to opinions on issues from abortion and capital punishment to taxation and welfare reform. You’re likely to see much more sameness than difference.
Such observations suggest that the popular notion of individuality is shallow. People are not born with individuality but with the poten- tial to develop it. Likewise, people’s actions and words may not express individuality at all but mindless conformity. In short, individuality takes effort.
What is individuality?
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THE STORY OF VIKTOR FRANKL
Viktor Frankl (1905–1997), a renowned Viennese psychiatrist, was influenced by two older Viennese psychiatrists, Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. Freud believed the sex drive is the strongest psycho- logical drive in human beings; Adler believed it is the drive for power. But Frankl eventually formed a different view—that the strongest drive in human beings is the drive to find meaning in life. His evidence came not only from the psychiatrist’s couch but also from his experiences as an inmate in Nazi concentration camps where his wife, father, mother, and brother perished.
The experience of camp life included near-starvation, lack of warm clothing, dis- ease, hard labor, and unspeakable brutality. In such conditions, Frankl found, the sex drive and the drive for power were quickly suppressed. But the drive to find meaning in the suffering, a reason for living, remained strong.
Amid the horrors of the camps, many inmates put aside selfishness and dis- played compassion and kindness toward their fellow inmates. Some even forgave their captors.
Frankl survived the camps, largely because of his determination to tell the sto- ries of decency and nobility he witnessed and to teach others the lessons he learned about finding meaning in one’s life, regardless of one’s circumstances.
The best known of Viktor Frankl’s books, Man’s Search for Meaning, presents these stories and lessons. To date more than nine million copies are in print in nu- merous languages.
For more information on Viktor Frankl, see Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 3d ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), or do a Google search for “Viktor Frankl.”
good thinking!
our formative years, most of us saw thousands of hours of television. Small children have difficulty distinguishing between commercials and program content, so we no doubt gave the claims of used car sales- people the same trust we gave the weather reports. In time we learned that not all the people who appear on the screen are equally believable. Yet by then most of us had become accustomed to relaxing our minds while watching TV, so we remained—and remain—vulnerable to the influences of the people who control what we watch.
Over the years those influential people have numbered in the thou- sands. They include the screenwriters who created TV dramas and comedies, the actors who brought the scripts to life, the newscasters
who reported the news, and the pundits and commentators who told us what it meant. Those people may have intended to do nothing more than entertain or inform us. But, whatever their intentions, they were also planting ideas and shaping our thinking and behavior in subtle but significant ways.
Suppose that you open today’s newspaper and the headlines say that a well-known person led a protest march, a politician resigned in dis- grace, and a snowstorm blanketed the Midwest. You may take it for granted that those stories represent the most important events that oc- curred in the past twenty-four hours. But stop and think about that. The editors who selected those stories have their own ideas of what is newsworthy, and their ideas may be debatable.
For example, many editors follow the principle, “If it bleeds, it leads,” which may not be the most responsible principle to follow. Consider, as well, that in choosing their stories, editors also chose to ignore many other stories. Did you read about the historic conference in Washington, D.C., featuring a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, a Black Muslim, a Hindu, a rabbi, and a Buddhist talking about their common spiritual and social values? (This event took place in November 2000.) Chances are you didn’t hear about it because most editors around the country decided it wasn’t newsworthy.
The same pattern exists in book and magazine publishing. Authors are free to take any view they want about any subject. But what editors select for publication is what they think the public should know or what will sell.
Given all these influences, it is almost certain that many of the ideas, attitudes, and values you consider your own actually came from other people. “Wait a minute,” you may be saying. “How could I ever mis- take other people’s ideas for my own?” The following sequence of events illustrates how this happens.
You’re watching your favorite TV series and one of the characters expresses an offhand opinion about a controversial issue, but you don’t pay much attention because you have little interest in the issue and you are busy concentrating on the story line. A few days later, you are lis- tening to a radio talk show while doing some chores and you hear some- one express the same opinion. It sounds familiar to you, but you are too involved in what you are doing to think further about it.
The following week you’re sitting with a couple of friends and the discussion turns to the very same issue. Your friends disagree about it
and then ask you where you stand. Not wanting to admit that you haven’t really thought much about it, you say the first thing that comes to mind—the opinion you heard others express.
Once you express the opinion, of course, you stop thinking of it as
an opinion—it becomes your opinion, the right opinion. And the more
often you express it, the more convinced you will be of its soundness, and the more passionate you will be in defending it. All this for an idea
you never examined critically but merely heard others say!
Acknowledging that you have been—and continue to be—influenced by other people will motivate you to be more critical of your own ideas and more willing to reject them when they prove unworthy. It will also help you to appreciate the wisdom in C. M. Ward’s observation: “There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.”