Retaining Identity and Meaning with Social Distance
Jeffrey Millstein, MD
— Viktor Frankl
Covid-19 is upon us. For now, and for an uncertain time to come, it has stolen our sporting events, concerts, shows, travel plans, public gatherings. It has disrupted our workplaces, supply chains, investments. It has required that we distance ourselves from each other, and has made sustaining social gestures like hugs and handshakes taboo.
Covid-19, it seems, has taken away much of what defines us and gives us meaning and purpose. But has it?
In this vulnerable period, I am drawn to Viktor Frankl’s seminal work “Man’s Search for Meaning.” As a young man, Frankl (1905-1997), a psychiatrist and neurologist, was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. He survived, and from an unimaginably horrific experience, wrote his celebrated book. His core message is that hope can persist, even in the most desperate circumstances. Frankl teaches that meaning, as opposed to pleasure or power, is life’s primary motivating force. Meaning can be derived from caring for others, creativity, and facing challenge or suffering with courage. We always have a choice, he concludes, of our mindset with which to confront any situation.
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
Pandemic precautions have caused our health system to cancel elective procedures, and all routine office visits or acute respiratory complaints are being converted to phone or virtual care. Much of my sense of professional purpose comes from in-person patient care, so I feel challenged by these restrictions. I have found comfort in Frankl’s insight: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” From this wisdom, I am striving to cultivate presence and meaningful connections with patients, albeit remotely. New communication skill sets will emerge and be refined.
Current circumstances have also brought new leadership challenges for me. During this pandemic, I need to manage my own fears along with those of colleagues and staff who look to me for guidance. Frankl’s aphorism, “an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior,” helps me accept my own worries and mobilize resiliency to help in any way that I can.
Frankl’s writing helps clear the haze cast by Covid-19. His insights show us that our identity, purpose and meaning may be challenged, but never usurped by social disruption. We are inseparable from a path of caring and kindness, if that is the course we choose.
At the core of all that Frankl teaches, is love. “…Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.” At all times, but especially in dangerous or troubled ones, we can find meaning in simply loving and tending to those who depend on us. Our most familiar ways of expressing love may be constrained, but creativity remains the key to possibility. Love is immune to social distance, a silver lining which never fades.
Dr. Millstein is a practicing internist, writer and educator, and serves as Associate Medical Director for Patient Experience at Regional Physicians of Penn Medicine. He leads initiatives for clinicians and staff to help improve patient centered communication skills. He is an instructor in the “Doctoring” course and is a clinical preceptor for students at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.