希望の力 Power of Hope

希望の力

　

　最近ある人の紹介で、衝撃的な本を読んだ。「夜と霧」ヴィクトール・Ｅ・フランクル著、池田香代子訳（みずず書房）だ。

　これはナチスドイツの強制収容所に入れられた心理学者が、収容所で何を考え、どう行動したかを著した本である。人間が極限状態に追い込まれたとき、すなわち、食事は一日パン一切れと水のようなスープ一杯だけ。氷点下の厳寒の中で一日中強制労働をさせられ、いつガス室に送られるかもしれないという恐怖にさいなまれ、狭いベッドに数人がひしめきあって毛布二枚で寝るという状態が毎日毎日繰り返されるのだ。

　以下に特に感銘した箇所を要約する。（本文126-127ページより）

　希望を失うことがいかに致命的であるかを示す事件が起こった。1945年5月の初め、Ｆという男が私（著者）のところに来て言った。
　「先生、三カ月ほど前におかしな夢を見ましてね。声がして、こう言うんですよ。『知りたいことがあれば、なんでも答える』って。わたしが『私にとって、戦いはいつ終わり、いつ収容所から解放されるのか、いつこの苦しみは終わるのか』と尋ねると、その声は『5月30日』と答えたのです」
　Ｆは、夢の話をしたとき、まだ十分に希望を持ち、夢が正夢だと信じていた。ところが、夢のお告げの日が近づいても収容所に入ってくる軍事情報によると、戦況が5月中に私たちを解放する見込みはほとんど薄れていった。すると、５月２９日、Ｆは突然高熱を発して倒れた。そして、Ｆにとって戦いと苦しみが終わるであろう５月３０日に、Ｆは意識不明状態になり、翌日死んだ。死因は発疹チフスであった。
　Ｆは待ちに待った解放の時が訪れなかったことにひどく落胆し、すでに潜伏していた発疹チフスに対する抵抗力が急速に低下したあげくに命を落としたのだ。皮肉にも夢のお告げは現実となった。

Power of Hope

Recently a friend of mine introduced me a very impressive book, “Man's Search for Meaning” written by a psychologist, Viktor E. Frankl. He described what he thought and how he behaved in the most extreme circumstances in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The prisoners were given only a piece of bread and a cup of water-like soup a day, were forced to work in the freezing cold weather day after day, and had to sleep on a narrow bed with other inmates with two thin blankets. They were always tormented by the fear of being sent to the gas chambers at any time.

   The following passage is the excerpts that impressed me most:

One day an incident occurred that demonstrated how the loss of hope is closely linked with a fatal effect. A man (let me call him F) came to me and said early May, in 1945.

“Doctor, I dreamed a strange dream about three months ago. A voice in my dream told me that it would answer anything I wanted to know. So, I said, ‘I would like to know when the war would be over for me; when our camp would be liberated and our sufferings come to an end.’” It answered, “May 30.” 

When F told me about his dream, he was still full of hope and convinced that the voice of his dream would come true. But as the promised day drew nearer, the war news that reached our camp made it appear very unlikely that we would be free on the promised day. Then on May 29, F suddenly became ill and ran a high temperature and fell. And on May 30, that is the day his prophecy had told him that the war and suffering would be over for him, he became delirious and lost consciousness and he was dead on the next day. He died of typhus.

　　The ultimate cause of F’s death was that the expected liberation did not come and he was severely disappointed. This suddenly lowered his body’s resistance against the latent typhus infection and his body fell victim to illness—and ironically the voice of his dream was right