The Statue of Responsibility

I wanted to introduce to you the Statue of Responsibility. When this statue was introduced to me by a friend, I was so interested in it because it was a perfect complement to what I teach in my Practice. I have a replica of the Statue of Responsibility displayed at my front desk for all to see.

Let me share what this statue represents and then discuss why it is so important to my Practice. In the book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Dr. Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, and father of Logotherapy, stated that there should be a compliment to the Statue of Liberty on the West Coast he called the Statue of Responsibility. Viktor survived the Holocaust by controlling his thoughts. He said that they could take everything else away from him, but no one could take away or control how he thought. He stayed alive because his drive was to one day publish his manuscript on Logotherapy. He had it almost produced for publication when the Nazi’s took it away from him and burned it.

Now why does this have such significance to me?I teach that there are two ways to treat people. I can continue to fix my clients and watch them continue to break down like I was trained to do in dental school, or I can help them become as healthy as they want to become. They have a choice in my practice. I will love and care for them either way, but they do have a choice. If my clients make a fundamental choice to be healthy, then my proven structures are in place to help them get beyond disease. You must know that if you are not in control of the disease process, it will continue to progress and get more complicated to treat. If this does not happen to you, it is by fate or luck. Most people are not lucky. Now here is where the Statue comes into play and means so much to me: In order to help a client get health and beyond disease not only do they need to make a fundamental choice to be healthy but they must form an Interdependent Relationship with me. That means that there has to be an equal sharing of responsibility. We both have to do our parts to bring this about. Now I can take patients disease away from them temporarily but in order to help them get healthy I have to have a relationship with them.

Now this Committee to see that this statue comes about and achieves Viktor’s dream they are still raising donations. There are 5 sites on the West Coast vying for the honor to have it placed in their city. I am very excited to be part of this contribution to the achievement of this raising. I hope that 2017 sees this reality.