Meaning-Centered Faith

"Meaning-centered psychotherapy" is a program developed by William Breitbart, a psychiatrist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. According to Dr. Breitbart, it tries to answer the question cancer patients often have, which is "How do I live in the space between my diagnosis and my eventual death?"

The program, which has involved over 300 patients since 2000, is based on the writings of an Aucschwitz survivor, Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, he had "the conviction that people can endure any suffering if they know their life has meaning."

The idea is to connect patients "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 find meaning in another." It's an effort to answer the question "How can you live when you know you're going to die."

Patients are encouraged to ask, "What accomplishments are you most proud of?" and "What do you want your legacy to be?" As session leader Dr. Shannon Poppito puts it, "You are not dying of cancer - you are living with cancer until you pass. You can make it meaningful, even if all you can do is lie in bed."

The program has had success: many patients report it's given them strength in comparison "with traditional support groups that typically discuss issues like dealing with doctors and body image." And it "seems to lessen that white-knuckle grip on life and give(s) them a sense of peace."

I guess it helps.

But there's another way to deal with the anticipation of death that doesn't rely on support groups, psychiatric sessions, or efforts to cram meaning into your remaining days. It's the knowledge that life doesn't end when your body expires and that you - free of your physical encumbrances - will live forever. Christians don't have a "white-knuckle grip on life." They have a healthy anticipation of a peaceful afterlife.

Secular efforts to improve the end of life are laudable, but they can't erase the underlying notion that life will end in hopelessness and finality. Jesus can. The patient can take one of two paths. He can take the secular route and try to distract himself as he's hurtling toward a brick wall. Or he can take the Christian road and tranquilly roll over a speed bump into eternity.

Be a Fan