Skip to content

Victor Frankl and “Between Stimulus and Response“

David Gane
David Gane
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

I've often mistakenly this statement belonged to Victor Frankl. I am not the only one. Many people have misattributed it because of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits for Highly Effective People.

It may actually have come from psychologist Rollo May’s 1963 behavioral science article “Freedom and Responsibility Re-Examined,” though the wording varies somewhat.

In Freedom and Destiny he wrote:

Freedom is the capacity to pause in the face of stimuli from many directions at once and, in this pause, to throw one’s weight toward this response rather than that one.
Blog
David Gane

David Gane Twitter

Co-writer of the Shepherd and Wolfe young adult mysteries, the internationally award-winning series, and teacher of storytelling and screenwriting.

Comments

Related Posts

Happiness and pain

When asked what they want, people often say they want happiness or pleasure. However, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman argues that people are loss-averse, meaning they are more likely to act to avert a loss than to achieve a gain. This finding means we are more likely to

Fast Fiction

Before writing the daily blog, I had been experimenting with fast fiction—fiction that was written and shared quickly. The first time was during the summer of 2021 when I wrote a new story every day for 31 days. I then tried to do it once a week for a

Mistakes happen

Yesterday's newsletter didn't go to the right group, so I had to resend it tonight. It may even come out after I'm finished with this blog post. I finished it early yesterday, did several edits, then had my wife read it before I sent it. Yet, it still failed—but