, beatings, dehumanization, deprivation, and death. Being subjected to such conditions, combined with the prisoner's awareness of the camps gas chambers, crematoriums and ongoing massacres, it's not surprising that Frankl identified the symptom of the prisoner's mental reaction to this phase as "shock". In addition, the prisoners also developed a grim sense of humor and curiosity, both of which served as forms of self-defense mechanisms that somewhat allowed them to detach themselves from all that was happening around them. Hopelessness abounded and as a result suicide came to the minds of many as a way to circumvent the suffering and torment. Frankl noted that the prisoners were thrust into an "abnormal state of mind", but also acknowledged that based upon their circumstances it was a very normal mental reaction.
             Frankl went on to observe that within a few days to a few weeks of being submersed in "camp life" that the prisoners developed a symptom characteristic of the second phase of the prisoner's mental reaction ---- that of "relative apathy". This phase, in my opinion, deserves special attention because not only was it the most disheartening and perhaps the longest of the thr
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