Some people work harder to sort out their problems. They rise to the challenge, and deal with everything that stands in their way. But there is another approach that the majority of people use as a coping mechanism, a German word: schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude involves thinking about all the misfortune that one has witnessed others go through, directly or indirectly. You could be thinking about the man you saw begging on the street corner, or the friend who just got put through the ringer in a messy divorce. Many times, newspapers play right into the complex by running stories on people who have had their lives ruined in some horrible manner. When anything happens involving a celebrity, the tabloids rush out to print the worst possible hearsay and lies. You learn to feel better about yourself because there are those who are suffering far more deeply than you.

Even noted concentration camp survivor Victor Frankl managed to take pleasure from the suffering of his fellow inmates on occasion when he wa

You know who you are. Most people who insult others to build themselves up don't live in concentration camps or have terminal diseases. You aren't harassed and persecuted on a daily basis by secret police. You are just losers in life: the guy who never gets the girl; the woman who is unsatisfied with her crappy job; the sibling who was always put down as a child by his/her parents.

Instead of working towards a better career, relationship or taking up an activity that builds up your self esteem, you sit back and take every opportunity to laugh it up when something goes wrong for someone else. You don't have the guts to step inside a boxing ring, but when Vitali Klitschko has have his face cut up by Lennox Lewis, you lap it up. Vitali isn't brave for enduring six rounds of punishment and winning on the judges scorecards by delivering more punches to Lewis so much as he's an object of ridicule.

Some topics in this essay:
Third World, Lennox Lewis, , Temporarily Frankl, Victor Frankl, pleasure suffering, Vitali Klitschko, coping mechanism, gain acceptance, suffering fellow,