Man's search for meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

Not 100% sure what I was expecting to learn from this book, but the guy survived the Nazi camp and developed a perspective around how to answer the question - what the hell am i supposed to do with my life (pg version: why am I here, or what is the meaning of my life), so figured it was worth a read.

The 1 paragraph version. The prisoners of the Nazi camps went through 3 phases / perspectives changes around life: (1) Post-admission = Shock/Horror; (2) Camp Routing = Apathy; (3) Post-release = Bitterness/Disillusionment. Frankl believed that the body follows the mind, and so those who lost a ‘meaning’ in their life eventually died. Frankl survived some of the worst imaginable human circumstances by reversing the question. He believed life was asking him every hour and every day what the meaning of his life was. And he had to respond, thus finding meaning in the most basic or ‘unpleasant’ of tasks.

4 themes seem go throughout his book:

1. Suffering
2. Choice
3. The Meaning of Life
4. Looking to the future

1. Suffering: Man cannot avoid suffering. But we give suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it.

If suffering is inevitable, then the positives are:

(1) the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond one’s self (not 100% sure what he means, but I understand that at some point you give up and you trust in a higher power);

(2) the discovery of a truth in fear - namely that fear brings about that which one is afraid of (with its corollary that hyper-intention makes impossible what one wishes); and

(3) the interesting perspective that one will always suffer - and that the suffering will completely fill the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. So f’it, suffer in peace and accept it’s a part of life.

1. Choice: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: choosing one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

So how to remember that you do always have a choice:

1. Remember how small you are relative to the universe - No one actually cares about you. Prisoners’ reactions to the singular world of the concentration camp prove that man can escape the influences of his surrounding.
2. Every hour you have a choice to make - Each moment in life offers the opportunity to make a decision as to whether fears or other people can rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.

1. The Meaning of Life: It does not matter what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us.

We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who are being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct.

Life ultimately means taking the responsibilities to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. What matters, therefore is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.

His conviction is that human drive and quest is not towards pleasure (Freud) or towards power (Adler), but towards what we find meaningful. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times.

1. Living for the future: It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future.

Frankl ultimately believed that he got himself through the camps through believing he had meaning and a future. He began seeing his situation from an objective standpoint, visualizing himself in the future talking about them.

“Suddenly I saw myself standing on the platform of a well-lit, warm and pleasant lecture room. In front of me sat an attentive audience on comfortable upholstered seats. I was giving a lecture on the psychology of the concentration camp! All that oppressed me at that moment became objective, seen and described from the remote viewpoint of science. By this method I succeeded in rising above the situation, above the sufferings of the moment, and I observed them as if they were already of the past.”

Finally an interesting position on success that he shares in his updated version of the book, post a variety of questions from audiences all around the world, that success cannot be pursued, but instead is a result of dedication to causes other than one’s self. In his words:  “Don’t aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.”