Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Today, we delve into a literary work that goes much deeper than life itself, a book that covers what it means to live. This book is “Man’s Search For Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. In today’s world we are constantly surrounded by the stories and lives of others, therefore now could be considered crucial for pausing and reflecting on the questions: "What is the meaning of life?" and, perhaps more crucially, "How do I find my own meaning in life?”.

??? Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. The autobiographical “Man's Search for Meaning”, a best-selling book, is based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps.

My ???takeaways:

When can man think more about the true meaning of life, than after being stripped away of all belongings. This is what happened in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. Even then, when man has no more than his barely alive body and a sentient mind, there is still meaning to life. This is when the young psychiatrist, despite his condition of hopelessness and misery, managed to find meaning in the suffering. As Frankl realized: “in one life there is love for one's children to tie to; in another life, a talent to be used; in a third, perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving. To weave these slender threads of a broken life into a firm pattern of meaning and responsibility is the object and challenge of logotherapy”.

Frankl highlights that the suffering in life can not be taken away, but that one must embrace that to live, is to suffer. To survive, is to find meaning in the suffering. Therefore he was very fond of a quote by Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”. Instead of thinking about the life he left behind, Frankl focused on finding meaning in every little moment, and to find meaning in the life ahead. As Frankl also states: “In spite of all the enforced physical and mental primitiveness of the life in a concentration camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen. Sensitive people who were used to a rich intellectual life may have suffered much pain (they were often of a delicate constitution), but the damage to their inner selves was less. They were able to retreat from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom.”.

Frankl also opposes to the general thought of life being a single path, that man must do everything to achieve a certain goal or task. Frankl mentions that the meaning of life is ever-changing, one must consider what is important to them at every moment. There is no single meaning. Also, according to logotherapy: “Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives.”. As often stated in the past, it seemed as if an individual has little influence on their will to meaning. However Frankl believes, as from his experiences and unbelievable suffering in the camps, that meaning in life can be found from within.

Even today the concepts of logotherapy are of great importance. The current existential vacuum has never been stronger, “Due to a twofold loss which man has had to undergo since he became a truly human being. At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animal instincts in which an animal's behavior is imbedded and by which it is secured. Such security, like Paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. In addition to this, however, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development inasmuch as the traditions which buttressed his behavior are now rapidly diminishing. No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism)”. Therefore it is to be stressed that one must question meaning in life, and that meaning comes from within. Even when no instinct or tradition tells you what it is.

“According to logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.”.

?? “Proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”. - Viktor Frankl

Many parts were quoted as there is no better way of describing the concepts, than by the words themselves. There are more concepts covered and the story can only be fully comprehended when reading it in full. Therefore I hope that this short piece has inspired you to pick up the book yourself and find meaning in your life, or to find meaning in the suffering.