Man's Search For Meaning

Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl is a psychiatrist (or maybe psychologist – he’s some kind of doctor, I can’t remember) who was a prisoner in the concentration camps during WWII. The first half of his book is a scientific analysis of the behaviors and reactions of prisoners in the concentration camps. Obviously, he mainly draws on his own experience, but in attempting to make a scientific analysis, he tries to remove himself from the situation and observe without feeling. From his perspective, we learn how prisoners found or lost hope within a bleak setting that offered more to the prisoners than anyone outside the camp could possibly imagine. At one point, he recalls explaining a picture in the news of the concentration camps to a friend several years after the war. The picture showed men lying down, and Frankl explained that far from feeling lost and hopeless, most men in that situation would have felt relieved and thankful because their illness had qualified them for a day of rest. Personally, concentration camps are the last place I can think of in which to find hope, but Frankl explains that sometimes it is through unavoidable suffering that people find meaning in their lives.

The second half of his book is dedicated to a brief explanation of his approach to therapy. He argues for logotherapy, a practice which searches for meaning in life. Rather than assuming all people are searching for pleasure, or seeking merely to avoid suffering, logotherapy assumes people have a will to meaning (I think that is the phrase he uses). From the perspective of logotherapy, meaning can be found in one of three ways: by dedicating your life to the work you are passionate about, by finding and sharing love with another person, and by enduring unavoidable suffering. The important thing to remember is that the suffering must be unavoidable – if the source of suffering can be removed, then it should be, otherwise, as Frankl says, it is masochistic to needlessly endure suffering.

I don’t know enough of Frankl’s background to know whether he studied logotherapy before or after his experience in the concentration camp, but his book clearly shows how effective logotherapy can be. By beginning with his personal experience in the concentration camp, detached as he tries to make it for a scientific analysis, he gains the sympathy and trust of the reader (although it’s beyond me if anyone can read a story of such suffering and not be moved) before he goes into the logistics of searching for meaning. The entire book inspires hope and optimism for finding some feeling of control over our lives and that greater purpose that gives meaning to an otherwise chaotic existence. I highly recommend reading the foreword, the introduction, and the afterword because they all contribute something to the story.