I read this book called "Man's search for meaning" by Dr Viktor Frankl recently, again, as I had read it a few years ago also. This is one book which I can read again and again, and still looks new! It is written in an autobiographical style by psychiatrist, Dr Viktor Frankl. He discusses many specific examples from his imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp in 1943, along with his professional knowledge to offer a method for discovering personal fulfillment and a sense of meaning in life.
This book helps us in providing perspective and techniques to use to find meaning in our lives. Dr Frankl tells the story of his and others' suffering in order to provide a first hand account of the thoughts and behaviors a person goes through when confronted with such misery. Below I have taken some excerpts from his book to substantiate what he means by this.
In the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Dr Frankl watched and witnessed some of his comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on his decisions but not on conditions. He says, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand towards conditions. Man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable to an unexpected extent.
Some psychoanalysts say that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. Such a view of man makes a neurotic believe what he is prone to believe anyway, namely, that he is the pawn and victim of outer influences or inner circumstances.
Dr Frankl proposed logotherapy (logos means 'meaning' in life). Logotherapy regards responsibility as the essence of existence, meaning that a person needs to determine his or her own meaning of life by answering this question in terms of individual wants and needs. Essential concepts to Logotherapy are "hyper-intention" and "hyper-reflection." Hyper-intention is the idea that trying to force something will make it impossible to achieve, and hyper-reflection is the idea that too much focus on a particular thought or behavior will lead to unhealthy outcomes. Logotherapy bases its therapeutic technique on the notion of "paradoxical intention," which is a method of focusing on unwanted circumstances as a means of utilizing hyper-intention and hyper-reflection to produce one's actual objectives.
Through an examination of logotherapy, Dr Frankl contrasts its approach with traditional psychoanalysis and emphasizes it is the only form of therapy that can help people with their search for meaning. The meaning of life can be discovered in three ways. First, one can perform a deed. Second, one can experience something or encounter someone. Or thirdly, one can demonstrate a certain attitude toward suffering. Concepts of existential frustration, noogenic neuroses, and life's transitoriness are addressed in terms of their relative impact on a person's search for and perception of meaning.
His view on pan-determinism says that man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. Pan-determinism means the view of man which disregards his capacity to take a stand toward any conditions whatsoever. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant, or is capable of changing the world for the better if necessary. Freedom however is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon where positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.
This book helps us in providing perspective and techniques to use to find meaning in our lives. Dr Frankl tells the story of his and others' suffering in order to provide a first hand account of the thoughts and behaviors a person goes through when confronted with such misery. Below I have taken some excerpts from his book to substantiate what he means by this.
In the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Dr Frankl watched and witnessed some of his comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on his decisions but not on conditions. He says, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand towards conditions. Man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable to an unexpected extent.
Some psychoanalysts say that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. Such a view of man makes a neurotic believe what he is prone to believe anyway, namely, that he is the pawn and victim of outer influences or inner circumstances.
Dr Frankl proposed logotherapy (logos means 'meaning' in life). Logotherapy regards responsibility as the essence of existence, meaning that a person needs to determine his or her own meaning of life by answering this question in terms of individual wants and needs. Essential concepts to Logotherapy are "hyper-intention" and "hyper-reflection." Hyper-intention is the idea that trying to force something will make it impossible to achieve, and hyper-reflection is the idea that too much focus on a particular thought or behavior will lead to unhealthy outcomes. Logotherapy bases its therapeutic technique on the notion of "paradoxical intention," which is a method of focusing on unwanted circumstances as a means of utilizing hyper-intention and hyper-reflection to produce one's actual objectives.
Through an examination of logotherapy, Dr Frankl contrasts its approach with traditional psychoanalysis and emphasizes it is the only form of therapy that can help people with their search for meaning. The meaning of life can be discovered in three ways. First, one can perform a deed. Second, one can experience something or encounter someone. Or thirdly, one can demonstrate a certain attitude toward suffering. Concepts of existential frustration, noogenic neuroses, and life's transitoriness are addressed in terms of their relative impact on a person's search for and perception of meaning.
His view on pan-determinism says that man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. Pan-determinism means the view of man which disregards his capacity to take a stand toward any conditions whatsoever. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant, or is capable of changing the world for the better if necessary. Freedom however is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon where positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.
Tragic optimism demonstrates the defiant power of the human spirit. Meaning in life is available in spite of suffering, provided that the suffering is unavoidable. If the suffering is avoidable, the meaningful thing to do is to remove its cause. Alternatively if one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude. The priority stays with creatively changing the situation that causes us to suffer. But the superiority goes to the "know-how to suffer", if need be. Empirical evidence has shown that those held in highest esteem by most of the people are neither the great artists, great scientists, neither the great statesmen nor the great sports figures, but those who master a hard lot with their heads held high.
A tragic optimism means that one is, and remains, optimistic in spite of the "tragic triad", as it is called in logotherapy. A triad consists of those aspects of human existence which may be circumscribed by : (1) pain, (2) guilt, and (3) death. How is it possible to say yes to life in spite of all that?
After all, "saying yes to life in spite of everything", presupposes that life is potentially meaningful under any conditions, even those which are most miserable. And this in turn presupposes the human capacity to creatively turn life's negative aspects into something positive or constructive. In other words, what matters is to make the best of any given situation. "The best", however, is that which in Latin is called optimum. Tragic optimism best allows for --(1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment; (2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and (3) deriving from life's transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action. It must be kept in mind, however, that optimism is not anything to be commanded or ordered. One cannot even force oneself to be optimistic indiscriminately, against all odds, against all hope.
It is a characteristic of our culture that one is commanded, and ordered to "be happy". But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to "be happy". Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically.As we see, a human being is not in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, through actualising the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.
This need for a reason is similar in another specifically human phenomenon-- laughter. If you want anyone to laugh you have to provide him with a reason, e.g., tell him a joke. In no way is it possible to evoke real laughter by urging him, or having him urge himself, to laugh. Once an individual's search for a meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capacity to cope with suffering.
One universal phenomenon in our industrialized societies is the feeling of meaningfulness resulting from a frustration of our existential needs. In oversimplification, it means that people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning. Meaninglessness is not a sign of pathology, but proof of one's humanness. But although it is not caused by anything pathological, it may well cause a pathological reaction. Just consider the mass neurotic syndrome so pervasive in the younger generation-- there is empirical evidence that the 3 facets of this syndrome-- depression, aggression, addiction -- are due to what is called in logotherapy-- "the existential vacuum", a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness.
What is meaning? The logotherapist is concerned with the potential meaning inherent and dormant in all the single situations one has to face throughout his or her life. Meaning in plain words is becoming aware of what can be done about a given situation. And how does a human being go about finding meaning? As logotherapy teaches, there are 3 main avenues on which one arrives at meaning in life:
(1) By creating a work or by doing some deed.
(2) By experiencing something or encountering someone (e.g., in love). Experiencing can be as valuable as achieving because it compensates for one -sided emphasis on the external world of achievement at the expense of the internal world of experience.
(3) Most important however, is the third avenue to meaning in life: even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, and by so doing change himself. He may turn a personal tragedy into a triumph.
Logotherapy may help counteract certain unhealthy trends in today's culture, where the incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading, so that "he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy".
Dr Frankl says--" Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now."
As a prisoner in concentration camp from September 1942, for 3 years, he was suddenly forced to assess whether his own life still had any meaning. His survival was a combined result of his will to live, his instinct for self-preservation, some generous acts of human decency, and shrewdness, and of course, blind luck. However, something more was needed to overcome the deprivations and degradation of the camp. Dr Frankl drew constantly upon uniquely human capacities such as inborn optimism, humour, psychological detachment, brief moments of solitude, inner freedom, and a steely resolve not to give up or commit suicide. He realized that, no matter what happened, he retained the freedom to choose how to respond to his suffering. He saw this not merely as an option but as his and every person's responsibility to choose "the way in which he bears his burden."
A tragic optimism means that one is, and remains, optimistic in spite of the "tragic triad", as it is called in logotherapy. A triad consists of those aspects of human existence which may be circumscribed by : (1) pain, (2) guilt, and (3) death. How is it possible to say yes to life in spite of all that?
After all, "saying yes to life in spite of everything", presupposes that life is potentially meaningful under any conditions, even those which are most miserable. And this in turn presupposes the human capacity to creatively turn life's negative aspects into something positive or constructive. In other words, what matters is to make the best of any given situation. "The best", however, is that which in Latin is called optimum. Tragic optimism best allows for --(1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment; (2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and (3) deriving from life's transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action. It must be kept in mind, however, that optimism is not anything to be commanded or ordered. One cannot even force oneself to be optimistic indiscriminately, against all odds, against all hope.
It is a characteristic of our culture that one is commanded, and ordered to "be happy". But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to "be happy". Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically.As we see, a human being is not in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, through actualising the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.
This need for a reason is similar in another specifically human phenomenon-- laughter. If you want anyone to laugh you have to provide him with a reason, e.g., tell him a joke. In no way is it possible to evoke real laughter by urging him, or having him urge himself, to laugh. Once an individual's search for a meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capacity to cope with suffering.
One universal phenomenon in our industrialized societies is the feeling of meaningfulness resulting from a frustration of our existential needs. In oversimplification, it means that people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning. Meaninglessness is not a sign of pathology, but proof of one's humanness. But although it is not caused by anything pathological, it may well cause a pathological reaction. Just consider the mass neurotic syndrome so pervasive in the younger generation-- there is empirical evidence that the 3 facets of this syndrome-- depression, aggression, addiction -- are due to what is called in logotherapy-- "the existential vacuum", a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness.
What is meaning? The logotherapist is concerned with the potential meaning inherent and dormant in all the single situations one has to face throughout his or her life. Meaning in plain words is becoming aware of what can be done about a given situation. And how does a human being go about finding meaning? As logotherapy teaches, there are 3 main avenues on which one arrives at meaning in life:
(1) By creating a work or by doing some deed.
(2) By experiencing something or encountering someone (e.g., in love). Experiencing can be as valuable as achieving because it compensates for one -sided emphasis on the external world of achievement at the expense of the internal world of experience.
(3) Most important however, is the third avenue to meaning in life: even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, and by so doing change himself. He may turn a personal tragedy into a triumph.
Logotherapy may help counteract certain unhealthy trends in today's culture, where the incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading, so that "he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy".
Dr Frankl says--" Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now."
As a prisoner in concentration camp from September 1942, for 3 years, he was suddenly forced to assess whether his own life still had any meaning. His survival was a combined result of his will to live, his instinct for self-preservation, some generous acts of human decency, and shrewdness, and of course, blind luck. However, something more was needed to overcome the deprivations and degradation of the camp. Dr Frankl drew constantly upon uniquely human capacities such as inborn optimism, humour, psychological detachment, brief moments of solitude, inner freedom, and a steely resolve not to give up or commit suicide. He realized that, no matter what happened, he retained the freedom to choose how to respond to his suffering. He saw this not merely as an option but as his and every person's responsibility to choose "the way in which he bears his burden."
