This is my reflection on Man’s Search For Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl.
“There is only one thing that I dread; not to be worthy of my sufferings.” -Dostoevsky
Man’s Search For Meaning.
The title is simple; straightforward. There is a refreshing sense of sincerity and honesty that runs throughout the pages of this incredibly moving memoir. Published in 1946, Viktor Frankl chronicled his time as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps and the therapeutic methods that he used to motivate himself and others to psychologically survive through the holocaust.
I have to admit I’ve always found it difficult to fully read or watch media relating to the Holocaust. I’ve always had difficulty reading books or watching films on historical tragedies of any kind, so I was quite hesitant on starting this one, but, after dwelling in Frankl’s words for the past week, I’m extremely glad I did. I finished the book overwhelmed by the magnanimity of the atrocities of this time, but also surprisingly inspired. This book is many things: it’s a powerful historical narrative and testimony of the experiences by Holocaust survivors, it’s a testament to the most inhuman of depravities and the most inspiring moments of human courage, it’s an introductory psychological text to the fascinating field of logotherapy, but most of all, it’s an analysis and diagnosis of the most depressingly recurrent aspect of humanity: human suffering. More than that, it demonstrates that although we sometimes can’t control our surroundings, we can choose how to cope with it and find meaning in it.
Viktor Frankl demonstrated, in the most meaningless of settings, that life isn’t primarily a quest for pleasure, as Sigmund Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler believed, but that life is a quest for meaning. If there’s meaning in life, and suffering is part of life, then there must be meaning in suffering. Finding that meaning in suffering, Viktor Frankl held, was the way to spiritually and psychologically cope with any suffering one might confront in life. This philosophy, summed quite accurately by Nietzsche, is this: “He who has a
This book is extremely helpful to anyone who suffers, and by that definition, it is relevant to everyone. Twelve million copies sold is a testament, I believe, to the universality of that struggle. But even more than an experience of a powerfully insightful book, I think I’ve acquired another influential and personal role model. This book is, I believe, one that I’ll return too in future times of need.
I’ll finish off with the ending section of the afterword of this book. It’s a small anecdote, but a powerful testimony to the kind of person Viktor Frankl was:
“Frankl was once asked to express in one sentence the meaning of his own life. He wrote the response on paper and asked his students to guess what he had written. After some moments of quiet reflection, a student surprised Frankl by saying, “The meaning of your life is to help others find the meaning of theirs.”
That was it, exactly,” Frankl said. “Those are the very words I had written.”