Man's Search for Meaning

My brother Alan, while participating in a book club, read "Man's Search for Meaning" by psychiatrist Victor E. Frankl and sent me a copy which I just finished reading. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different Nazi concentration camps, including Aushcwitz. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. A 1991 Library of Congress/Book-of-the-Month-Club survey asking readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.

I really enjoyed reading this book as I was able to draw many parallels from it to my own experiences. Although the level of my own physical suffering is nowhere near that which was experienced in a concentration camp, I find that I can relate very well to much of the mental and emotional state of those that experienced the camps.

The book is basically divided into two halves. The first half deals with Frankl's experiences in the death camps. This was the more interesting of the two to read and from it I have taken several excellent quotes out to share. The second half is a brief explanation of this angle towards psychiatric therapy known as logo-therapy, from the Greek word "logos" which means "meaning". Although the first section was a more engrossing read, I still felt the second section worth a quick read if not an in depth study. I suppose the second section would hold more interest for those who are interested in psychology.

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[...] there are moments when indignation can rouse even a seemingly hardened prisoner -- indignation not about cruelty or pain, but about the insult connected with it. [...] I had to listen to a man judge my life who had so little idea of it.

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I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. [...] I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him.

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The religious interest of the prisoners, as far and as soon as it developed, was the most sincere imaginable. The depth and vigor of religious belief often surprised and moved a new arrival. [...] 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.

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The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way -- an honorable way -- in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.

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It is well known that an enforced community life, in which attention is paid to everything one does at all times, may result in an irresistible urge to get away, at least for a short while. The prisoner craved to be alone with himself and his thoughts. He yearned for privacy and for solitude.

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The story of Death in Teheran.

A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse. On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, "Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?" "I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran," said Death.

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The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient 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.

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Dosteoevski said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings."

If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity -- even under the most difficult circumstances -- to add a deeper meaning to his life. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.

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This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. "I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard," she told me. "In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously."

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There was plenty of suffering for us to get through. Therefore, it was necessary to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.

I hope you all can find some meaning in at least a few of these passages. Some of you may have even read this book at some point in your lives. Thank you Alan for sending it to me.