Man’s Search for Meaning is the inspiring story of Viktor Frankl’s struggle to hold on to hope during his three years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps.
This book focuses on survival and finding meaning in the most unusual places, even in a life-threatening environment.
His assertion that “the will to find meaning” is the primary motivation for our existence has forever changed how we think about ourselves. Humanity in the face of suffering.
His book “Man’s Search for Meaning” was initially published under a different title in 1959: “From Death Camp to Existentialism.”
The Will To Meaning
Frankl found three ways to find meaning in life throughout his three-year imprisonment: through work, love, or suffering. He called this concept the Will to Meaning.
The search for meaning is the primary motivation in life, not a secondary rationalization of instinctual impulses.
- Have you thought about the real meaning of life?
- How can we learn to be strong in a difficult situation?
Here Victor is not sharing History and World War -II but shares what he learned and experienced in the Nazi concentration camp and their difficult situation. And what is essential in your life.
Think of it as if you are talking to your friend who is experiencing a great deal of pain and wants to share many vital talks that happened to him.
- If there was such a terrible situation in the camp, how did people make themselves so strong, and how did they find a way to continue?
Victor discusses his experience in an ordinary prison. He describes his experiences as a holocaust survivor and how they shaped his understanding of meaning.
He faced a turning point when he became a doctor during World War II. In September 1942, a young psychiatrist found himself as part of the Nazi concentration camp with some other people.
Here, he was just a number 119,104 who dug and laid tracks for railway lines. Once, his job was to dig a tunnel without any help.
He tells about the other prisoners who are living with him and how struggling life they were facing.
Some hopeful people survive in camps. They find meaning in pain. The rest of the prisoners’ situation was worse. There is a difference in mentality between survivors and non-survivors.
After the war, Frankl not only reserved his experience, but he also made it a mission. He invented logotherapy, which finds meaning in human life.
Beyond Survival
His life was a burden in these camps, which was less of humanity. Imagine a life where we have to battle for existence every day.
Where he had to face physical and mental torture, people were mistreated in these camps, and they continuously faced the fear of hunger and desire.
Many families were destroyed, and instead of simple happiness, people were struggling for survival. Frankl and other people not only bear physical pain, but it’s about the psychological war.
Nazis not only rob them of their freedom but also crush their willpower. In this darkness, he finds something extraordinary.
He sees that people with goals find solutions to pain; they have more possibilities to survive. They imagine their family and friends meeting again, the same as Viktor, as he thinks of meeting his beloved wife.
He imagines sitting with his wife and talking a lot. She was separated from him during the World War, and Viktor hopes to meet her again.
Viktor says that living is not about life; it is about physical, mental, and emotional strength.
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Logotherapy
Viktor finds a way (Logotherapy) to solve problems when he lives with them at Nazi concentration camps.
Logotherapy works in people’s lives in every aspect, helping them find meaning in difficult situations. Logos is a Greek word that denotes “meaning.”
What is Logotherapy? Or What is your goal in life?
Both answers are linked. When we have goals, we have meaning in our lives. For example, when someone becomes a parent, he or she has new responsibilities and new challenges.
They both live in the present moment and think about the future of their child’s life. They then live only in the present and future.
It is the same as logotherapy, which is based on the present and future. Viktor says finding a purpose in life is humans’ first inspiration.
Goals give you the strength to live and find meaning in life.
Every person’s life aim is different, which only he /she can fulfill. After that, he can find his life meaningful.
Life’s meaning differs from man to man, day to day, and hour to hour.
However, some authors say this is a way to avoid life’s mishaps. Viktor’s perspective is quite different.
Viktor believes that people can take risks with their morals and ideas. It can also be related to responsibility, love, and care.
He says that the France Survey shows that 89 percent of people have goals to live fulfilling lives, whereas 61 percent have something in their lives for which they can give their lives.
However, when the author repeats this survey in Vienna Hospital, the results are the same, although sometimes people can be demotivated.
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What Is the Significance of Our Existence?
Existence-related demotivation can be of many types, and this causes psychopathy. Logotherapy decreases hopelessness and encourages new ways of life.
Viktor gives an example related to this. Once, an American officer visited his Vienna hospital.
The officer had been receiving treatment for the past five years, and when Viktor asked him the reason, he replied that he was not satisfied with his job.
He was trying to adjust to the American foreign policies. His psychologist (doctor) told him to behave well with his father, and his primary cause of not settling in his job was his father and his quarrels.
When patients had many appointments with Viktor, he found he was not a patient.
He was looking for some other work and wanted to find something different in his job. Sometimes, frustration overcomes humans, but we have to overcome it.
This therapy helps people find a real identity and share their hidden desires and thoughts, which reflect human desires.
Sometimes, this happens to a person; instead of calmness and balance for a time, he faces disbalance. Restlessness and stress are a part of mental health.
As discussed in Part 1, if a person has a goal in life, he can survive in difficult situations.
In Nazi concentration camps, the people who survived were those Who are hopeful about their future and who were aware that a crucial task was awaiting them.
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The Origin Of Man’s Search For A Meaning
When Viktor was taken as a prisoner at Auschwitz, the book’s manuscript was ready. He desires to write this book manuscript and meet her wife again, which keeps him going until the end.
He was constantly thinking about reuniting with his wife.
The author shared an instance when he went to prison. His clothes were taken from him, along with the book manuscript that was inside it.
Instead of his clothes, he was given torn and dirty clothes. He took a page from Hebbaru’s Prayer Book from his clothes pocket by chance.
This incident replaced the pain experienced by writers who had lost their manuscripts because of this incident.
It motivates Viktor to write and gives the inspiration to live a life in such difficult situations.
Viktor says that now people meet psychiatrists with simple and day-to-day life problems. They don’t know what to do in life.
He shares an example of a lady who lost his younger son. In the pain of her younger son’s death, she tried to comment suicide with her handicapped son.
When that woman was attempting suicide, his son stopped her. When the life of his second son has meaning, why not for her?
Viktor helped and counseled her, saying, “When you become 80 years old and turn back, what will you see or feel?”
She said, “I feel my life to be very fulfilled.” I will grow and teach my son, and may I have many achievements.”
She answers herself about what she has to do in the future. Despite her bad past, she can’t destroy her and her other son’s future.
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Learning From The Man’s Search For Meaning
- A man decides what he has to do in a difficult situation; he has to bend down and want to overcome it.
- A human being has the power to change his mindset at any moment.
- He can choose how to live his next few hours and days.
- We can conclude that human behavior and tendencies are unpredictable.
- Although we can assume his behavior with his nearby surroundings and people.
- The principal significance of human behavior is that people can navigate difficult situations.
- Humans have the power to change the world as well, and they can change themselves.
- How humans behave depends on a person’s behavior. In prison, some people live like saints, and few have a toxic nature.
- Humans are not dependent on others to identify themselves. They find their meaning in life themselves and can act accordingly.
- One person can be dangerous to me, but he can also be very kind to others. The author changes his behavior and emotionally takes care of another person.
- Freedom is not the last hope in human life but a way to fulfill one’s responsibilities.
- Being responsible is a good thing, but being free is also wrong.
Viktor says there are three situations where people choose negativity instead of positivity.
- Pain
- Guilt
- Death
But people get scared in this situation. By following three steps, people can get rid of situations.
- Change your pain into an accomplishment.
- When people feel guilty, they can turn their mistakes into an opportunity to take ownership.
- When someone bears the pain of their loved ones in death, they can learn from life’s uncertainties and find meaning in life.
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Beyond Short-Term Happiness: Finding Lasting Peace
Even though no one can force themselves to be positive, it isn’t easy to always be positive.
But by practicing and changing your behavior, you can see the object and situation positively. We can reduce the impact of negative emotions.
It’s a self-reliant practice that no one else can’t do. When humans try to find happiness outside, they get only unhappiness.
Now, people want to find short-term happiness instead of long-term peace and love, which are, in fact, essential for living a happy and healthy life.
Youngsters take drugs and alcohol to find short-term happiness. They want to feel happy while drunk and forget about their troubles in life.
- Does it work? Or did the problem get solved?
No, they think, but the difficulty is still there. You have to fight with it. Running from the difficulty is not the right solution.
How much time can they spend unconsciously and escape from the situation? Although they are creating more pain for their family and friends who love and care.
Many drinkers accept that they drink to fulfill the emptiness in life.
Many younger people, when they are not getting the job, think about themselves as being useless. They replace his idleness with uselessness.
When a person is idle for a long time, he can become addicted, get trapped in bad habits, become aggressive, and get depressed.
Mostly, people who commit suicide don’t have meaning in life in most cases.
Viktor says he has met a few patients who haven’t killed themselves by suicide.
He told them every problem had a solution, but they didn’t believe him or have a positive attitude. We often feel trapped and demotivated.
To find the solution, you have to live.
Viktor says that without watching the movie’s end, the movie is meaningless, the same as human life; it is pointless if you do not live it to the fullest.
Ways to Find Meaning In Life
Viktor tells the three ways to find meaning in life:
- The first thing he needs to do is something he enjoys doing.
- The second method is one’s own experience with the other’s experience.
- Last, make them a way to achieve by winning over our pain.
Viktor Frankl’s book Man Search For Meaning provides the complete solution. It teaches us how to be strong in every situation and make our lives meaningful.