Frankl Human Freedom

Flags burning under raining bombs, gunshots echoing through a field of raining terror, while hiding underground for the day where humanity can roam free again; situations as so aren’t exactly what people imagine when thinking about one’s future. Every death was honored by those who lived; lives lost during wars of any kind are unlike lives lost in our country today, not for the value of those once living are greater than another, but from how much those lives mean to this day. Establishment and preservation of freedom wasn’t easy and will never be easy; many people served until their last breath, for the freedoms of our lives today. That is why we must continue to grasp for freedom, and to establish and preserve our freedom most effectively we must have the heart to be free, and have united dedication to freedom itself.

Viktor Frankl’s thesis found in Man’s Search for Meaning is repeated multiple times, in different ways throughout his book. On page 111 he states, “According to logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering” (Frankl). This is not saying that all of those qualities have to be present to find one’s meaning though especially suffering. The only way to find the meaning of life is by answering your own call for life, not what others value as meaning. Each meaning

Dr. Frankl also explains his theory on neurosis and how it is tied to the meaning of life. Frankl differs from the ideas of Freud. Freud believed that the basis of neurosis is in unconscious motives. Frankl believes that the basis for neurosis is man's search for his own meaning. Furthermore he explains that ones own meaning is constantly changing; therefor, the means for our suffering is constantly changing. Frankl explains, "What matters, therefor, is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment." Frankl describes we discover our specific meaning at a given moment. "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by doing a deed; (2) by

We are meant to become our truest selves by finding meaning in our lives, which, according to Frankl, can come from three places: work, love, and our attitude in the face of horrific suffering or difficulty. And at the center of this meaning is our responsibility and human right to choose. In Frankl’s theory, we all strive to fulfill a self-chosen goal, from which meaning has the potential to be found. And if no meaning is found, there is meaning yet to be found, or meaning to be drawn from the apparent lack of meaning. Whatever the case, Frankl viewed man’s lack of meaning as the greatest existential crisis, the stress of this meaninglessness giving life and shape to all of our neuroses.

After being cooped up in squalor and surrounded by torture for four years, the prisoners couldn’t grasp the concept of their own freedom: “Its reality did not penetrate into our consciousness; we could not grasp the fact that freedom was ours” (88). They had looked forward to it so much that when it came it was almost like an anti-climax. The freed prisoners also had a strong desire for retribution: “They became instigators, not objects, of willful force and injustice. They justified their behavior by their own terrible experiences” (90). Frankl went onto refute this by saying, “that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them” (91). Moreover, the prisoners had kept positive in the camps by thinking that they will see their loved ones upon release. Sadly, for many they found that “the person who should open the door was not there, and would never be there again” (92). To these people Frankl imposed the idea that even suffering has a meaning in life; that it is the individual’s responsibility to overcome it and keep fighting on until their last breath. Ultimately, “there is nothing he need fear anymore-except his God” (93).

Through Frankl's view of suicide you can discover his view of human person. Suicide is wrong in all cases, and should not be even considered an option. He believes that all people can find some meaning in life which would prevent them from giving up all hope and ending their lives. Every human life has meaning, and therefore every human life has value. While in a concentration camp serving as a doctor to those who were ill with typhus or other diseases, he encountered two individuals who had given up hope on life. He asked them both to think of something worth living for. One answered that he had a son waiting for him at home, and the other said he was writing a book and wanted to finish it. Frankl helped them find meaning in their lives to hold on to some hope. Just as they did, anyone can find a meaning to live for, whether it be another person or a goal or achievement.

In Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning we are told a powerful story of a man’s survival through the Holocaust. Frankl struggles to not only keep his body alive, but his spirit as well. Frankl’s main goal is to not only come out alive from the Holocaust but to not let it change him and ultimately defeat or take over his life and change who he truly is. He knows the only way to stay alive is to find some sort of meaning in his life. As we watch him fight to survive during his stay in concentration camps we begin to realize that the only way he is surviving is because he hasn’t forgotten who he still is and the identity that the Nazi’s were trying to take from him. He keeps his personal identity, goals, and morals in mind while

Our freedom is limited because we mistakenly misunderstood what the right to be free meant. Thomas Jefferson’s, “The Declaration of Independence,” argues in his 1776 draft that if the government goes against what people want, they have a right to rebel and form a new type of government. As well as, if there is an unbalanced amount of respect, we the people are turned down the right to a full voice and the activation of our rights. With that being said, he expressed American Freedom around what we were willing to risk for a change and what we would allow come between our wants and needs. Naomi Wolf’s, “Freedom is intended as a challenge,” explains The

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl reveals how one should look externally to suffering and actively look towards the future to find meaning in life. Doing so in the face of suffering causes one to maintain a tolerant outlook on life and derive a rich and meaningful life. In the concentration camps, seemingly everything can be taken away from you: family, possessions, dignity, etc., but the one thing that Frankl highlights that you still have control over is your attitude towards life. For the prisoners who did not see a purpose in their suffering, they lost all meaning in life and eventually died. In not having a purpose to keep fighting for life, these men simply gave up and succumbed to death: “with his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became

    A country singer named Randy Travis once sang in “Three Wooden Crosses”,  “It’s not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it’s what you leave behind you when you go.” This verse gives meaning to my life and defines what I will do when I am gone. A man by the name of Viktor Frankl writes the book, Man’s Search for Meaning. In this novel, Frankl is at one of the dreadful concentration camps during the Holocaust, trying to search for his meaning of life. What gives one meaning to his or her life? One might think they have no purpose in this world however, that is not true. He or she must find the people or concepts that make them happy or give significance to their lives. The meaning of one’s life can be interpreted

It is said that all life does indeed involve suffering but it is what we make of this suffering that will determine whether or not we find meaning in our life. One must look within and around himself to create meaning in her life; one can finding meaning by creating works or doing deeds, experiencing things or encountering people, and choosing one’s attitude towards the suffering in her life. There will always be obstacles in the way to meaning—the tragic triad of pain, guilt, and death—but one must use this to fuel your drive to find meaning by maintaining tragic optimism—faith, love, and hope. Many people lead difficult lives, however,

Reviewing Viktor Frankl’s novel “Man’s Search for Meaning,” John Hick’s “Soul-making Theodicy,” and Abraham Heschel’s writings on “Solidarity, Reciprocity, and Sanctity,” I will make a point of extracting core arguments that exhibit the purpose of human nature. Within the three texts there are comparable contexts and relevance to suffering; suffering being an central idea from each of the writers. Throughout the readings, there are large portions of text that consist of ideas that each writer has discussed, though each context differently written and shared. To further identify the subject of each text and to understand what it means of human nature to suffer, find spirituality, and

Man’s Search for Meaning, is a biography and the personal memoir of Victor Frankl’s experience in a Nazi Concentration Camp. The book was initially published in 1946 in German and was then published in 1959 in English, under the title From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Prior to World War II, Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist working in Vienna and then later was responsible for running the neurology department at a Jewish Hospital in Rothschild. In 1942 he and his family were arrested and deported. They were separated and sent to concentration

Man’s search for meaning is written from Dr. Viktor E. Frankl’s point of view, the book tells of Dr. Frankl’s experiences while being held captive in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Frankl writes about the three psychological reactions which the inmates of the camp experienced which includes the period following admission to the camps, the period of entrenchment, and the period after being released from the camp. Dr. Frankl has multiple points he is trying to prove in the book, one is when he ultimately comes up with the idea that “To live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.”, which means as long as you living you will suffer and in order for you to survive those sufferings, you will need to find the meaning

The premise of Frankl’s book is that mankind’s desire for meaning is much stronger than its desire for power or pleasure and that if man can find meaning in life he can survive anything. Frankl introduces this idea [which he calls the theory of logotherapy] throughout his concentration camp experiences in the book’s first section and delves deeper into it in the second section. Referencing Nietzsche, Frankl tells us “Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'” (p. 80). The most important thing to be learned from this statement is that no matter what your circumstances are, you can be happy, or at least survive, if you find a meaning or purpose in life. While in the concentration camp Frankl tells us that in order to maintain his desire to have a meaningful life he focused on three main things: suffering, work, and love. Of sacrifice