Man's Search For Meaning By Viktor E. Frankl

'He who has a why to live for can bear any how.' The words of Nietzsche begin to explain Frankl's tone throughout his book. Dr. Frankl uses his experiences in different Nazi concentration camps to explain his discovery of logotherapy. This discovery takes us back to World War II and the extreme suffering that took place in the Nazi concentration camps and outlines a detailed analysis of the prisoners psyche. An experience we gain from the first-hand memoirs of Dr. Frankl.

For example a lot of prisoners lost hope after hearing about a death of a family member or close friend. In the memoir Elie began to lose hope after he saw his father weakening. " I have nothing to say of my life during this period, it no longer mattered. After my father's death nothing could touch me more." (P. 107). This quote from the text shows that Elie really lost hope after the death of his father, and that it still affects him in his present day life. Also witnessing horrible incidents made some prisoners give up hope and even faith. One major example of this is when a small child was hung for everyone to view. " For more than half an hour he stayed there struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes." (P. 62) After this event occurred many prisoners gave up hope in ever making it out alive, and some even questioned their own religion and whether God was with them or not. However, not all events affected prisoners hope in a negative way, some reassured them with hope. For example, rumors would spread around the camps that soldiers were on their way to liberate all prisoners. These rumors gave all prisoners hope of finally going home. In conclusion, certain events affected prisoners in a negative and positive

The concentration camps from World War II are part of a painful and tragic incident that we have learned about in school for many years. And while we are taught the facts, we may not fully understand the emotional impact it had upon the humans involved. Upon reading Night by Elie Wiesel, readers are given vivid descriptions of the gruesome and tragic behaviors that the Jews were forced to endure inside he treacherous concentration camps. Among all of the cruelties that the Jews were exposed to, a very significant form of the callous behaviors was the demoralization of the prisoners. Each inmate was given a tattoo of a number, and that tattoo became their new identity within the camp. Every prisoner was presented with tattered uniforms that became

Shock, apathy, and disillusionment were three psychological stages that the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps experienced. Ironically, it took an event of such tragedy and destruction to enable us to learn more about how the human mind responds to certain situations. Frankl’s methods for remaining positive can be used by every human being to give them a meaning in their lives regardless of what predicament or mental state they are in – it is in many ways like a phoenix risen from the

In The Making of Meaning, Anne E. Berthoff presents the text Learning the Uses of Chaos that will be analyzed in the essay to understand the argument presented. The author brings about the concept of composing in writing and pays particular attention to the process of composing. While the author is concerned about the composing process and the generating and using chaos in writing, the latter has not been discussed in details. The title of the text, which is learning the Use of Chaos, has not been clearly established. Additionally, the relationship between the chaos and the process of composing is not well articulated.

I believe Frankl's strongest evidence for his view of person is his experience in the Nazi concentration camp. People

In his memoir “Night”, Elie Wiesel gives his account of events that took place during the holocaust. Historical records confirm that the holocaust was an undesirable experience for the victims who had to go through physical torture. In his memoir, Wiesel gives gruesome accounts of the different threats prisoners faced at the Nazi concentration camp. Clearly, the psychological threats seemed to wear the prisoners down more than the physical ones, nevertheless, the prisoners adopted physical unresponsiveness and emotional numbness to protect themselves from both threats, however, Wiesel carefully selected the two execution scenes to strengthen the pathos of his memoir, and to show that sometimes even emotional numbness fails to shield one from

Elie Wiesel’s short memoir Night recounts his experience surviving the concentration camps during the Holocaust. In the third chapter of the book, he focuses on describing what it was like to arrive at the first concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the process the men had to go through to transform from men into prisoners. In addition to lying about his age and occupation, Wiesel lost his hair, his clothing, his mother and sisters, his name, and most importantly, his faith. Elie Wiesel's use of imagery and diction in Night makes readers understand the true atrocities of the Holocaust.

Many books were published about Holocaust, but Frankl’s work is “One of the outstanding contribution to psychological thought . . .” (Carl Rogers. 1959). Frankl, a psychiatrist and neurologist, spent 3 years in Nazis concentration camps where he underwent

In the text, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl states, “We who lived… remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread,” and the reader comes to find that these men in question were specifically driven by hope to continue fighting. They were already in poor conditions; Frankl himself states that the pieces of bread given away were the last ones belonging to the men. How then, are they relying on hope in this instance, if instead it just looks as if they’re making a benevolent final act? It is because those men have hope in those they aid to continue the fight; for, as each individual had their own, personal conflict, those men are continuing their individual fights by, to put it in crude terms, giving the Nazis the finger and embracing an apprentice on their deathbed like in every fantasy game ever. It is therefore that hope can provide the self what it may need as fuel provides fire with what it

“Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give each other,” Elie Wiesel famously stated. This powerful quote is written about the holocaust and the experiences that were witnessed during the time period. They were not gifted with anything but rather punished for doing absolutely nothing wrong. But, when the Jews witnessed themselves being released from the camps after a long four years, that was when they finally gained hope. Hope from the Americans. However, hope was not with Elie throughout the entire ordeal. In fact, most of the time, the young Jewish boy had an internal conflict of losing his faith in his God, mankind, and himself during the hardships of the Holocaust. He responded this way due to the extreme

Life was consumed by constant orders, labor, malnutrition, disease, and murder in the concentration camps. Yet somehow the human psyche in many individuals was able to endure throughout these imprisonments. Men and women were almost completely dehumanized during this genocide, but their psyche survived it. People had to find little things to keep themselves content and to nurture their psyche. “Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation” (63). Humor allows a person to escape a situation and rise above it, even if only for a short time. Humor can never be taken away from anyone because it is naturally within us. Humor within the concentration camps allowed people, for even a split second, to feel like they

Frankl believes several things, and he shares these theories with his readers. First of all; the basic concept of Logotherapy is that if one finds a purpose or a meaning in their life they can endure anything. He supports this many times over with specific examples. He was forced to dig trenches in freezing cold weather without adequate clothing and shoes. The shoes might be too tight causing pain and blisters, he may have no socks, or the shoes might have holes in them, allowing the ice and snow to get against his skin. He states that he got through these long, painful days by thinking about the beauty of nature or thoughts of his wife. He focused on the unlikely fact that his wife might be alive, giving him the will to live. Other times, while at another camp where he worked as the only doctor caring for 52 sick and dying patients, he himself was on the brink of starvation and typhus and he did not give up. He felt that it was his duty to care for these people, keep them comfortable and give them the best that he could at the time with minimal resources. There might have

Psychologist Victor Frankl’s novel: Man's Search for Meaning delivers a powerful and humbling perspective on life that inspires introspection in the minds of all those that read it. The book achieves this by taking us on a journey with Frankl as he describes his personal experiences of the Holocaust. During his time spent in four different concentration camps Frankl gradually learns lessons in spiritual survival. Devoid of all pleasures and possessing nothing but his “naked existence” Frankl is forced to look inward and in the process discovers what he believes to be the primary motivating factor of all men (p. 15).

Life has no meaning if you don't have the urge to wake up the next morning to see the next day. Many people live their lives unhappy since they have no purpose or meaning to fulfill or satisfy their needs. Purpose to me is something to live for and something to look forward to in life. Without purpose and meaning in life there is no point of living at all. Recently in the existentialism unit we’ve been reading, I learned that without a passion to live, one’s life means nothing and is a waste of a soul. Based on the previous books I’ve read, I learned I am happy because I have things to look forward to in life and to wake up the next morning to enjoy the new day. Three elements that give me purpose and meaning in my life are my family, my