Man's Search For Meaning

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

"Everything can be taken from man but ?the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." In this, Frankl discusses how different men chose different attitudes. Some remained descent, while others chose to become sadistic. He explains that it is the condition or the atmosphere that forces man to make this decision but that the condition or atmosphere does not make the decision. Each person has to decide what attitude to adopt. As Frankl further explains "there is also purpose in life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence restricted by external forces."

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.

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 her book Meaning in Life and Why it Matters, Susan Wolf does not focus on this perennial question people have been asking over the vast confusion of human history rather she gazes her view at the question of how people seek and maintain meaningful lives. Seeking of meaningful life poses the question of motives that has driven us to engage in. Wolf judges the answer from philosophical point of view. Utilitarianism, a paradigm of teleological theory, accepts pleasure as the ultimate meaning of life. J. S. Mill argues, ‘pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things that are desirable as ends, and that everything that is desirable at all is so either for the pleasure inherent in it or as means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain’ [1863:10] Man demands and pursues the supreme good which comprises both virtue and happiness. Mill’s uses of the term pleasure confined it only in this physical world. Kant, on the other hand, uses it even after death. Virtue and pleasure, duty and inclination, are, according to Kant, heterogeneous notions. Their unity cannot be achieved within the narrow span of our life in this world. We, therefore, conceive immortal life for us. Hence, we seek pleasure not only in this material world, but also in the super sensible world as it is

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is filled to the brim with rhetorical devices from all three sections of the text. Particularly in his section about logotherapy, Frankl’s practice to find an individual’s meaning of life, he explores the three main meanings of life: accomplishment, love, and suffering. This area uses a plethora of comparison, such as parallelism and metaphor. Recurring themes are used to draw back to Frankl’s three life meanings, like word repetition and alliteration. Frankl’s use of rhetorical devices allows his audience to focus on their individual possibilities and incorporate his ideology into society.

He says “Had I known then that my wife was dead I think that I would have still given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of her image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying” (39). By turning to his faith and the thought of his wife, Frankl kept in mind things that were just as important to him as his job that could help him survive. This shows us what is truly important to Frankl. In times of crisis, humans often turn to comforting thoughts and obviously Frankl’s faith and family is so important to him that in his time of physical, mental, and emotional crisis he knew he could count on the thought of his wife and his belief in God to get him through. This helps us see the kind of person that Frankl is.

Bitterness came upon their return to their former lives, former hometowns, and former atmosphere. Disillusionment elicited from realizing that even after reaching the absolute limit of all possible suffering, there still was a life to look forward to (Frankl 92). They became humans again. Frankl connects these accounts and thoughts to develop a profound theory of the logotherapy, which is discussed in the next section, titled “Logotherapy in a Nutshell”. Frankl introduces logotherapy by explaining that it focuses toward finding the meaning of life thus the prefix “logo”, which means “meaning” in Greek (Frankl 98). In parallel to Frankl’s idea, everyone has a purpose to live because “man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a “secondary realization” of instinctual drives” (Frankl 99). One needs to have his own will to meaning to achieve significance and satisfy one’s specific goals in mind. Also, Frankl articulates his thought by saying that “love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost

In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl recounts the exceptionally individual story of his experience as a detainee in an inhumane imprisonment amid the Holocaust. He displays this story as a paper in which he shares his contentions and examination as a specialist and therapist and also a previous detainee. This paper will audit Frankl's story and additionally his principle contentions, and will assess the nature of Frankl's written work and spotlight on any regions of shortcoming inside of the story.

We can cope with our suffering, find meaning within it, and we can move forward. Frankl said, “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” (Frankl 75). Given Frankl's circumstances, this quote truly is

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

So, Freud speculates on the conjecture that our universe or our world was created in such a way, that we are not be able to live happily for a prolonged time (Farrell 11). He introduces the Principle of Reality, the negative way of achieving happiness, when man strives to avoid

In this paper I will be analysing/ reflecting on Viktor Frankl’s Man 's Search for Meaning. In my reflection I will compare the main philosophical message of frankl 's experience and try to compare its meaning to my very own life experience. In order to do this I must give you some personal background while growing up I was born with some challenging complications due to a lack of oxygen at birth I was diagnosed with ataxic cerebral palsy. The thing about ataxic cerebral palsy is that it has affected my life in many ways some miniscule others immense. I can write an entire book on my childhood / adolescence and some of the many challenges I have faced but that 's neither here

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

will experience an abysmal sensation of meaninglessness and emptiness (Frankl Institute). This focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as the search for that meaning.