Man's Search For Meaning By Mor Frankl

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

'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.

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

Frankl endured much suffering during his time in the concentration camp. All of his possessions were taken away, including his manuscript in which he recorded all of his life's work. He went through rough manual labor, marching through freezing temperatures, and little or no

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 Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl tells the honest story of his own experiences as an inmate in a concentration camp during World War II. In his book, Frankl answers the question “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?” (Frankl, 2006, p. 3) He describes the physical, emotional, and psychological torment that he endured as well as the effect that the camp had on those around him. He breaks down the psychological experience as a prisoner into three stages: the initial shock upon admission into the camp, apathy, and the mental reactions of the prisoner after liberation. He highlights certain emotions experienced throughout the time in the camp such as delusions of reprieve, hope, curiosity, surprise, and even humor.

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.

There are 3 phases to prison camp life. These were admission, camp life, and liberation. The first phase is when a prisoner gets admitted to a labor or death camp and it is characterized by initial shock. Frankl was admitted to Auschwitz and when he arrived via train car he was horrified because Auschwitz stood for gas chambers, crematoriums, and massacres. Frankl then talks about the “delusion of reprieve” where one things that he will be spared right before his execution. Initially when the trains came to Auschwitz, a special group of prisoners were the receiving line that would make those on the train feel better about arriving. “Nearly everyone in our

1. Frankl clearly states that you have to stay determined and keep your courage alive. The minute you become discouraged it is all over and you are heading for death. The second stage of dealing with the concentration camp was apathy. He talked about this in the beginning of the book but now he is saying that the men had a chose, they could overcome apathy and that it was there were a few guys who showed that.

Beginning in March of 1933, when the first concentration camp was established, over ten million people suffered and died due to the systematic and cruel atrocities inflicted upon them by the Nazi Party. Viktor Frankl was among the relative few to survive, and he responded, both during and after, by attempting to decipher, not only the meaning of his own life, but the importance of meaning in the lives of others. He named three stages to the process handling the experience of a concentration camp, which can be applied to many types of suffering. Strangely, all three of these stages, depersonalization, apathy, and the return to normalcy, all seem to incorporate an unexpected reaction, humour. As evidenced by Frankl’s account, it seems as though sufferers of a certain disposition can occasionally find humour and amusement even in the worst of times.

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

“Man's Search for Meaning” is written by Viktor E. Frankl a holocaust survivor that writes of his story in Auschwitz. Frankl's number given in the camp is 119,104, Frankl goes on to state he was not going to place his name on the cover of the book until a friend begged Frankl to do so. If Frankl were to put his name on the book he realized it would give a deeper meaning and understanding to his readers. The book goes on to say it became difficult for Frankl to detach himself while writing the book. After reading a piece of tablet Frankl decides to stay with his parents, instead of taking the opportunity to flee to America. As the book goes on, Frankl describes the Capos and the processes of the first selection. Men are beaten in the showers

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).

Viktor
 Frankl
 and
Sigmund
 Freud, are two
of the most significant
 psychological
 philosophers
 of
 our time. They, have
 formed
 powerful
 perceptions
 concerning
 the
 role
 of
 culture, humanity, and
 the
 healing
 method. Even though
 Frankl
 and
 Freud
jointly
 experienced
 misery
 within
 their
 own
 existences
 and
 equally
 observed
 dramatic
 socio‐political
 alterations
 within
 the
 premature
 twentieth
 century, they eventually came to adopt completely different psychological concepts.

In September of 1942, Viktor Frankl was arrested in Vienna and taken to one of the many Nazi death camps. Frankl was working on a manuscript which was confiscated from him in a move to Auschwitz. In this manuscript entitled, The Doctor and the Soul, Frankl had began his work on a theory he would later call logotherapy. The term logotherapy is derived from the Greek word logos, which means meaning. According to logotherapy, the striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man (Frankl 121). Frankl’s theory and therapy generated and grew through his experiences in the concentration camps.