Man's Search for Meaning Essay

'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.

Aristotle starts off in his essay explaining the definitions of Good, Primacy of Statecraft and the study of Ethics. He defines good as where all things are to be aimed, for example health. He then defines Statecraft as citizens of a state, a country, and of the world need to do good for their own good but more importantly for the good of the state. He also characterizes various types of good. Finally, the definition on study of Ethics. This talks about the pure excellence of justice that involves the disagreements and agreements of uncertainty and certainty. Aristotle also talks about happiness and where a certain

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).

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

The concentration camp forced him to learn to think about himself “I had watched it all happening without moving I kept silent… that was what life in a concentration camp has made of me” (Wiesel 54). He became self-centered and determined to survive. He survived because he had to for his father, but it was only after his father died that he truly lived. He only thought of food and surviving “I spent my day in total idleness… I no longer thought of my father, or my mother” (Wiesel 113). When people go through any trauma they change, life changes people for either the better or for the

During the Holocaust there were many people who struggled to maintain their humanity. They struggled to keep themselfs from falling apart emotionally and physically. These people were living robots without emotion who were just hoping to die, they just wanted to end their pain. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy named Elie Wiesel and his family get taken to Auschwitz. When they arrive they get split up by boys and girls. Wiesel and his father go one way, while his mom and sister go the other way. Throughout their journey from camp to camp, they struggle to maintain their humanity. Wiesel portrays how the prisoners are pushed towards emotional death by loosing their belongings, their family, and then loosing themselfs.

After World War II, many people survived physically, but were killed off psychologically by the mental torture of the Nazis. Not only did these prisoners ache from physical torment, but they also suffered from intellectual abuse for decades following the concentration camps and still recollect their inhumane experience during the 1940s. The Nazis completed many different actions to incapacitate the prisoners psychologically, such as taking away their identities, making them feel like animals, and giving them an incredulous amount of false hope before the concentration camps were put into place. Elie Wiesel’s Night documents his experience, mentally and physically, from the holocaust and all of the suffering he went through. In Night, Wiesel

Through showing the dark and devastating experiences of the Jews during the holocaust, the emotional appeal the reader experiences is increased. As Anthony Acevedo describes, “... his fellow soldiers beaten, starved, and in some cases executed for trying to escape. Forced to dig tunnels for 12 hours a day in the final weeks of the war, the prisoners were given 100 grams of bread per week and soup made from rats.” (1). While Wiesel in a speech said, “When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies…” (217). Through implementing the theme of inhumanity into an emotional appeal, Elie Wiesel allows the reader to feel as though they were in that situation in a diminished manner. The following quotes, exhibits the theme of inhumanity through the use of different punishment methods against prisoners and the effects.

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.

In his personal experience, Viktor Frankl delineates three stages that come with life at a concentration camp: admission, acceptance, and liberation. In the first stage, Frankl becomes shocked at the horrors of the Holocaust. He notices that he denies the reality of what is happening through a phenomenon called “the delusion of reprieve” in which he believes that he will be reprieved at the last moment (23). Eventually, he comes to terms with his

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.

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).