Viktor Frankl Man's Search For Meaning

| The search for meaning and purpose in life is an important aspect of life. According to this psychologist, people are always striving to meet their needs.

Dorothy Day was an activist, suffragist, and icon to the Catholic Church during the beginning of the twentieth century. Her work in the organization, Catholic Worker Movement, was prominent to her work for the poor and vulnerable. Before the birth of her first child, Day struggled with her religion and finding her spirituality. After the gift of her child, she regained hope and love for religion and God by exploring and joining the Catholic Church. From here, her spirituality grew and love for social justice shaped her into the women she is known for today. Her love for the poor and spirituality is an example of how we should practice and apply our faith. Dorothy Day impacted the Catholic Church because of her devotion to education and equality

Dorothy Day was an influential figure of her time because of her involvement with social activism and the Catholic Church. She used her passion for writing to incorporate biblical scriptures into national problems. Conversion into the Catholic Church influenced the experiences and choices she had made well before and after her decision. Day is most known for her conversion into the Catholic Church, her establishment of the Catholic Worker Movement and her vital work with the poor. Pre conversion Dorothy Day’s was baptized into the Episcopal Church where her mother was also baptized.

Viktor Frankl is a well known psychiatrist and neurologist. He is praised for his book, Man’s Search For Meaning, a story that depicts Frankl’s viewpoint during the Holocaust. The narrative illustrates Victor’s perspective and his coping techniques during this time. Frankl also mentions his theory of Logotherapy. A technique that he uses to help people find meaning with their life.

As defined by Merriam-Webster, Existentialism is, “a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad” (Merriam Webster). Logotherapy/existential analysis is based on the premise that within one’s self there lies the 1) “Freedom to will, 2)“will to meaning”, and 3), “ meaning to life”. (Batthyany, Alexander) Meaning to life as it pertains to classic existential theory and logotherapy, is defined by the individual on a situational basis. It can vary based on what is essential to the individual and their well being (Existentialism-By Branch/Doctrine, The Basics of Philosophy). Frankl concentrates on what it was that drives people to live, and determined that those who survived the unspeakable circumstances of the Nazi camps had been those who focused on the meaning of their lives. Frankl’s psychological-anthropological model addresses the ability for others overcome

Dorothy Day is a strong woman who knows what she wants to accomplish. Her beliefs changed throughout her life but she ended up converting to Catholicism. Dorothy Day was actively involved with worldly issues and problems. To help get attention to these issues Dorothy created the Catholic Worker movement. On August 6, 1976 she was asked to speak at the World Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (Ellsberg). Her speach was addressing the Feast of Transfiguration and the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Evidently the Congress scheduled a mass for appreciating the armed forces, how ironic. This threefold event called for a protest. It is said that Dorothy did not like public speaking because it gave her anxiety, this caused her a great amount of stress (Ellsberg). She began her speech by her story of the Catholic Worker and her conversion. She started giving service to the poor and then decided to convert after. She continued to say that the Church taught her the necessity of Penance. She concluded by giving attention to

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.

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

Man’s Search For Meaning details Viktor Frankl’s horrifying experiences in Nazi concentration camps during the holocaust, and during that time he found meaning in his life. And he describes three things that were the most important factors that contributed to his and some prisoners survival: love, work, and suffering. It was because of those three things that they were able to survive. Many found hope in the thought that a love one was waiting , others were so preoccupied with work they were un able to think, and most effective was

In “There’s More to Life Than Being Happy,” Emily Esfahani Smith writes about the conflict between Viktor Frankl’s book, “Man’s Search for Happiness” and the culture today, which focuses on happiness in life rather than meaning. She introduces Viktor Frankl as a star medical and psychology student who survived the Holocaust in 1942. While Frankl was kept hostage in his camp, he was forced to find the good in life in order to survive. After being liberated, Frankl recorded his experience and what he learned in nine days, creating a best-seller in the United States. Smith explains that even though it has been concluded that Americans’ happiness is at an all-time high, the Center for Disease Control says that almost fifty percent of Americans have not found a purpose in life. Smith tells that bad mental health, self-esteem, and depression are less likely to be found in those who have found a pleasurable meaning in life. Happiness is associated with being a “taker”, while having a meaning life is associated with being a “giver” according to Smith. The downside to having a purpose for one’s life is the fact that he or she is usually more unhappy due to stress and worry than those who only strive for happiness, Smith explains. A study in 2011 proved that if someone has a negative circumstance occur in his or her lifetime, that event will give him or her more of a drive to find meaning in life rather than happiness. Smith concluded by linking these other sources with Frankl’s

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

In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl describes his revolutionary type of psychotherapy. He calls this therapy, logotherapy, from the Greek word "logos", which denotes meaning. This is centered on man's primary motivation of his search for meaning. To Frankl, finding meaning in life is a stronger force than any subconscious drive. He draws from his own experiences in a Nazi concentration camp to create and support this philosophy of man's existence.

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 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