How could someone not only survive, but find meaning when starvation, death, cruelty, fear, and apathy surrounded him?
The answer to this question can be found in the book, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Frankl was an Austrian psychologist and holocaust survivor whose classic work discusses his experience in concentration camps. In his work, Frankl discusses how he adjusted his perspective to deal with the senseless sufferings that surrounded him. Frankl's experience caused him to create a school of psychotherapy known as Logotherapy. The central principle of Logotherapy is that the most motivating force in human nature is the drive to find meaning. Frankl goes on to explain how the tenets of Logotherapy can help us deal with the hardships of our everyday lives.
This is my third time reading Man’s Search for Meaning. It is a book I plan to read several times throughout my life. For if Frankl could find meaning in the suffering, I have faith that we all can too.
Here are my three biggest takeaways from Man’s Search for Meaning:
1. Meaning changes with the circumstances
In his therapy practice, Frankl was frequently asked the question, "what is the meaning of life?" Frankl says that this question is as illogical as asking, “what is the best chess move in the world?” For as anyone who plays chess knows, the best move depends on the circumstances of the match. There is not so much a perfect chess move, but a perfect chess move for the moment.
So it is with life. Each of us has our own unique set of experiences, situations, and beliefs. As such, life will demand something unique from each of us at any given time. As our circumstances change, we too must change to overcome new challenges and create a sense of purpose. When we ask what the meaning of life is, we are shifting the responsibility of choice away from us. For meaning is something that we create for ourselves rather than something someone gives to us. In Frankl’s words:
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life, he can only respond by being responsible." - Viktor Frankl
2. Perspective is our most valuable asset
When everything - your family, your identity, your profession - is taken from you, what do you have left? Frankl says that you are left with, “the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
If anyone was allowed to surrender to despair, it was Frankl. Yet Frankl coped with his grief with gratitude, hope, optimism, and compassion for his fellow prisoners. When his external world was a fiery nightmarish Hell, Frankl withdrew to the Kingdom of Heaven that was within him.
The most liberating and frightening moment of our lives is when we understand the power of personal choice. As John Steinbeck wrote in East of Eden, the ability to choose, “makes a man great and that gives him stature with the gods.” Each of us can choose a perspective of optimism, courage, and compassion. The things that hold us back are not external events, but ourselves.
3. Humor creates light in the darkness
It would be hard to find joy within the confines of a concentration camp. Facing the possibility of death each day, watching your friends die, never knowing if you would see your loved ones again... How could anyone not be seized by fear and apathy? Yet, it was humor that helped the prisoners cope with the hardships of reality. In Frankl's words:
“The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living.” - Viktor Frankl
Life will bring differing degrees of pain and suffering to us all. Fight as hard as we may, we cannot change this fact. But our last refuge in the face of adversity is a sense of humor. When we laugh at our misery, we reduce its capacity to hurt us.
Conclusion
Our generation is one that acutely suffers from feelings of existential angst, purposeless, and anxiety. Could you imagine how much worse our distress would be if we lived in concentration camps during the Holocaust? Frankl's work serves as a reminder that our perspective can help us endure through any hardship.
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