Man’s Search for Meaning — Victore Frankl
This book is mainly an autobiography and reflection of the author’s suffering in Nazi concentration camps. The book is a good read, first and foremost, to understand the suffering and torment that occurred in Nazi concentration camps. Victore reflects on his understanding of the meaning of life amid this suffering.
While reading his book, I tried to distance myself from Victore Frankl’s subject matter expertise in Logotherapy. This is not to belittle his expertise, but I tried to focus more on his perspectives, rather than the underlying theory he built-up from it.
“Sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect”
I personally resonate strongly with this. Although I am only in my late twenties, I experienced a number of failures where I lost the immediate sense of hope or courage. A job search that has not gone well, not achieving the grades that I wanted. These failures always came in “waves” and it is easy to lose hope in life. Such cascade of failures derails one into despair, and ironically, we are most prone to this feeling while we are in our “peak hope.”
“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how”
So how do you overcome these deadly moments, when despair eats you and morphs you into a lesser being. Victore Frankl argues that we must have a north star to guide us through this period of difficulties. With this meaning (of life) in mind, we navigate these troughs, just like how the survivors of concentration camps did so.
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“it did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us”
Life can be thought of (by nihilists) as a meaningless sequence of life. But we as human beings, have the power to ascribe meaning. What can I give my life? I want my life to be purposeful, I want to ascribe meaning to it, and I want to showcase who I can become.
As Victore Frankl notes, this meaning need not have to be a timeless goal. Rather, it may change depending on your current gift of life. Focus on making this scene perfect, if so, the overall film will be a masterpiece.
You are destined to suffer, and your suffering is unique. It is a meaningful part of life. [paraphrased]
Suffering is a unique opportunity to bridge meaning in your life. In Bhuddism, suffering is taught to be a form of training. Man’s main concern is not to avoid suffering, nor is it to gain pleasure, but rather to find meaning in life by changing his attitude to suffering. Your suffering is unique to your life, and it builds a unique aspect to your meaning of life.
“Live as if you were living already for the second time as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you were about to act now”
Two things to takeaway. Life is finite, every moment is your chance to cherish it. Secondly, seek to be a better version of yourself, and constantly reflect on your action.
“Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to achieve”
This tension is what keeps us sane. Having too much of one will deteriorate our mental health. We have to look beyond ourselves to imagine what we can become, while acknowledging who we are based on our past experiences.
