Man's search for meaning

The Book

This is a phenomenal autobiographical account of Dr. Victor Frankl's horrific experience in concentration camps and his search of meaning for life amongst it. The book is available here.

Summary

Part 1 - Experiences in concentration camps

Autobiographical account of author's horrific experiences in concentration camps during the Holocaust. By taking the success of this book as an example he says that we shouldn't chase success, but to completely forget about it and continue to do what we love the most. This precisely will be the reason success will follow us one day. He describes the life at these camps to be a constant struggle for food and survival, constant struggle against being becoming a Moslem (an inmate who can no more work), for those Moslems would be gassed to death. He examines three phases of any inmate in these camps: period following his admission, period where he is well entrenched in camp's routine and period following his release. He goes onto describe his account of each of these phases very vividly in this part. Thus, this part is a much needed background for the next coming parts of this book!

Phase1 is almost always characterized by shock. It also comes with a 'delusion of reprieve' (a child like optimism where one thinks he might fare well in prison).

Phase2 is relative apathy where one achieves kind of an emotional death. This apathy would have been caused due to the horrors in the camp against fellow inmates. It was a necessary way of self-defence, as life there was uncertain. But no matter what the circumstances (beyond our control!) have robbed us of, they can't rob a man of one thing - the freedom to choose how to act in a given scenario. Frankl argues that no matter how dire are circumstances, one must not loose faith in one's future and should have some gaol for their lives. 'For a man who knows the Why to live for can bear almost any How' (quoting Nietzel).

Phase3 is hte psyche of the inmates after their release. Most take a long time to be brought back to the mainstream of society. Initial few days were all about de-personalization - disbelief about their dreams to have turned true. Some people with primitive nature became ever more aggressive and ruthless after their release. People also suffered from bitterness due to their home town folks unable to acknowledge their suffering. They were also disillusioned in the sense that they had thought after all these sufferings there'd be no more of it.

Part 2 - Logotherapy in a nutshell

Logos in greek means meaning. As opposed to Freudean 'will to pleasure' and Adlerian 'will to power' psychoanalytical methods, logotheraphy deals with the 'will to meaning'. A man's search for meaning for his life is the primary motivation.

Not every conflict in us is neurotic and needs psychoanalysis. We must not strive towards a tensionless mind, for mind is always in tension between what has been achieved by that man so far and what still needs to be achieved (aka neuro-dynamics).

Existential vaccum - total lack of awareness of meaning for one's life. This is very wide spread in our generation because of progressive automation and it causing too much leisure on people's hands. It almost always manifests itself in a state of boredom.

Meaning of life is very unique to a person. Thus, in order to find this out, one needs to reverse the thought process and ask what is being asked of oneself in their life, that which he alone is responsible for.

We can realize the meaning of our lives via: doing a work, experiencing someone or something and attitude we take towards difficult times or suffering.

Logos is deeper than logic. Everyone has the freedom to choose his actions or responses to the circumstances we face daily. However, this freedom shouldn't lead to arbitrariness, but to responsibleness. We have people who act as swines while others act as saints. Such mix of people are found in all races of humanity. Man has both these potentialities and what he becomes is more based on his choice than on circumstances.

Part 3 - The case for tragic optimism

Tragic optimism - being optimistic even while facing the trafic triads: pain, guilt and death. And optimism, like happiness, cannot be pursued but ensued.

Existential vaccum also results in depression, aggression and addition.

Suffering is not the only way to finding meaning, for if it is avoidable, the smart thing to do is to remove its cause. Unnecessary suffering is masochistic not herioc.

Live as if you're living for the second time and had acted as wrongly as you're about to act now. Because, since Auschwitz, we know what man is capable of and since Nagashima, we know what is at stake!