Man's Search For Meaning: Where can you find it? (PART 1)

I know the title of the book somehow sounds philosophical but Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist, psychotherapist, a former chief of neurology at Vienna’s Rothschild Hospital, and a Holocaust survivor.

There were three phases of the inmate’s mental reactions to camp life.

The period following the admission to the camp.

• The first phase happened which is no other than shock:

  • They didn’t know that everything would be taken away. So Mr. Frankl asked if he could take his manuscript of a scientific book. The response of the prison guard was “Shit!”. At that moment he saw the plain truth that his former life was gone. This is the culminating point of the first phase of his psychological reaction.

The period when they became accustomed to the camp routine.

• The second phase is relative apathy: Apathy, the main symptom of the second phase, was a necessary mechanism of self-defense centered on one task: preserving one’s own life and the other fellow.

  • At first, they were longing for home, then they felt distaste with all the ugliness which surrounded them. However, if they showed any sign of distaste and attempted to wipe off the filth, then they would receive a punishment from the Capo.

  • Deaths and punishments became such commonplace sights to them after a few weeks so the prisoner who had passed into the second stage of his psychological reactions did not avert his eyes any more which leads to

  • the second stage of the prisoner’s psychological reactions that eventually made them insensitive to daily and hourly beatings. What hurts more was not the physical pain, but the mental agony caused by injustice and unreasonableness.

The period following the release and liberation

• The third phase are:

  • depersonalization

    • Everything appeared unreal. They had said the word FREEDOM so often during all the years they dreamed about it, that it had lost its meaning.

  • danger of deformation

    • Now, being free, they thought they could use their freedom licentiously and ruthlessly. The oppressed before became the oppressor. They justified their behavior by their own terrible experiences.

  • bitterness

    • "Of all people, Why am I the one who experienced it?"

  • disillusionment

    • They thought that they already experienced the worst but the fact is it was more cruel in the outside world since the person whose memory alone had given them courage in camp did not exist any more.
      

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He had intended to write this book anonymously by using his prison number 119,104 so that it could never build up any reputation on the part of the author.

Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure as Freud believed, or a quest for power as Adler taught, but a quest for meaning as claimed by Frankl.

Three Sources of Meaning:

1. Work : the act of creating or doing something significant -achievements -roles/duties -creative work -active lifestyle -career.

2. Love : the act of caring for another person -husband/wife -children -parents -sibling -significant other

3. Courage to Suffer : the opportunities on sufferings

I know the the book stated that to find your meaning in life, you need to find your purpose. Yet, my take on this sources of meaning is even though it stated “find”, we have to create it first before we can find it because if we don't have it then where will we find it that's why we have to create it first. We also have to remind ourselves that we live in a world where we take for granted almost everything so that we will be able to see what's in front of us. Create your own story, your own meaning and your own purpose.

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Articles referenced in this episode:

• a book (which can be found in the next show notes)