MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING

SUMMARY

D. Frankl, a neurologist and psychiatrist who was imprisoned in a concentration camp

during World War II tells his experience during Holocaust, and previous development of
logotherapy. His entire family, except for his sister, perished in these camps, every of
their possession were lost, suffered from hunger, brutality, and other suffering he could
not imagine to experience.

Part One: Experience in a Concentration Camp pages 15-100

Most of the events told in this book is the life experience of Frakl inside prison camp
along with all prisoners. He explained how the prisoners coped physically and mentally
and how the prisoner’s emotion, perception, and mind were affected by the experience.
It tells the everyday problems of prisoners while they are trying to survive from hunger,
exhaustion from over load work, beatings and other punishment, and to include limited
privileges.

According to Frankl, the prisoners had undergone and passed three phases during their
imprisonment inside the camp before liberation. The first phase is associated by shock.
He started by defining common prisoners who bore no distinguishing marks on their
sleeve, he was a common prisoner who was made to lay railroad tracks and perform
labor. Later then, he and fifteen hundred people were transferred to another camp which
lately known to them as the Auschwitz. He and the prisoners felt great panic as the
camp was known for torture and execution. Following day, they look little relieved as
they saw group of prisoners who “look quite well, they seem to be in good spirits and
even laugh”. Frank relates this as the “delusion of reprieve” where “the condemn man,
immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very
last minute”, but until the very end, it never happened. Unfortunately, they learned that
the group was specially chosen elite tasked on receiving new transport prisoners. They
had undergone selection where most of them was sent to crematorium while the rest
including Frankl was deprived of all their possessions, everything was taken away from
them and what only remained was the cloth they were wearing, and lastly, they were
shaved form head to toe. In this camp, weaklings, and sick person or known as the
“Moslems”, those who could not do manual labor would mean death that is why some
prisoner learned to be fit or just pretend to be fit to be spared from being sent to
crematorium, they were the ones who would willingly do anything to stay alive, while
others who gave their hope and do not have the will anymore and means to live commit
suicide.

The second phase as describe by Frankl, the phase of relative apathy, in which he
achieved a kind of emotional death or the blunting of the emotions and the feeling that
one could not care anymore. In this face, they became numb to the physical and
psychological pain of the daily beatings and abuse. Frankl and other prisoner were
initially vulnerable, they felt grieve to what had become of their life, they felt horror at the
cruelty they are receiving in the camp. At first, they do not want to see their fellow
inmates when they were beaten, tortured or punished. They would look away as they
cannot bear to see fellow prisoners march up and down for hours accompanied by
beatings. Later on, prisoners were already used to it so that they no longer avert their
eyes and does not display emotional reactions whenever their fellow prisoner were
beaten or punished instead disgust, horror and pity were removed from their emotions.
Sufferings, dying and death became a common place of sight to them.

Frankl added that his experience surviving in this concentration camp made him realize
and shaped his understanding whereby man finds meaning for his life and that is the
courage required to endure suffering. He and the prisoners had no control of their lives
and were nothing but to go with fate and what relies ahead of them. Just like when
Frankl joined the transport where he was sent to attend to other sick prisoner. The
prisoners believed that the transport is going to take the sick prisoner to a gas chamber,
and guard even offered his name to be removed from the list but Frankl insisted on
following his fate and accept whatever is the outcome of the transportation. Frankl and
the patients actually did go to a rest camp, and after months, he learned that those who
remained in the camp encountered famine and resulted to cannibalism. He resulted on
fate and again, he relied on fate where he had several chances of escaping the camp
but at the end he chose to stay. His last attempt to escape which he did not continue
because an order came gathering prisoners to be transported to Switzerland, in which
he was not able again to be included, was followed the next morning by their freedom
seeing a white flag floated in the wind. Later, he found out that other prisoners who
thought that they were travelling from freedom was burned to death.

In this book, Frankl tells that of all the sufferings and experienced they had in the prison
camp, he and the prisoners had developed the sense of apathy. He expressed that the
prisoner had the opportunity at all times to choose on what lies ahead of them, such as
the chance to choose and just be a normal prisoner and become apathetic. He added
that every prisoner whatever kind of situation they are facing, he himself alone has the
authority to control his fate as what Frankl had done in the remaining days of their stay
at the prison camp. He considered his suffering as an opportunity and make use his
remaining freedom as an achievement and what he meant by achievement is using his
remaining freedom or the sufferings he had experience to make his life valuable and
meaningful. He further explains in the latter part of his book quoting the phrase “He who
has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”, he says that this could be the guiding
motto for all psychotherapeutic and psych hygienic efforts regarding prisoners. Thus,
any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in
showing him some future goal. What was really needed is to stop expecting something
better from life or stop asking about the meaning of life, instead ask oneself what life
expected from us. By this, he meant that the ultimate meaning of life is taking the
responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it
constantly sets for each individual or taking responsibility for one’s actions and making
use of opportunities to make himself the best person as possible.

94. The third phase of a prisoner’s mental reactions is the psychology of the prisoner
after his liberation, they undergone depersonalization. This is a state where the
prisoners felt that everything appeared unreal, unlikely, as in a dream. They had wish
and dreamed for the past three years of being free, returning to their home, and now,
that their dream came true, they could not believe or comprehend that it is really true
and happening. Their feelings became numb so that they felt nothing even simple
pleasure like seeing flower and rooster. Their state had again undergone shock so that
it is hard for them coping with their current situation.

Part Two: Logotherapy in a Nutshell pages 101-136

Frankl explain his ideas about logotherapy wherein logotherapy focuses on the future,
on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future. This focuses on the meaning
of human existence as well as on man’s search for meaning since the striving to find a
meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. Further, he gave
emphasis on the will to meaning whereby one’s desire is to find complete meaning of
his own life and it is the primary motivational force that a person have. Although, man’s
will to meaning can become existentially frustrated, it can also result to neuroses
whereby he explains this using his patient’s condition that a person who cannot find his
purpose in life can develop mental problems.

Frank argues that every man has his own specific vocation in which it cannot be done or
accomplished by anyone else, but he alone has the sole responsibility for his life and
existence. The end state of logotherapy is to help patients develop his own meaning in
life, his purpose of existence regardless of the suffering, experience, or situation he is
facing. This is to confront the person with his real meaning in life so that he can be
aware and develop solutions or ways that will allow him to overcome these situations.

The Case for a Tragic Optimism pages 137-154

Tragic Optimism is the concept that a person is truly optimistic even in the face of
extremely disastrous situation. It means that one is, and remains, optimistic in spite of
the tragic triad which involves three unavoidable circumstances which are pain, guilt,
and death. In this book, Frankl talks about finding meaning in one’s life that when a
person has lost his will to meaning this person will decide to do pleasure to fill that loss.
He cited the experience inside camp where prisoners had given up on their life by
smoking cigarette they had been carefully saving. He thought that using drug is an
indication that people believe that life has then no meaning so that they now turn to
using drug for pleasure and fulfillment.

In addition, Frankl cited that tragic optimism can be made by “the defiant power of the
human spirit.” He gave an example citing the case of a paralyzed man who is persistent
and was able to attend college. The paralyzed man said that he considered his disability
as a strength because his disability made him understand how to help other. In this
case, Frankl speaks that a person should do every possible means to avoid suffering, if
possible, endure suffering and make it meaningful.

Frankl says that every person can make his life meaningful where pain and suffering
can be turned into accomplishment from learning from his own experience, guilt since
every individual has the free will to make choices, this is the time and an opportunity for
personal change whereby individual shall take responsibility for his own actions, and
death by living your own life as if you are living it again for the second time for every
person knows that life is just temporary.

ANALYSIS

Frankl's insights into the nature of human suffering and the search for meaning
have made "Man's Search for Meaning" a classic work of modern psychology and a
source of inspiration for millions of readers around the world. Man's Search for Meaning
is a remarkable work that provides an insightful perspective on human suffering,
resilience, and the quest for meaning, and highlights the importance of finding meaning
and purpose in life as a means of overcoming challenges. His primary interest is the
everyday suffering that everyone must face and he further explains that what goes on
inside the man’s soul as he is confronted with the physical, mental and emotional
threats to his existence. It does not only make the reader to assess the moral dangers
in a logical way but also provides the necessary tools to overcome them whether in a
normal situation or during hardships, sufferings, and distressing situation. By reading
the book, we can say that it can change an individual’s attitude towards life but also
bring difficulty no matter how hard the circumstances can be overcome.
 The first part of the book to include his autobiographical and experiences in a
concentration camp, describes Frankl's experiences in Nazi concentration camps,
including Auschwitz, and his observations of the psychological and emotional responses
of his fellow prisoners. He portrays how he and his fellow prisoners adapted their ways
of thinking in order to ensure the survival of every one of them. Through the
experiences he had given in his book, he clearly tries to imply the idea that even in the
most extreme situation, human beings have the ability to choose their own attitude and
response to any kind of situation they may face. Whether this response result to
negative act or they responded in negative or positive manner, every individual will do
its very best for his own survival. It is proven as Frankl observes that the prisoners who
were able to find meaning in their suffering, whether it was through love, art, or a sense
of moral duty, were more likely to survive and maintain their mental and emotional well-
being. He writes, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the
human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."

The second part of the book outlines his approach to logotherapy, which is based
on the belief that the primary motivation for human beings is the search for meaning and
purpose in life. Frankl's approach to logotherapy focused on the belief that stiving to
search for meaning and purpose is the primary motivation for human behavior. In this
way, a person can find meaning and purpose in life through their work, relationships,
creative activities, and by accepting the realities of life, including suffering and death.
Frankl emphasizes that logotherapy is not an action form of therapy, but rather an active
and engaging approach that encourages individuals to take responsibility for their own
lives and to strive towards their own goals. Above all, Frankl wrote this book not just to
tell and share his and other prisoners experience inside prison camp but to use and
present it as supporting evidence for his practice in logotherapy

Another important idea presented in the book is the concept of "tragic optimism,"
which refers to the ability to find meaning and hope in the face of suffering and tragedy.
Frankl argues that even in the despite the most serious situations such as pain, loss,
and suffering, individuals can find meaning in those situations and can use their
experiences to grow and develop as individuals.

ARGUMENT

Frankl’s argument on finding meaning in life is very inspiring, a person with the same
situation as him can relate and use it for inspiration. But every person has his own
specific meaning in life, this includes what he wants to do, what he wants to achieve, or
what he wants to become. Therefor, man should not ask what is the meaning of life
rather he should accept and know what he wants or what he needs to do. Logotherapy
can be applied and effective to some individual but not all, even though they have
similar suffering, problems or situation because there are different kind of people in this
world to include attitude, belief, practice, weaknesses, strength, status in life. Example,
the status in life, one who has a high position in the society or has money has more
privilege can use this as their advantage but compared to those poor people, no means
of support, this may result to add in their situation.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Man's Search for Meaning is a powerful and inspiring book that
offers insights into the human condition and the search for meaning and purpose.
Frankl's experiences in concentration camps provide a deeply example of the resilience
and strength of the human spirit, and his approach to logotherapy offers a highly
interesting perspective on the importance of finding meaning and purpose in life. This
book is a must-read for anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, or the human
experience, and it is a testament to the enduring power of hope and resilience in the
face of difficulties.