Sunday, August 8, 2010

Book Report: Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning"

August 8, 2010 Book Report: Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

I have owned this book for a long while. Decades? Has "always" been on my reading list. Well, I started it last night and finished it this afternoon. It was that interesting, plus I really wanted to have it checked off my list. Pronto.

From the preface, Dr. Gordon Allport summarizes, "The central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose it. Each must find out for himself, and must accept the responsibility that his answer prescribes. If he succeeds, he will continue to grow in spite of all indignities.."

He and his fellow inmates were stripped to their naked bodies. He said at that point he struck out his entire former life. After so many atrocities, they eventually acquired a grim sense of humor and a sense of curiosity, both as forms of protection. Disgust, horror and pity gave way to apathy, after the atrocious suffering became so commonplace. He observed that it was not the physical pain that hurt the most, but the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all, applying this also to the reaction of unjustly punished children. The most painful part of the beatings was the insult which they implied.

In spite of all the enforced physical and mental primitiveness of the camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen. Inmates retreated from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom. It occurred to him while imagining his wife that love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Love goes far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deeper meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. This allowed him to escape the desolation and spiritual poverty.

He had at least one opportunity to leave on a transport of sick passengers, but declined and said instead that this was not his way, that he had learned to let fate take its course. This was ultimately in his favor because he stayed safe where he was, and the others perished. He described being fearful of making decisions, because they could be for life or death. They felt that fate was their master, so they allowed it to take its own course.

The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. Apathy could be overcome, irritability could be suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. 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, tho choose one's own way. There were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision whcih determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom. In the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him, mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. The way in which a man accepts his fate, and all the suffering it entails, the way he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity, even under the most difficult circumstances, to add a deeper meaning to his life.

They found meaning and inner strength by pointing out a future goal to which they could look forward. It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future. This is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task. The prisoner who had lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed. He also lost his spiritual hold, let himself decline, and became subject to mental and physical decay. What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life, daily and hourly. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which in constantly sets for each individual. These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. "Life" does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand. It was important to realize life was still expecting something from the prisoners; something in the future was expected of them. Each individual is uniqu and single. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility that a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. Then also,no man knew what the future would bring, much less the next hour.

After their release it was difficult to re-assimilate in public. Men needed to be slowly guided back to the commonplace truth that no one has the right to do wrong, even if wrong has been done to him. The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear anymore - except his God.

No comments:

Post a Comment