The quest for meaning in life.
“Whoever has a reason to live can handle practically any how.”
— Nietzsche
Viktor Frankl (1905–1977), a Holocaust survivor, is well known for his 1946 autobiography Man’s Search for Meaning. The book discusses the horrifying events of Auschwitz and what he learned from them about life, love, and the pursuit of meaning. Why do some people move forward when everything appears bleak while others back off?
I am aware of certain people who, even if they lost everything in their lives, including their iPhone, definitely wouldn’t last more than a day. Frankl’s experience suggests that when this occurs, we eventually look within for serenity. if only to get away from the awful environment.
Frankl describes a typical morning and how it helped him understand the nature of love and the most profound truth of human understanding.
Commands were yelled out: “Detachment, onward march! Left-2-3-4! Left-2-3-4! Left-2-3-4! Left-2-3-4! First man there turned left, then left, then left! Caps are off! Even now, I can still hear these words. When we passed the camp’s gate at the command “Caps off!” searchlights were pointed at us. Anyone who did not march properly received a kick. And the person who had put his cap back over his ears due to the cold before permission was granted was in worse shape.
We crawled along the one road leading from the camp in the pitch black, dodging enormous stones and deep puddles. The guards who were with us were shouting at us and shoving us with their rifle butts. Anyone who had extremely hurting feet used their neighbor’s arm to support himself. Little was said because the chilly wind discouraged conversation. The man walking next to me suddenly murmured, mouth concealed by his turned-up collar, “If our wives could see us now! I sincerely hope that they are doing better in their camps and are unaware of what is happening to us.
That made me think of my wife, personally. And although nothing was said, we both knew that each of us was thinking of his wife as we staggered along for miles, slipping on the icy patches, constantly helping each other up, and dragging one another forward. I occasionally glanced up at the sky, where the stars were vanishing and a thick bank of clouds was allowing the morning’s pink light to begin to spread. However, my thoughts lingered to the image of my wife, vividly recalling it. I could hear her responding to me and also see her smile and upbeat expression. Her appearance at that time was brighter than the rising sun, whether it was real or not.
A idea struck me: for the first time in my life, I realised the truth that so many poets have sung about and so many thinkers have proclaimed to be the ultimate truth. The reality is that love is the pinnacle and supreme aspiration to which man can aspire. Then I understood the significance of the greatest secret revealed by human poetry, thinking, and belief: Man is saved by love and in love. I realised how even a man who has nothing left in this world can experience happiness, if only for a moment, when thinking about his lover. When man finds himself in a complete state of desolation, when he is unable to express himself by constructive action, when his sole accomplishment may be to bear his sufferings honourably, in such a state man can find fulfilment through loving reflection on the image he carries of his beloved. The phrase “The angels are immersed in eternal contemplation of an endless glory” finally made sense to me for the first time in my life.
Frankl clung to his imagined chats with his wife, where he asked her questions and she responded, despite not knowing if she was still alive. He learned a valuable lesson about love from this.
Love transcends a person’s physical attributes by a wide margin. His inner self, his spiritual essence, is where it finds its truest significance. Whether or not he is truly there, whether or not he is even still alive, stops mattering in some way.
Whether or not his wife was still alive was unimportant.
Nothing could weaken the power of my love, my thoughts, or the picture of my lover, so I didn’t need to know. If I had known at the time that my wife had passed away, I believe that I would have continued to devote myself to thinking about her picture unhindered by that knowledge, and that my mental exchanges with her would have been equally vivid and satisfying. Love is stronger than death, therefore seal me onto your heart.
The most persistent lesson from Frankl is that, whatever what is taken from you, you have the option to decide how you will react.
Those of us who experienced life in a concentration camp can still vividly recall the men who strolled around the huts consoling others and sharing their last piece of food. Even though they were few in number, they provide adequate evidence that everything may be stolen from a man except for the last of his freedoms—the ability to choose one’s attitude and one’s own path in any given set of circumstances.
One must always make decisions. Frankl and others were able to escape being “the plaything of circumstance” because to these decisions.
Every day, every hour, presented the chance to choose, to choose whether or not you would submit to those forces that threatened to rob you of your very identity, your inner freedom; to choose whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renunciating freedom and dignity to become shaped into the typical prisoner’s form.
Frankl pulled a ruse to get himself “beyond the sufferings of the time” by acting as though the sufferings had already passed.
I pushed my mind to wander to somewhere else. I suddenly found myself on the platform of a bright, comfortable lecture hall. An attentive audience was seated on plush, upholstered seats in front of me. On the psychology of the concentration camp, I was lecturing! Everything that had been bothering me at the time became objective, visible, and articulated from the distance of science.
An intriguing psychoscientific study that I conducted on myself and my problems was made public. What is stated by Spinoza in his Ethics? — Insinit esse passio simulatque eius claram et distinctam formamus ideam, affectus qui passio est. As soon as we have a distinct and accurate image of an emotion, which is suffering, that emotion no longer constitutes suffering.
Losing hope for the future—your future—was a prescription for disaster that was nearly a guarantee.
He lost his spiritual grip when he lost faith in the future; as a result, he allowed himself to deteriorate and became vulnerable to mental and physical deterioration. This typically took the shape of an unexpected catastrophe, the signs of which were known to the seasoned camper. Not for ourselves, as that would have been meaningless, but for our friends, was what we all worried at this time. Typically, the prisoner would refuse to get dressed, wash, or leave the parade grounds one morning. Threats, blows, or entreaties had little impact. He barely moved as he lay there. He refused to be taken to the sick bay if a disease was the cause of this issue or to take any action to help himself. He simply renounced. Nothing disturbed him any longer as he continued to lie in his own waste.
Frankl, who served as a psychiatrist to the prisoners, discovered that keeping a “inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves” was the key to survival. something that could be aided by objectives.
The maxim from Nietzsche, “He who has a why to live for can suffer with virtually any how,” may serve as the foundation for all efforts at psychotherapy and psychohygiene with relation to inmates. To help them cope with the dreadful how of their existence, one had to provide them with a why—an aim—for their lives whenever there was a chance. Woe to the person who decided there was no longer any point in living a life that had no meaning, goal, or purpose. He immediately became lost. Such a man typically responded, “I have nothing to expect from life any more,” to any encouraging arguments. What kind of response is there to that?
The quest for meaning in life
The true transformation that was required was a fundamental shift in our outlook on life. In addition to teaching the men who were in despair, we had to understand for ourselves that what life expected of us was more important than what we anticipated of it. Instead of pondering the meaning of life, we needed to see ourselves as the ones being constantly and hourly questioned by it. Our response must be based on correct behaviour and conduct, not just discourse and meditation. Living ultimately entails accepting responsibility for resolving life’s issues and completing the responsibilities it continually assigns to each person.
These responsibilities vary from person to person and moment to moment, and as a result, so does the meaning of life. As a result, it is impossible to give a broad definition of what life means.
Frankl comes to the conclusion that concerns regarding life’s meaning cannot be resolved by platitudes or generalisations that apply to everyone and everyone alone.
Existence is not some nebulous concept; rather, it is something that is very tangible and concrete, just as the duties that make up life. They shape man’s destiny, which is distinct and individual for every person. There is no comparison between one individual and one destiny and another. Every scenario is unique, and every situation requires a distinct approach. Sometimes a man’s circumstances may force him to take control of his own destiny. Other times, it would be more beneficial for him to take advantage of a chance for reflection and to realise assets in this manner. Sometimes all that is asked of man is for him to accept his fate and carry his cross. Every scenario is distinct due to its individuality, and there is only ever one correct response to the issue it raises.
When a man realises that suffering is part of his fate, he must accept that suffering is his duty—his one and only task. He will have to admit that, despite his pain, he is an individual and the only person in the universe. Nobody can take away his pain or endure it in his place. His special opportunity is in the manner he carries his weight.
These were not speculative ideas that were too far removed from reality for us as inmates. They were the only ideas we had that could have been helpful.
