Visual learner? Watch the animated video summary of Man’s Search For Meaning on YouTube!
In This Article
Introduction
In September 1942, a young psychiatrist found himself standing in line outside of a Nazi concentration camp.
He was unaware of the atrocities that were about to happen to him.
Prisoners initially thought that they were entering a temporary holding camp. They soon realized the terrible reality of their situation.
Their personal items were taken, their heads were shaved, and their arms were tattooed with a serial number.
Their previous lives had officially come to an end.
But what happens when life, as you know it, ends?
Man’s Search For Meaning Summary & Review
This is the story of Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning.
We are about to go on a journey of the devastating effects of the Nazi concentration camps. We will explore the most horrific experience in human history.
The prisoners faced constant humiliation, unbearable hunger, and imminent threat of death. This lead many to lose their sense of identity, and their lives.
In this article we will explore Man’s Search For Meaning.
Chapter 1: Who are you when you are no one?
In the camp, the prisoners took a shower together and stood outside, shivering in the cold autumn air. With no clothes, possessions, social status, or family to tie them to their past, they were left with nothing but a unique number, tattooed on their arms.
However, despite this, there was still one thing that remained truly their own. It is something that we all have full control over. Choice. It’s ours and only ours. Even though you are the subject to the circumstances of your life, you are still free to choose how you think about them and how you respond.
“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” – Viktor Frankl
Few of us will ever experience the horrors Frankl endured in the concentration camps. Yet, even in the midst of such a dire situation, he realized his true freedom. That freedom was his power to choose his attitude.
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that 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, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor Frankl
Although the Nazis could take everything from Frankl, they could not take away his power to choose his response to them. This is a reminder that no matter what life throws at you, you always have the freedom to choose your attitude. So who are you choosing to be?
Chapter 2: Logotherapy
Logotherapy is a type of therapy developed by Frankl. It focuses on our search for meaning. Instead of focusing on the past, logotherapy encourages you to redefine your existence, choose who you are becoming, and decide what decisions you need to make, right now, to pursue that goal.
For some prisoners, they found meaning in memories of their loved ones. Reflecting on the past enabled them to mentally escape the terror and brutality of the camp. For others, it was a lifelong partner or family member that they swore to never give up on.
Frankl says that those who were able to find comfort in their memories and have a clear goal for the future were better equipped to survive than others.
On the other hand:
“The prisoner who had lost faith in the future – his future – was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and become subject to mental and physical decay.” – Viktor Frankl
You can find the therapy in the path to your ultimate destination – whatever that may be. Rather than simply striving to gain pleasure and avoid pain, Logotherapy encourages us to not only be ready for the inevitable suffering in life, but to assign meaning to it.
Chapter 3: The Meaning of Life
The core of Frankl’s philosophy is that our biggest achievement is to discover purpose in our lives. If we can find that purpose, we can do anything.
Frankl began to realize that the prisoners who were surviving the conditions of the camp, shared one thing in common. They had a higher purpose. They held onto a hope that carried them through the terrible conditions. Whether it was a child waiting for them to return home, or an unfinished job or creative goal they vowed to finish.
Frankl realized that there is no universal definition of the meaning of life. What matters is the present moment. It is just like a game of chess; the best move is dependent on the present moment.
“Man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life” – Viktor Frankl
Despite it being terribly horrific, Frankl’s experience in Auschwitz only reinforced one of his core beliefs: life is not a pursuit of pleasure, as Freud suggested, or a pursuit of power, as Adler proposed, but rather it’s a pursuit of meaning.
Frankl identified a sense of meaning in his work, love, and adversity, and he used that to keep himself alive. Suffering, in and of itself, is meaningless. It is only through our response to it that we can give it meaning. So that poses the question: What does suffering now mean to you?
Closing
This book is one the most powerful tools I have found in my quest to live a life of meaning and be of service to others.
Your meaning is yours, and yours only, and no one can dictate that for you.
Your decisions shape you, and the degree to which you suffer is entirely dependent on how you choose to react to adversity. You can choose to succumb to suffering, or you can choose to flourish in spite of it. You can choose to surrender to the world around you, or find purpose and meaning in it. What will you choose?
For more content like my summary of Man’s Search For Meaning, subscribe to my newsletter below.
