Man S Search For Meaning Essay, Research Paper

Man s Search For Meaning

Victor E. Frankl who wrote Man s Search For Meaning, talks a great deal about suffering throughout the book. One of the main topics he discusses in regard to suffering is that of hope. Without hope then there would be no point in anyone enduring the suffering with which they endured during these nazi concentration camps.

Frankl says that, Every man was controlled by one thought only: to keep himself alive for the family waiting for him at home, and to save his friends. With no hesitation, therefore, he would arrange for another prisoner, another number, to take his place in the transport. This really shows how much suffering people went through just in hope of returning to loved ones.

Another one of his lines from his book is, Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it. In this Frankl says that suffering is a result of emotion and that as soon as we realize this suffering then that is when we can put an end to the suffering.

Another topic that Frankl discusses is the existential vacuum. Should the individual members of a family not be able to create the ambient and move towards the discovery of meaning, the family members may fall in danger of experiencing what Frankl calls the existential vacuum. This vacuum can be filled with either a developing sense of meaning or greater forms of neurotic anxiety, depression, substance abuse or diverse forms of dysfunctional human behavior

Also discussed is logotherapy. Logotherapy is a method of psychotherapy aimed at the activation of meaning in the individual’s life. It is suggested that when the individual does not have a meaningful aim in life an existential vacuum, is created which makes him prone to neurosis. Tension is perceived as a necessary and healthy result of man’s quest for meaning.