Human's search or meaning

Summary

”Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankl is one of the books I liked the most in the last 5 years. It gave my goosebumps, made me cry at times and made me emotional like few others, which made me want to put together a review and share it. The author, a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, states that the primary motivational force in life, which allows us to face any suffering or misfortune and drives us to continue, is the search for meaning in it. Whether in love, such as caring for others; courage, during suffering; or at work, in terms of doing something meaningful for oneself and for others.

The book could be summed up using this quote from Nietzsche, which the author uses more than once:

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

About the author

Victor Frankl is a psychiatrist born in 1905 who in 1942 was sent to a concentration camp. His parents, brother and wife died during those years, either from illness or execution. He went through four different concentration camps until April 1945, when he was liberated by the Allies. He learned of the deaths of his relatives only after his liberation.

A year later he published the first part of this book, recounting his experiences in the concentration camps. Years later he published another edition adding a second one, developing the foundations of logotherapy.

Part 1: Experiences in the concentration camps

Although I think many of us have seen movies, series or content about the Holocaust, reading the first-person accounts of someone who lived through that is something very different. The amount of daily suffering they went through is an extensive list recounted by the author that I prefer to omit here because it would make the review too long and part of me thinks it would be a bit morbid. However, this quote, where he also quotes Dostoyevsky, stuck in my mind and I saved it:

“If someone were to ask us now if Dostoyevsky’s statement that categorically defines man as a being capable of getting used to everything is true, we would answer: “Yes, man can get used to everything, but don’t ask us how.” But our psychological research has not yet taken us that far; we, prisoners, had not reached that point either. We were still in the first phase of our psychological reactions.”

During his experience he recognized 3 phases that each prisoner went through, something relevant to his theory of logotherapy. The first phase was shock upon arrival, a second phase was apathy when they had become accustomed to the routine of the camp, and a third phase was apathy when (and if) they were released.

The first phase is self-descriptive, the shock of arriving, seeing the state of the prisoners, what they were subjected to, being stripped of all their possessions and seeing the punishments suffered by others and themselves, among other things. In the first phase they were still emotionally affected by all these things.

On the psychological reactions during the transition from the first to the second noticing how people began to have apathy and “emotional death.” (two main characteristics of the second phase), he says:

“I think it was Lessing who once said: ‘There are things that must make you lose your mind or you will have nothing to lose.’ An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.”

A defense mechanism necessary to survive the atrocities that characterized their daily life.

The third stage, once a prisoner was released, was characterized by “depersonalization.” Feeling that everything was unreal, as if in a dream. Not a feeling of joy or euphoria as one might imagine.

The analogy that stuck with me is that of a diver coming quickly to the surface without gradually adapting to the change in pressure. The mind of the released prisoner was in danger of being suddenly freed from the constant pressure day after day.

Depending on each person, their experiences and precisely their meaning in life or lack thereof, this sudden release from daily pressures could cause them to now become the oppressor, seek revenge, be completely disillusioned and/or resentful of life with more than just reasons.

He even tells how a prisoner he knew, after what was an argument (I assume, since he does not mention the exact context), hit him and then told him “Cut off this hand if I don’t stain it with blood the day I get home!”

However, for every prisoner, whatever the case, after being released, there comes a day when they look back and say they don’t understand how they were able to endure all that. The how of that survival is the central theme of the book.

Regarding the quality of the guards, mentioning that there were some sadists but others not so bad or even with positive qualities, at the end of the first part of the book I liked:

“Life in a concentration camp tore the human soul apart and laid bare its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths we find again only human qualities that, by their very nature, were a mixture of good and evil? The gap that separates good from evil, which runs through all human beings, reaches to the deepest depths and becomes visible even at the bottom of the abyss that opens the concentration camp.”

Part 2: Logotherapy

The fact that one’s life has a concrete meaning, and therefore having a task to accomplish in the event that one is released from a situation like the one the author was subjected to, is what increases the chances of survival. Not only in the Nazi concentration camps but in others that existed in those years in Japan, North Korea and North Vietnam, according to the author’s studies, observations and other psychiatric studies.

I would personally add not losing hope of being released one day, since it is a necessary condition to even consider doing something after being deprived of freedom.

Logos denotes meaning/reason and that is where the concept of logotherapy comes from. Therapy based on a meaning or reason in life.

The main foundation of this theory is that the search for meaning is our primary motivational force. Which can cause some tension due to the difference between what one is or achieved and what one has yet to be or achieve, but it is precisely this tension that is key to mental health.

The author mentions this conversation with a psychoanalyst to compare it with psychoanalysis:

“Can you tell me in one sentence what is meant by logotherapy?” he asked me. “At least what is the difference between psychoanalysis and logotherapy?” “Yes,” I said, “but first of all, can you tell me in one sentence what you think is the essence of psychoanalysis?” And this was his answer: “During psychoanalysis, the patient must lie on a couch and tell things that are sometimes very unpleasant to tell.”

To which I immediately responded with the following improvisation: “Now, in logotherapy the patient can remain sitting upright but must listen to things that are sometimes very unpleasant to hear.”

This last is in contrast to the equilibrium or homeostasis that is sometimes promoted for mental health. In my opinion I think that a balance or alternation between equilibrium and this tension is necessary. Neither is sustainable in the long term all the time. Personally I noticed that my life itself is a series of stages of tension and equilibrium. Tension during the search for a job, equilibrium when getting one, tension after the loss of a loved one either through separation or death followed by equilibrium when being content in interpersonal relationships.

One question that may arise is “How do I find this meaning?” Although it is something unique for each person and according to him the therapist’s role is to help him find it, he establishes 3 concrete ways:

• At work, doing something meaningful or through a feat. In the English translation that I read, the word “deed” is used
• In love, caring for another person, such as a child or a partner
• In courage, during difficult times

Towards the end of the book and the second part, he uses examples of patients treated with this therapy once he returned to his professional practice. And also points and comments on existential emptiness, collective neurosis and a critique of pan-determinism. The latter would be the belief that we are the exclusive result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions. According to him, it is a belief that only worsens the mental health of someone who is neurotic, since it makes them believe something they are already prone to believe: that they are pawns and victims of external influences or internal circumstances.

Continuing the previous thread, he says

“Man is not totally conditioned or determined, but it is he himself who decides whether he will be carried away by conditions or whether he will confront them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determined. Man not only exists, but always decides what his existence will be like, what he will become in the next moment.”

A little more structure at the end of the second part would have made his theory on logotherapy clearer, but I imagine that later writings and developments on logotherapy go into more depth. However, as I said at the beginning, it is still one of the best books I have ever read. It has a spirit of uplifting the human condition even considering the most negative aspects of it, which is considerably inspiring.