man's meaning

man's meaning

As people we spend much of our time seeking happiness and satisfaction, don’t we? We are brought up to experience as much pleasure as possible. We seek out friends that we enjoy being with. We choose a school that can give us academic and athletic fulfillment and we play video games to pass the time. We are raised with the expectation that the goal in our life is to be happy and content. Yet, when tragedy and disappointment strikes, is it possible to still be happy and to experience great meaning in our life?   Viktor Frankl, the author and main character in Man’s Search for Meaning, is a Jewish psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor. He uses the lessons he learns from his horrible experiences in concentration camps to find happiness and meaning in his life. At his arrival in the Auschwitz concentration camp Frankl witnesses brutality, shock and death. He reacts to the conditions not in a pessimistic and fatalistic way but discovers that as terrible as it is to watch people die, there are many lessons to learn and it is these lessons which help find happiness. “We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by doing a deed; (2) by experiencing a value in everything we experience; and (3) by suffering” (176). Subsequently, Viktor Frankl concludes that life has meaning under all circumstances even the most miserable ones and uses all of his experiences in the camps and as a psychiatrist to help others find meaning in their lives upon the release from the camps.   Much
Cammorata 2

growth occurs in Frankl because he chooses an attitude of optimism and hope to guide him. It is this choice that enables him to move forward and to help himself and others cope with the Nazis.  
During his first few months in the Nazi death camps Viktor Frankl learns that despite prisoners’ emotional and physical suffering, it is their positive outlook on life which allows them to survive. Frankl observes the emotional and physical suffering of prisoners who...