Man,s Search For Meaning (Book Summary)

 

I've recently read man's search for meaning by author Viktor Frankl the meaning of life is to make life meaningful since meaning varies from day to day and hour to hour it's up to you and me to constantly search for meaning in our lives and generate a feeling of meaning this takes work but if we succeed we activate the single greatest source of productive energy human beings possess if we fail however we'll slowly fall into darkness and lose the will to live.

            Viktor Frankl a survivor of four Nazi concentration camps saw this firsthand when a prisoner in the concentration camp would lose hope and refuse to get out of bed for another day of forced

labor he would pull out a cigarette he'd been hiding in his jacket and start smoking Frankl says their meaning orientation had subsided and consequently the seeking of immediate pleasure had taken over at that moment we knew that for the next 48 hours or so we would watch them die after spending

three years in Nazi concentration camps Frankel realized that it was often the loss of meaning that took prisoners' lives and lest the lack of food or medicine after World War Two Frankel continued to see how critical meaning was in people's lives as a psychiatrist.

           Frankel witnessed patients who lacked meaning be quickly consumed with addiction anger and depression the loss of meaning had created an existential void in their life that was quickly filled with despair like a poisonous gas filling up a room but by helping patients through a form of therapy called logotherapy logo which is Greek

for meaning, he helped his patients fill their internal emptiness eliminate despair and activate an unlimited source of productive energy while being forced to find meaning during his time in Nazi concentration camps and helping others find meaning as a psychiatrist Frankel found that there are three primary sources of meaning what I've come to call the three wells of meaning :

       pursuing a life task loving selflessly and suffering bravely meaning well number one pursuing life tasks when Frankel entered the infamous Ashe wits death camp Nazi guards stripped Frankel of all

his possessions and confiscated a manuscript he'd been working on for his entire adult life after a period of shock and disbelief Frankel vowed to survive the death camp to one-day rewrite and complete that manuscript when he was suffering from typhus and on the brink of death he used scraps of paper he collected around the camp and started making shorthand notes to start the reconstruction of his

manuscript Frankel knew that the manuscript was a piece of work that only he could write no one had his collection of experiences knowledge and skills to bring that valuable work into the world he knew that he had to make it out of the camp to pursue his life's task because if he died his work would be

lost forever if you died today there'd be a task that you and only you could have completed a piece of work that required your unique collection of experiences knowledge and strengths maybe there was a lecture you were meant to give in the future a project you were meant to contribute to a team you were

meant to lead or a book you were meant to write Franko says in the Nazi concentration camps one could have witnessed that those who knew that there was a task waiting for them to fulfill were most apt to survive so what task awaits you if you don't know settled on a quest to discover your life's task

wake up each day with the goal of having new experiences acquiring new knowledge and developing a rare and valuable combination of skills when you feel like you need to prepare for a task that you and only you can do a task you were born to do in life feels meaningful meaning well.

          Number two loving selflessly before the war Frankel meant a distraught woman who had lost a son and had another son who was severely handicapped prior to meeting Franko she had tried to commit suicide with her disabled son but her son stopped her to help her regain a sense of meaning in her life and activate her will to live he asked her to imagine herself at 80 years old looking back in the life that was full of pleasure and free of the burden of taking care of her disabled son after some reflection she told Frankel looking back as an old woman I cannot see what

it was all for actually I must say my life was a failure then Frankel asked her to imagine a life dedicated to taking care of her handicapped son after some reflection she told Frankel I have made a fuller life possible for him I have made a better human being of my son I can look back peacefully on my life for I can say my life was full of meaning Frankel's definition of love is different than most it has little to do

with the feeling of being in love and more about struggling to help others succeed - Frankel love is an act of seeing the potential in others which is not yet actualized love is elevating people around you it's creating opportunities for your child it's mentoring a junior member of your team it's introducing your friend as someone who might help them find a career that better lines with their interests it's meeting a friend for coffee to help them brainstorm ideas for the latest business venture it's being with a sick parent so they can find the strength to live another day when you lack meaning decide every morning you will help elevate see the person or group of people whose life you will try to make a little bit better get so busy working to help others that you forget yourself in the process. Lives miss Franklin says the more one forgets himself by giving himself to another person to love the more human he is and

the more he actualizes himself meaning well. 

           Number three suffering bravely over the three years spent in the Nazi concentration camps

Frankel endured unimaginable amounts of suffering but he found a way to transcend that that suffering by imagining himself standing on a platform of a well-lit warm and pleasant lecture room in the book he says I imagine myself giving a lecture on the psychology of the concentration camp and all that oppressed me at that moment became objective seen and described from the remote viewpoint of science by this method I succeeded somehow in rising above the situation above the suffering of the

moment and I observed them as if they were already of the past when Nelson Mandela was thrown in prison for an unjust amount of time he saw and later on justified his suffering as a way to inspire millions around South Africa to forgive their enemies and work together to rebuild a nation his suffering had a purpose as Frankel says suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a

meaning whenever an unexpected uncontrollable setback happens in your life find meaning in it to prevent the suffering from turning into despair look at suffering objectively and ask yourself how might this be valuable often greatest value in suffering is how it strengthens your character when you think of your favorite movie then think of your favorite character in that movie they had to endure some sort of

suffering and through that suffering you discovered who they were and what they stood for imagine yourself a character in a movie and when you find yourself suffering see it as an opportunity to

strengthen your beliefs your values and your ideals and inspire others by doing so Franco says by accepting the challenge to suffer bravely life has a meaning up to the last moment and it retains this meaning literally till the end the most important task every day is to find meaning and make life meaningful we can make life meaningful by preparing and searching for our life's task by elevating others and by choosing to see suffering as a valuable opportunity to learn and strengthen our character the more you're able to find meaning from hour to hour and day to day the more likely you'll get to the end of your life and be proud of the life you lived that was the core message that I gather from man's search for meaning by Viktor. Let me hear your views on the meaning and purpose of life.