The Journey of Viktor Frankl: Man's search of meaning in the 21st century

“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

When we look back to the last 10 decades and ponder about that one cataclysmic event where mass 'genocide' took place; most people I know immediately comes up with the answer 'The Holocaust', an event where millions of people suffered loss of life, family and possessions. The most unimaginable cruelties where imposed on men, women and children and humanity still looks back and wonders about the two categories of individuals who were players in the event: The victims and the aggressors. How do people suffer so and how can one human being impose such suffering on another ?

Viktor Frankl is a Jewish psychiatrist who was sent to a concentration camp and lost his entire family in the holocaust with the exception of his sister. There he suffered unimaginable tortures and bore witness to many more; instead of losing hope however, he used the experiences and events he witnessed to come up with his theories of the human psyche and explain the actions and mental states of those people who survived or made a difference even under the harshest of conditions. He attributes this goal as the reason he survived the holocaust. He gives us an account of his experiences in the Stellar work; "Man's search for meaning"

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.” - Viktor Frankl

The branch of psychiatry that Frankl pioneered explains that most on man's neuroses and conditions are a result of the "lack of meaning" in his/her life. He uses the example of the 'Sunday neuroses' to explain his theory, the 'sinking feeling' most people get on sundays when they are relatively free of most work and get the blue's thinking about the week ahead or just from laying around inactive. He reasons that we are not powered by our instincts or drives, rather our primary motivation is to find a "meaning to our lives" ; How many of us can foresee ourselves lying on our deathbeds wishing we had more 'fun' or more 'pleasure' , More often than not most of people's underlying wants and needs are because they cannot rationalize what their existence on earth means, they are afraid of death because death means the termination of their soul on this earth without leaving any lasting legacy! They hate suffering because they cannot grasp the reason why suffering is imposed upon them. Making sense of prevailing crisis's results in the questions many human beings struggle with and more often than not some tend to take actions which in retrospect to themselves are not in sync with what they truly want "their innermost values or principles"

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how " - Friedrich Nietzche


Viktor Frankl argues that man should not ask life what his existence in this planet means, but recognize that it is he indeed who is asked BY LIFE and the burden of responsibility falls on his shoulders. Indeed the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" has stronger connotations than that which is initially apparent. It is when we recognize that our existence in this planet is for a purpose great than 'OURSELVES' do things make sense to us. But this is were Frankl comes up with his most important observation that is relevant to us in this world.

"The meaning of life always changes, but it never ceases to be " - Viktor Frankl

We are a society confronted with change in every sense of the word. Change is very much like an organic entity; its tendrils weaving itself into every sphere of our life. Frankl observes that we can still find a purpose in our lives by three avenues

1) Creating a work or doing a deed
2) By experiencing something or encountering someone
3) By the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering

Think of an event like 9/11 that resulted in soldiers went to foreign lands to fight for what they believed in; firefighters that gave up their lives and families, the inspired works of creative art (books, poems and movies) that were published and resonated with us 8 years after the event.

We then remember that each of us are unique; physically, mentally and even culturally. It is God's gift to us we take this uniqueness and make our existence in this world mean something to someone else. Self actualization should not be a goal in itself but rather a natural by product of our actions; too often life gives us clues that what we yearn for comes to us when we are not actively searching for it . Indeed self gratifying rewards are a by product of actions for a cause greater then the object of our yearning. It is also a testament to the uniqueness of each of us as individual human beings and the strength of our survival in this era.