Viktor Frankl's book is a classic. A story of survival in the Nazi concentration camps and a manual for finding meaning even in the most difficult of circumstances.
Frankl's book has one overriding premise. Man's most essential quest is not the quest for pleasure or for power but for meaning. When our life has no meaning, then we lose hope. And when we lose hope, then we have lost everything.
Imprisoned in a concentration camp, Frankl was confronted with the cruelty of humanity. Prisoners fought each other for survival. Guards demeaned, mocked, tortured, and killed, intending to break the spirit as much as the body of those under their control. Many prisoners simply gave up. They commited suicide or entered a stage of apathy and "emotional death." But some survived.
How?
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. …Any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him–mentally and spiritually.
Frankl survived by choosing to find meaning in his suffering–by looking toward the future and holding onto a purpose, onto hope.
It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future. And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task.
From his experience, Frankl designed what he called "logotherapy." Rather than focusing on the past to find reasons for one's problems, Frankl encouraged people to look toward the future and to find a purpose toward which to live.
Frankl believed that most psychological "problems" are not problems at all but merely manifestations of the reality of human existence. As humans, we are meant to live with tensions and problems. "What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task."
As Frankl analyzed "American culture," he predicted that meaningless would be the biggest problem facing many Americans. This lack of meaning would manifest itself "mainly in a state of boredom."
"People have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning."
In pursuing happiness instead of purpose and meaning, Americans would miss out on both. Happiness is not a goal in itself but rather a by-product of having a meaningful life. But because Americans elevate happiness to a goal in itself, "the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy." (Stop and read that one again.)
This inevitable boredom about life and increasing unhappiness would lead to "sexual compensation" and "addiction."
In such cases, "meaning orientation had subsided, and consequently the seeking of immediate pleasure had taken over."
"This pursuit of sexual pleasure becomes self-defeating. Indeed, what is called 'the pleasure principle' is, rather, a fun-spoiler."
Regarding addiction, Frankl noted that 90 percent of alcoholics had "suffered from an abysmal feeling of meaningless." And of drug addicts, 100 percent believed that "things seemed meaningless."
Thus, for Frankl, "man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life."
Frankl proposed that ultimate meaning is only found in love.
The more one forgets himself–by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love–the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. …The salvation of man is through love and in love.
There is no doubt that Frankl was on to something. His book has touched the hearts of countless lives and his story itself is a testament to the power of meaning in the most adverse of circumstances.
But Frankl's search for meaning unfortunately can not transcend death. His hope is primarily fixed in this life. For those who died in the concentration camps, Frankl's quest for meaning offers no real comfort.
Hope truly is the necessary cure for meaninglessness and the enabling power to get through suffering. But true hope is found in only one place…actually in only one Person.
Jesus Christ.
The One who conquered sin on the cross.
The One who conquered death through His resurrection.
The One coming back to bring peace and righteousness to a broken, unjust world.
And the man who embraces Him finds not only meaning in this life. He finds Life itself.
