Man's search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

2024-11-24 3 min read Sincheenz

Anguish is unique to each person. No one can fully understand another’s pain, and it’s not helpful to tell someone there are others suffering more. However, it is comforting to know that those who have endured far greater pain have found ways to cope, and that gives you hope that you can manage yours as well.

This book is not about what you need to do to attain bliss and be in a constant state of happiness. Rather, it tells you that seeking happiness should not be a goal. “Happiness cannot be pursued, it must ensue. One must have a reason to be happy. Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically."

Purpose or meaning can change, and everything that you already experienced gives you a chance to redefine your purpose. I like the analogy to the movie, there are several scenes that make up the full movie which conveys a single message, but the scenes themselves leave behind impressions too. It is the sum of things and so is our life.

There is no point holding on to one experience or one incident, we need to move on and find new ways to continue living.

The first part of the book, Viktor Frankl talks about his life in the concentration camps. He doesn’t go into details of torture and suffering, but from the incidents and episodes he mentions, leave a deep ache in your heart.Viktor Frankl is not lecturing about how you need to face life and how you need to follow his example to solve your problems. He time and again mentions tha luck and fortune were on his side, and this was the key factor that left him alive.

Viktor Frankl provides a first-hand account of what goes on in the mind during the worst of times (and I cannot imagine anything worse than being in the concentration camp), and he shows us what it really means: “He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How”

“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you”

The second part of the book, talks about Logotherapy. A therapy method he introduced. “Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond vy being responsible. Thus, logotherapy sees in responsibleness the very essence of human existence.” “Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” “Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.”

It has been a hard, yet rewarding journey to accept the world around me as it is and see and appreciate things as they are and make the best of what is available to me. Reaching this current state of mind has been quite a journey. If I had read this book earlier, it might have helped me get here sooner. Of course there are still many days where I ask myelf, if there is a point to all things I am doing.But reading this book reminded me that while we may not be able to change all that life brings, we can change the way we view it.

Loved it. Hope you get a chance to read it too.