Suffering and Meaning
Viktor E Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning is a best seller for a reason. If you’re here trying to decide whether you should read it; the answer is yes. Go read it. If you’re here trying to figure out if it’s a good read, then I must say it is exceptional. Go grab the book and you won’t regret it. That’s the review, that’s my verdict and you can stop reading further. But I’m still writing about the book to describe what I learned.
This book is not a joyful read. It is rather edifying one. It explains what a human being is capable of and what is ultimately at stake. The last two lines of the book will linger with you long after you close it.
The book has two parts; the first part is about writer’s experience in the concentration camps, and the second part is an introduction to logotherapy. I won’t write much about the first part. In describing his experience, in part I Frankl quotes poet Rilke, Wie viel ist aufzuleiden! (how much suffering there is to get through!). The book is full of such sentences, and they are heartbreaking. It is a terribly sad read, even though Frankl deliberately omits graphic details. A central theme in the first part is how a person can still possess inner freedom even in the depths of suffering. This theme continues into Part II. We’ve all heard the maxim: Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional. When the pain is inevitable and suffering is inevitable, how man has the freedom to learn and rise above the suffering is the lesson of part I. If you have the option to avoid pain/suffering, avoid it. But if pain/suffering is unavoidable, this book teaches how to find meaning within suffering. Frankl writes, everywhere man is confronted with the fate, has a chance of achieving something through his own suffering. We always have freedom: to succumb to hardship or to make it work in our favor.
Logotherapy
Second part is about the logotherapy. Logotherapy, or “healing through meaning” in Greek, is the psychological theory developed by Viktor Frankl. It stands in contrast to Freud’s and Adler’s theories. The central motivating force in Freud’s theory is “will to pleasure,” Adler’s is “will to power,” and Frankl’s is “will to meaning.” According to logotherapy, striving to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man. In contrast to Freudian psychology which is simply based on pleasure principle; in contrast to Adlerian psychology which focuses on striving for superiority. Logotherapy in nutshell leans into existentialism. It reminds me of Dostoevsky’s philosophy that suffering does not break people, but it reveals them. With logotherapy, one can learn to reveal themself in a meaningful way when dealing with inevitable.
Logotherapy, I understood is about filling “the existential vacuum”a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness with the meaning. It is interesting how Frankl states existential vacuum is a widespread phenomenon of a 20th century. I think it remains just as widespread and significant phenomenon of 21st century giving rise to conformism (one wishes to do what others do) or totalitarianism (doing what others wish them to do). Think about our idealism of ‘mental health’ which imply that people are ought to be happy. People can’t even express their unhappiness openly. This increases the burden of unhappiness by causing more unhappiness about being unhappy. So, people are not only unhappy but also ashamed of being unhappy. Optimism or happiness it's not anything to be commanded or ordered. One cannot be commanded or ordered to “be happy”. Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. If one is talking about existentialism, then there comes the topic of freedom as well. Freedom is only part of this story and half of the truth. The other half of the truth is responsibleness. Frankel writes freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.
How do we find meaning?
Logotherapy teaches that there are three main avenues of finding meaning in life: 1) by creating a work or by doing a deed. 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone. 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. The first way is very obvious, and it is about the achievement or accomplishment of a person; it's about living the purpose of your life. The second way of finding a meaning of life is experiencing something; it could be nature, culture, goodness, truth, beauty and experiencing another being in their very uniqueness by loving him/her. One can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being only by loving them. Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his/her personality. The third way is when encountered with hopeless situation, by rising above oneself and growing beyond oneself and by doing so changing themself so one can achieve meaning.
Let me be clear here that suffering is not necessary to find meaning. If suffering is avoidable, meaningful thing to do is to remove its cause; be it be psychological, biological, or political cause. To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic. Frankl only insist that meaning is possible even in spite of suffering provided certainly that the suffering is unavoidable.
Also, I got curious to know whether logotherapy has been used in clinical psychology. Like any curious medical professional I searched logotherapy on PubMed, and it has even been applied in anxiety, depression, burnout, symptom management in Breast/Gyn cancer, and cancer symptoms in general.
Final Thoughts about Suffering and Meaning
No human being in my opinion is immune to suffering; depression, sadness, guilt, pain, grief, curveball, or downward spiral of life, whatever you name it; every adult has experienced some version of it. But, if you have read this book and absorbed its essence, then in those moments you will pause to think ‘what could be the meaning of this particular situation of life?’ How is it possible to say yes to life in spite of all that? How to pose a question differently so life retains its potential meaning despite the tragedy? If you reach that point of pausing and questioning, you’ve got the gist of this book and you got it good, you’ve understood the heart of this book deeply. And I am sure you are capable of finding the answer. That answer is your meaning. Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.
What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you. - Viktor E Frankl
