Man's Search For Meaning

I have been reading Viktor Frankls' "Man Search For Meaning," which has sold over 12 million copies since it was first published in 1949. A good friend suggested I read it since its theme is very close to all that I have tried to say in the past year. Many of you have probably read it.

The book is a tragic recount of Dr. Frankl's experience in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, from 1942 until 1945. And yet it is an amazing tale of survival and the human spirit. "Without suffering," he says, "human life cannot be complete."

In no way would I ever attempt to compare my past year to his tremendous agony, but from reading this book, I have learned so much from his theories of why we experience suffering. If I could summarize my thoughts from his book, it would be,

Each person's suffering is unique.

Each person's lessons are his rewards.

Each person's purpose is his gift back to the world.

Rather than to try to explain my own translations, I will copy some of my favorite quotes from the book.

"If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an eradicable part of life, even as fate and death. . . . The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity -- even under the most difficult circumstances -- to add a deeper meaning to his life."

"It does not really matter what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us. Our answers (to the questions of life) must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

"Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued, it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it."

"Humor is one of the soul's weapons in the fight for self preservation. It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation. . . . Any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp . . . it is this spiritual freedom which makes life meaningful and purposeful."

The second half of Dr. Frankl's book is an explanation of his psychological theories called "logotherapy." Rather than based on our past, like most therapy, logotherapy focuses on the future . . . on the meanings to be fulfilled by a person in his future. According to logotherapy, the striving to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man. He calls it "a will to meaning." He explains that once we know the "why" for our existence, we will be able to bare almost any "how."

I am not alone in my generation of Baby Boomers who strive to do good and find our purpose. Currently in this country, every day, 8,000 people turn 60 years old, many of whom are entering a new phase in that search for meaning.  Viktor Frankl's book has never been more pertinent.