Man's Search for Meaning

Last updated: Dec 4, 2022 17:08:50

Viktor E. Frankl

Written by Viktor Emil Frankl (1905-1997), who was a Viennese neurologist, psychiatrist and founder and propagator of Logotherapy. Logotherapy is a school of psychology, with focus on the future and discovering man’s life purpose, which Frankl claims is essential and a pure need of a man and needs to be fulfilled. The meaning is changeable in time and is unique to every man in every part of his life. He argues that there is no universal meaning to be found and man should not try to do that (at least yet with our limited cognitive abilities). Man should find his own meaning in life. Frankl’s will to meaning is different to Freudian will to pleasure in that pleasure can be sacrificed in order to pursue the meaningful thing, and man remains psychologically healthy. Although it is important to note, that to find meaning one doesn’t need to suffer.

Frankl was one of a very few, who survived concentration camps and brings unusual experiences and stories from that environment. From the environment, where all seems lost and man can only wait for his dead. He argues this standpoint. There is always meaning to be found in suffering bravely.

There is a very important point of view, that Frankl offers:

It is not about what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us…

This really got me, I stared crying when reading this sentence. It still strucks me every time I let it sink in me… I wonder why? It shifts the focus from you to others and to problems you have to solve in your specific situation at that time. What is there for you? How can you be helpful? What responsibilities are there waiting for you in the future. Take a responsibility that comes with your freedom and be useful. There is something about it, that really resonates with me. Something that I admire in people who act like that sentence… E.g. My father, Honza Saidl, Nando and Ivan. Sacrifice some part of yourself for the others.. Its weird in a way.. Why should you be responsible? Why not just pursue happiness and pleasure? Why do I admire people that sacrifice themselves for the others or some worthwhile cause? I don’t have an answer now…

The second part of the book focuses on expressing what is Logotherapy and how it differs from other psychology approaches. It also describes some techniques used in Logotherapy and tells stories of real patients. One technique stuck with me. It is called Paradoxical Intention. Let’s paint one example: A guy is really anxious when he sweats. He hates when he sweats. When a situation, where he might sweat in front of others occurs, he gets anxious and sweats even more than he may have otherwise. The fact that he sweats so much in that situation makes him even more anxious and the vicious cycle strengthens itself. The prescribed solution to this problem would be for him to show off to others how much he sweats and through that get rid of the anxiety, which paradoxically can help to lessen the sweating. It could be used in almost any situation that brings you anxiety. Point to the “shameful” fact and embrace it. It could release me from my anxiety and help me to overcome the problem. It helps refocus patient’s attention from the problem to something else. It is used in treating insomnia (try to focus not to sleep), orgasm problems (focus on pleasuring the loved one) and more..

Frankl also brings up the inseparability of freedom and responsibility. He claims that freedom comes with responsibility and that responsibility is the positive side of the coin. For freedom can lead to arbitrary and meaningless behavior. But again.. Why just not use the freedom? What is it, that makes me to be responsible. Why does being responsible bringing meaning to me? It is maybe that with responsibility comes the guidelines on how to behave and how to act. On the other hand, you can freely focus only on pleasuring yourself. Why do I don’t want to do that? Why almost all of us to some extent don’t just pursue pleasures? Why people suffer voluntarily?

It is important to note that the whole concept embraces freedom. You have the freedom to choose your burden. In logotherapy sessions, doctor won’t say to you, “this is what you have to do” or “this is your the meaning of your life”. You are the one who is choosing it and finding it out.

• people in Auschwitz though mainly about food (basic needs and desires), they also dreamed about it
• although sex drive diminished, as not in for example other male institutions such as male barracks or prisons
• people had swollen feet ( edema) and could not sometimes fit in their shoes
• inmates become emotionally distant, an emotional shell forms around them, so they can survive the horrors of concentration camp, they become apathetic
• man is really adaptive
• life become primitive (survive!), that comes with primitive thinking (inmates talked mainly about food when they had spare time)
• inmates crave alone time ^0de131
• what privileges you to act as a king of the world? where do you get that privilege? where did you find out, that you are the center of the universe? what makes you important?
• Frankl points out that in every social group you can find both decent and bad people (es he dares to say saints and devils)

53: 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

Man always have one last thing left for him/her. The freedom to choose the attitude with which he responds to the circumstances. Man can not always choose the circumstances, but he can always choose the response.

54: It is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful

Why? I don’t understand..

58: Varying this, we could say that most men in a concentration camp believed that the real opportunities of life had passed. Yet, in reality, there was an opportunity and a challenge. One could make a victory of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners

If there is nothing left but suffering in man’s life, it still can have a meaning. Frankl argues that man can always find a meaning in suffering bravely and with his/her’s head up.

60: Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man—his courage and hope, or lack of them—and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. The ultimate cause of my friend’s death was that the expected liberation did not come and he was severely disappointed. This suddenly lowered his body’s resistance against the latent typhus infection. His faith in the future and his will to live had become paralyzed and his body fell victim to illness—and thus the voice of his dream was right after all

Mind and body connection again… The state of the mind is very important for your health.

60: any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” could be the guiding motto for all psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic efforts regarding prisoners. Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence

61: We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us

^30c5d6

62: But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer. Only very few realized that

62: I remember two cases of would-be suicide, which bore a striking similarity to each other. Both men had talked of their intentions to commit suicide. Both used the typical argument —they had nothing more to expect from life. In both cases it was a question of getting them to realize that life was still expecting something from them; something in the future was expected of them

63: This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how”

73: in comparison with psychoanalysis, is a method less retrospective and less introspective. Logotherapy focuses rather on the future, that is to say, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future. (Logotherapy, indeed, is a meaning-centered psychotherapy.) At the same time, logotherapy defocuses all the vicious-circle formations and feedback mechanisms which play such a great role in the development of neuroses. Thus, the typical self-centeredness of the neurotic is broken up instead of being continually fostered and reinforced

77: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” I can see in these words a motto which holds true for any psychotherapy. In the Nazi concentration camps, one could have witnessed that those who knew that there was a task waiting for them to fulfill were most apt to survive

78: What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task

Man only vegetates in tension-less state, he is slowly dying. The tension emerges from the difference of the current state of man’s being to his ideal. The gap is what creates the need for moving. The gap creates tension, that energizes people.

80: What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: “Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world”

The chess comparison is just great.

83: It is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning

83: But let me make it perfectly clear that in no way is suffering necessary to find meaning. I only insist that meaning is possible even in spite of suffering—provided, certainly, that the suffering is unavoidable. If it were avoidable, however, the meaningful thing to do would be to remove its cause, be it psychological, biological or political. To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic

83: In accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has a meaning up to the last moment, and it retains this meaning literally to the end. In other words, life’s meaning is an unconditional one, for it even includes the potential meaning of unavoidable suffering

There is always meaning to find, and it is in suffering bravely. Bearing your suffering courageously. With your head up.

86: What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms. Logos is deeper than logic.

88: Ironically enough, in the same way that fear brings to pass what one is afraid of, likewise a forced intention makes impossible what one forcibly wishes. This excessive intention, or “hyper-intention,” as I call it, can be observed particularly in cases of sexual neurosis. The more a man tries to demonstrate his sexual potency or a woman her ability to experience orgasm, the less they are able to succeed. Pleasure is, and must remain, a side-effect or by-product, and is destroyed and spoiled to the degree to which it is made a goal in itself

^f0169a

91: Paradoxical intention can also be applied in cases of sleep disturbance. The fear of sleeplessness results in a hyper- intention to fall asleep, which, in turn, incapacitates the patient to do so. To overcome this particular fear, I usually advise the patient not to try to sleep but rather to try to do just the opposite, that is, to stay awake as long as possible. In other words, the hyper-intention to fall asleep, arising from the anticipatory anxiety of not being able to do so, must be replaced by the paradoxical intention not to fall asleep, which soon will be followed by sleep

^3e92a9

95: Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast

^211a34

105: If it is avoidable, the meaningful thing to do is to remove its cause, for unnecessary suffering is masochistic rather than heroic. If, on the other hand, one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude. Long had not chosen to break his neck, but he did decide not to let himself be broken by what had happened to him.

109: Sigmund Freud once asserted, “Let one attempt to expose a number of the most diverse people uniformly to hunger. With the increase of the imperative urge of hunger all individual differences will blur, and in their stead will appear the uniform expression of the one unstilled urge.” Thank heaven, Sigmund Freud was spared knowing the concentration camps from the inside. His subjects lay on a couch designed in the plush style of Victorian culture, not in the filth of Auschwitz. There, the “individual differences” did not “blur” but, on the contrary. 109: Sigmund Freud once asserted, “Let one attempt to expose a number of the most diverse people uniformly to hunger. With the increase of the imperative urge of hunger all individual differences will blur, and in their stead will appear the uniform expression of the one unstilled urge.” Thank heaven, Sigmund Freud was spared knowing the concentration camps from the inside. His subjects lay on a couch designed in the plush style of Victorian culture, not in the filth of Auschwitz. There, the “individual differences” did not “blur” but, on the contrary.

• In enduring hardships I need to remember that: It is not about what I expect from life, but rather what life expects of me. My duties and burdens can provide meaning, which enables me to carry through.

1. Try to use Paradoxical Intention to get rid of the fear and anxiety from talking to women.

2022-05-14 11:41

I will try to answer these questions, that popped in my head when reading this book.

Why should you be responsible? Why not just pursue happiness and pleasure? ¹ Why do I admire people that sacrifice themselves for the others or some worthwhile cause? Why just not use the freedom? What is it, that makes me to be responsible. Why does being responsible bringing meaning to me? It is maybe that with responsibility comes the guidelines on how to behave and how to act. On the other hand, you can freely focus only on pleasuring yourself. Why do I don’t want to do that? Why almost all of us to some extent don’t just pursue pleasures? Why people suffer voluntarily?

Well… First, let’s make clear what the words, we are using, mean here

• pleasure: a feeling of enjoyment or satisfaction, or something that produces this feeling
• happiness: the feeling of being pleased or happy
• happy: feeling, showing, or causing pleasure or satisfaction
• satisfaction: the pleasant feeling you get when you receive something you wanted, or when you have done or are doing something you wanted to do
• enjoying: to feel happy because of doing or experiencing something
• fulfillment: a feeling of happiness because you are doing what you intended to do in life

The definitions really spin in the circle. I think the most descriptive is the word satisfaction. It also best describes the underlying biological mechanism that brings us the actual feeling described by above words caused by releasing chemicals (e.g. dopamine) into our brains. The reward circuit. You want or need something -> you get it -> you get the pleasant feeling = satisfaction.

I will base this argument on the fact, that we humans do have this reward circuit and that it is deeply embedded in ourselves and that it drives our actions and thoughts. It evolved as a tool for survival… Entity hungry, entity finds food, entity eats, entity satisfied. Circuit is now stronger and in the future, the entity will more likely behave according to the behavior, it was rewarded for. It is basically machine learning model optimizing for pursuing satisfaction. It may not be up to date with the current environment and society or do it’s job the best possible, but it still optimizes for this one thing - the amount of felt satisfaction. But it is really important to note, that it is not directly optimizing for survival. Animals developed this mechanism in order to survive. Also it is not the only tool, that animals on earth developed in order to survive. This distinction is really important, because it can easily answer questions like “Why do people take heroin?” - because heroin is like hack for this reward circuit. Entity takes heroin, entity satisfied, entity wants more heroin. Not taking into account, that it will probably die because of it. We humans have developed another tool - wonderful correction mechanism, this intelligent agent called prefrontal cortex aka consciousness aka ability to reason and think complex thoughts. That we may say to ourselves, heroin is maybe satisfying me, but in the longterm I will probably die, so it overrides the behavior caused by the reward circuit. But here I am not sure.. What motivations does this intelligent agent has? What drives him? Is it really just correction mechanism? Does it have a will of its own? I am really not sure. But it is connected to the reward circuit and it should be influenced by it.

Huge part of what we do and how we do it is optimizing for received satisfaction. And we are optimizing for it smartly and for the long-term, thanks to the intelligent part of our brains. That means we are for example sacrificing satisfaction for now, for we may feel it more in the future. We maybe split our food with fellow humans, so we can cooperate. Or we maybe decide not to eat animals because we love them and we don’t want them to suffer unnecessarily. And maybe we love, because it helps us to create deeper bonds and develop trust and once again helps us to cooperate more effectively and increase our chances to survive.

So, to answer above questions: We suffer voluntarily… We don’t just blindly pursue fast and easy satisfaction… We do things we should do and not necessarily want to do in the moment… Because of the biological tools inside us, which we have developed in order to survive - the reward circuit and the intelligent agent. And we optimize our behavior for goals these tools have. These tools and their behavior models are not perfect and they by themselves (probably) don’t care about survival, and maybe they are to be replaced in the future.

To relate this short writing to the main topic of the book - meaning - I have just to say, that meaning is another construct of these biological survival tools, that helps them satisfy their goals. Maybe we seek meaning, because it is driving power behind our social framework (that values and morality are part of) that helps us effectively lead individuals in our society, in a way that optimizes for highest probability of feeling satisfaction in the future and for all (explanations could be find in game theory maybe?).