Man's Search For Meaning Summary
Viktor E. Frankl’s experience throughout the years of the Holocaust revolutionized the world around him. Utilizing each spare moment, he applied his knowledge to create a broader spectrum of psychotherapy. His tribulations inside of the concentration camps expanded the world of psychology to new depths of understanding. Within Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl explores not only the physical labors of the concentration camps, but also the mental hardships each prisoner experienced and applied this knowledge to evolve his theory of Logotherapy into psychiatry. Frankl illustrates his survival in 3 stages throughout the Holocaust. Upon first entering Auschwitz, the men, women and children who arrived were forced into a selection process. False
…show more content…
The development of a dead-like sensation flooded in, leaving prisoners with no sense of relief to their miserable lives. Even in nightmares, Frankl states, there would be nothing worse than the lives they were living. A miserable life left all of the prisoners with a sensation that was similar to death, without the advantages. Apathy flourished in the camps. In the times of extreme doubt, Viktor E. Frankl discovered his next theory of Logotherapy. At what seemed to be his most desperate time of need in the concentration camps, Frankl came face to face with his reason to live. As he fought through the tortures of work in the bitter cold, he envisioned his wife. He greeted her and spoke and during this conversation he grasped the impact of his love. “The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved” (Frankl 37). In the brief moment he witnessed his wife he regained a meaning that had been lost. The passion that still thrived in the form of his loved one gave him the inspiration to forge forward and endure the time left in the camp. Their love provided them a blanket of warmth which would give Frankl a sense of security and comfort. The ultimate product of love illustrates the drive of a human. As Frankl states “Thus far we have shown that the meaning of life always changes, but it never ceases to be”. He defines love under one of the changes, that the passion for one another is strong enough to keep a man alive and living
The development of a dead-like sensation flooded in, leaving prisoners with no sense of relief to their miserable lives. Even in nightmares, Frankl states, there would be nothing worse than the lives they were living. A miserable life left all of the prisoners with a sensation that was similar to death, without the advantages. Apathy flourished in the camps. In the times of extreme doubt, Viktor E. Frankl discovered his next theory of Logotherapy. At what seemed to be his most desperate time of need in the concentration camps, Frankl came face to face with his reason to live. As he fought through the tortures of work in the bitter cold, he envisioned his wife. He greeted her and spoke and during this conversation he grasped the impact of his love. “The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved” (Frankl 37). In the brief moment he witnessed his wife he regained a meaning that had been lost. The passion that still thrived in the form of his loved one gave him the inspiration to forge forward and endure the time left in the camp. Their love provided them a blanket of warmth which would give Frankl a sense of security and comfort. The ultimate product of love illustrates the drive of a human. As Frankl states “Thus far we have shown that the meaning of life always changes, but it never ceases to be”. He defines love under one of the changes, that the passion for one another is strong enough to keep a man alive and living