Meaning in life according to Frankl ; can be of three kinds. The first being a higher purpose or calling, something you feel you have been put on this earth to achieve. The second is love, love for family, friends, and especially that special someone. The last is suffering. Suffering is an unavoidable part of human existence and it is upto man to find meaning in his own suffering.

The three sources of meaning

Life is like a movie; it’s ultimate meaning can only be seen in its conclusion. But each still in the movie has an inherent meaning of its own. It is up to us to make each frame and still meaningful to the best of our ability.

The meaning is in the moment

It is not the circumstances but an inner decision that leads to man’s behavior. We may blame our circumstances but the truth is our inner constitution was not strong enough. You can always control what you do in your limited capacity.

You decide to act

It is upto us even in the face of great adversity to act in accordance with who we are. The meaning of life is only attained through right action

How to attain meaning

Life does not care about our little trifles with meaning. Life questions each man and it is unto him to answers life’s question. And this is man’s primary meaning.

life's primary meaning

Man can survive any how as long as his why is strong enough

At the heart of the book

Another kind of man existence a man who has lost hope or meaning in his suffering. In the concentration camp there were these men who would give up and just lay down to die. No amount of threats or pleasantries could make them get up again. For example, a large number of people died right after Christmas, they had thought they would be rescued by this time and when this did not happen, they lost hope and gave up. Frankl noted that these men would start to smoke cigarettes they had hidden away, turning to primitive drive for pleasure.

A man without meaning

No matter the situation, we have the ability to choose how we react, we always have the choice to choose our attitude. As long as you hold onto this, no matter what happens, we would have lived well.

You never lose the ability to choose

Decent people are a minority. But a goal in life should be to be a part of this minority and strive hard to be decent.

The rarity of good people

It is up to each individual to define meaning for themselves. It is meaning that makes us rise above our animal instincts and reach for the divine within and outside ourselves. To make us virtuous and act in accordance with our higher ideals than falling to base pleasures. To make us fulfilled and happy. To become who were truly meant to be.

Conclusion

Men went to both extremes in the concentration camps, some became monsters in order to survive. While there were others who would go from hut to hut consoling people, giving away their last piece of bread. So what was the difference between them, the difference was their inner constitution. Similarly, in any situation be the man who tries to rise beyond and set his wings towards heaven.

Of angels and demons

How to decide whether you want to pursue something. Imagine you are on your deathbed and look back on events as if you did not pursue this goal.

How to gauge if something is meaningful

This describes what in essence makes human life worth living.

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.His book Man's Search for Meaning (first published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Originally published in 1946 as Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living. He was one of the key figures in existential therapy.

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