Everyone suffers. Few of us, however, will have to endure the
struggles of a man like Viktor Frankl. A prominent psychiatrist, philosopher,
and major contributor to the field of psychology in Vienna, he chose to remain
in his home country even as the systematic oppression by Nazis of Jews
intensified. Weighing the options of fleeing the country, he chose to remain
with his ageing parents to support them, regardless of the outcome.
Prospects for anyone in the concentration camps, especially
the elderly, were dire. Many would be selected immediately upon disembarking
the filthy trains and be sent to the gas chambers. Frankl was deported to
Czechoslovakia and eventually arrived in Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
Frankl’s parents and wife would eventually starve or be killed in concentration
camps, an outcome he expected. In spite of this, he remained what he would call
“a tragic optimist.” Part of him clung to a hope that, if he survived,
circumstances would have to improve eventually.
If he died, however, the whole purpose of his existence, his meaning would
be to suffer with dignity.
Here, his philosophy echoes the stoics and Buddhists. If
outside events are out of your control, that is, if there is nothing you can do
to alleviate your suffering, then you must accept your situation, and live day
by day to the best of your ability. Your purpose in each day, each moment, is
to act according to your life’s will to meaning. That is, chose the optimum
action to actualize your purpose in each given moment. If you have no choice
but to suffer and die, that is your purpose: dying well.
This philosophy is difficult to process for most of us.
Pain, suffering, death. How can accepting these grim realities improve our lives?
Agonizing over external events or realities will only add more misery to our lives.
For Frankl, getting through the day to day struggles in Auschwitz was made
tolerable by reflecting on how his future self would look back on his
imprisonment. Had he suffered nobly? Would he be able to look back with pride
on the challenge he overcame? He also found solace in the reflections of his
love for his wife. Even if she was dead, he reasoned, their love’s effects on
his life was eternal.
Even during the most wretched suffering of life, he found
that meaning for living could be discovered in three ways: by creating a work
or doing a deed, by experiencing something or encountering someone (mostly through
love), and by the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering. Discovering
meaning in life is an active practice. It can be found in learning the best actions
to take in any given situation. Many times this means emulating those
individuals who have lived meaningful lives (by our definition), while avoiding
the actions of those who live meaningless lives. For Frankl, finding a reason
to live filled the “existential vacuum” that he saw as the primary cause of
suffering in modern life.
Further reading:
Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Two comments on other posts:
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/04/stay.html
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/04/world-building-and-escapism.html
Two comments on other posts:
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/04/stay.html
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/04/world-building-and-escapism.html
What a marvelously meaningful life he achieved, through perseverance, and how many other lives must he have touched and elevated through his example! It certainly casts shade on most of the relatively-trivial worries most of us spend much too time and mental energy fretting over. Anyone who wonders what Camus meant about Sisyphus being "happy" needs only to absorb the message of this amazing book, whose author's quest for the heights should inspire us all.
ReplyDeleteFrankl spent the latter half of Man's Search for Meaning talking about his research in logotherapy, and a portion of that writing that is most relevant to us is his reflections of his university students. He said that a surprising number of his students reported that they lacked some form of defining meaning in their lives, and it had created a lot of undo stress and suffering in their lives. Frankl also said that suffering is noble, but to make unnecessary suffering for yourself is foolish, so you should reduce the suffering you can reduce and bear whatever you can't reduce. So, if college students are lacking meaning in their lives, and this is forcing them into an existential angst, whose responsibility is it to show them the way to meaning? Their parents? The university? Society? Just food for thought, since it relates to us.
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