Man’s Search for Meaning
What existencialism can teach us nowadays!
If you are seeking meaning in your life you should read this book!
I usually pick my books by the title in the bookstores or by some reference I get from any other book I’m reading. This was the case, one reference caught my attention and as soon I saw it in the bookstore I bought a copy for myself. What is impressive is the number of references I see from other authors to this one and when I’ve completed the book I finally understood why.
Viktor E. Frankl was an Austrian professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and the father of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis. During World War 2 he spent 3 years in concentration camps like Auschwitz and others. To be fair I was caught by surprise by this fact when I started to read this book.
The author exposes what he experienced for 3 years at concentration camps and somehow he bridges them into problems that affect society nowadays. So, what relation can we find between modern times and all the experiences of the author?
The existence with no Meaning can lead to several neuroses that affect us! This is the bridge that Viktor present us with. A human disposed of Meaning is a human that forfeits his life! This topic is very actual as we daily talk about burnout and millions of people leaving their employment, as the result of our lack of connection and meaning with jobs and lives;
Apathy, Conformity, and many other feelings were present in the 3 years of captivity, but while some were brought down to their body existence there were also humans capable to rise above this, they were the ones with the capacity to keep doing their choices, find love and also finding meaning in the suffering;
If you believe that there must be a meaning in your life, don’t forget that life is associated with death this is the natural behaviour of life, and with that in consideration, death also has meaning;
Love was a path for him to find meaning in life. As he put’s “The truth - That Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. The salvation of Man is through love and in love”;
We are the ones answering to life what is our meaning and not questioning it. Our life meaning is achieved as a result of our actions;
As members of a complex society, we seek meaning in our lives and we will become more and more in doubt with the arrival of AI technology that will impact jobs where the application of established knowledge is the only thing needed. This will create tension in our lives and we will be called to re-adapt.
To terminate this workpiece became Viktor’s meaning of life at least during the imprisonment time as the love he felt for his wife and the aim to return home to her. As he also highlights the states the meaning of one person varies throughout time.
I recommend this book, is an actual theme and all of us should read about Life's Meaning and existentialism!
