"Man's Search For Meaning" is Victor Frankl's most notable published work. In the 1958 book Dr. Frankl recounts his experience lived out in the Nazi concentration camps from September 25, 1942-April 27, 1945. While there are several vivid stories of life (if one could call it that) in the concentration camp (stories of excruciating labor, humiliation, and beatings) the focus of the book is to point beyond the suffering in such a way as to find meaning.Frankl writes on the use of suffering: "I consider it a dangerous misconception of mental hygiene to assume that what man needs in the first place is equilibrium or, as it is called in biology, 'homeostasis,' i.e., a tensionless state. What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.
We are taught to avoid suffering at all costs...it is the American way. Yet is is the American pursuit of comfort and ease (pursuit of the "tensionless state") that does little to develop a greater sense of purpose within our own human existence. Although not always welcomed, it is through suffering, pressure, and trial that one's meaning can truly develop and strengthen.
1 comment:
I read that book in college at the recommendation of a mentor. A great example of man defining his circumstances rather than his circumstances defining him. We could all stand to remind of ourselves of this.
~Jenn Brennan
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