My Favorite Lines: A Man's Search For Meaning By Viktor Frankl

Below are a few of My Favorite Lines from A Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. You can find all my notes HERE.

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“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your inner freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.” - p. x

“Don’t aim at success -- the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what you conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run -- in the long run, I say! -- success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.” - p. xv

“A man’s suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the ‘size’ of human suffering is absolutely relative.” - p. 44

“In attempting this psychological presentation and a psychopathological explanation of the typical characteristics of a concentration camp inmate, I may give the impression that the human being is completely and unavoidably influenced by his surroundings. (In this case the surroundings being the unique of camp life, which forced the prisoner to conform his conduct to a certain set pattern.) But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings? Is that theory true which would have us believe that man is no more than a product of many conditional and environmental factors -- be they of a biological, psychological or sociological nature? Is man but an accidental product of these? Most important, do the prisoners’ reactions to the singular world of the concentration camp prove that man cannot escape the influences of his surroundings? Does man have no choice of action in the face of such circumstances?

We can answer these questions from experience as well as on principle. The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms -- to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, you inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the playing of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate.

Seen from this point of view, the mental reactions of the inmates of a concentration camp must seem more to us than the mere expression of certain physical and sociological conditions. Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him -- mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.” - p. 65-66

“Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become ... 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.” - p. 104-105

“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.” - p. 109

“Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself -- be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself -- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love -- the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.” - p. 110-111

“The question was whether an ape which was being used to develop poliomyelitis serum, and for this reason punctured again and again, would ever be able to grasp the meaning of its suffering. Unanimously, the group replied that of course it would not: with its limited intelligence, it could not enter into the world of man, i.e., the only world in which the meaning of its suffering would be understandable. Then I pushed forward with the following question: ‘And what about man? Are you sure the world is a terminal point in the evolution of the cosmos? Is it not conceivable that there is still another dimension, a world beyond man’s world; a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human suffering would find an answer?’” - p. 118

“First of all, there is a danger inherent in the teaching of man’s ‘nothingbutness,’ the theory that is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. Such a view of man makes a neurotic believe what he is prone to be believe anyway, that he is the pawn and victim of outer influences or inner circumstances. This neurotic fatalism is fostered and strengthened by a psychotherapy which denies man is free.

To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward conditions. As I once put it: ‘As a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry, I am fully aware of the extent to which man is subject to biological, psychological and sociological conditions. But in addition to being a professor in two fields I am a survivor of four camps -- concentration camps, that is -- and as such I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable.” - p. 130

“Man is not fully conditioned or determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.” - p. 131

Hey Josh

Below is a letter I wrote to a friend at the beginning of the year. He's a young graduate who hosted a retreat of sorts to help other young graduates transition from college to the real world. It's not easy for everyone. It wasn't for me. Here is what I wrote:

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Hey Josh,

Thanks for including me in this. I went through some Messiah withdrawal myself and know some guys really struggle after graduation so I think it's a cool idea. I read a book recently called A Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It really impacted me and I think it has some direct application to what you guys are trying to do with young alums. Frankl was a Jewish psychologist who survived
Auschwitz then wrote about his experience from a very unique perspective. The book doesn't have much to say about God, but it does have great insight into humanity -- insight that becomes even more powerful when you filter it through a Christian lens and recognize that those things are a part of God's design. His main premise is that man is ultimately searching for meaning (versus power or happiness as some psychologists would argue) and that he can find meaning through:
                                                                           
1. Purposeful work
2. Meaningful relationships (love)
3. Courage in the face of suffering

Messiah provided guys with both purposeful work and meaningful relationships (and you could make a case for suffering as well) and those things gave meaning to guys' four years on the team. For a lot of guys, however, graduation leaves them without purposeful work and without the same meaningful relationships (those relationships still exist, but the context is different). So, for whatever it's worth, my advice to young Messiah grads is: seek out purposeful work and meaningful relationships. (Suffering is not something to pursue and should be avoided if possible, Frankl says, but one can find meaning in suffering if forced into it.) Purposeful work might be found in a job. It might not. It might require a career change. It might not. It might mean finding purpose in the job you already have. It might mean throwing yourself into work that doesn't pay the bills. Whatever it is, don't be afraid of work. We were created for it. As for seeking out meaningful relationships, my best advice is to find a good church and get involved (versus just showing up on Sunday mornings). Can you be a Christian and not go to church? Sure, but that's not the way it's supposed to be and you deprive yourself if you try to go at it alone. A life filled with purposeful work and meaningful relationships is a good life.

Do with that what you like, but those are my thoughts on the topic.

Hope the weekend goes well!

Viss