Man’s search for meaning | A psychology concept, A book review |
Is there a meaning behind everything that happens in our life?
Why do we need a purpose in life?
Don’t we all need to have a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging somewhere, or to some cause? Being a writer to offer a part of yourself to the world in front of you. Raising a family and maintaining a lovely bond among ourselves. Taking care of pets, excelling in our career, offering our technology based solutions etc. The purpose we devote ourselves to keeps us satisfied internally; keeps us calm and composed.
And what happens when we are failing at our job, our purpose, or our commitment? We feel sad, disturbed, irritated and sometimes in more serious circumstances it feels like our whole world is falling apart. It signifies that, to be at peace with our inner self we need to be performing well in the cause we are devoting ourselves to.
In our daily life, we are almost always aware of our purpose without having to make a search for one. It comes naturally; we choose it based on our interests or social norms, we choose it consciously or unconsciously.
What will happen if we lose that sense of purpose? Or what if we are unable to realize the meaning of our struggles? Sometimes we see people among ourselves harping , “ Why it’s happening to me ! I cannot take it anymore! I am done” Or, “ How can I make sense of that? I am just hopeless.”
That uncertainty about meaning and purpose in life creates a void and that’s how we start feeling worthless! It can lead to anxiety and even neuroses sometimes, a concept on which psychologists agree.
Is there a meaning to everything in life?
Everything that we experience, any action that we undertake and any unavoidable suffering that we might have to endure has a meaning in our lives. It is upon us to look for that meaning and plan and behave accordingly.
How do we search for meaning ( consciously or unconsciously )?
We access a situation ( search for meaning ) and formulate our strategy for an action to undertake, and only then we grow.
We experience the emotions; the love, the sadness, the worthiness, the worthlessness, the anger, the hate etc., and then our minds integrates all of these (search for meaning ), so as to make us react properly and be emotionally intelligent.
And sometimes we actually have to undergo mental or physical suffering, and if we can see meaning behind the veil of suffering it would make us so robust and so sturdy that we achieve a level of self- transcendence where we get that spiritual power to bear anything. A suffering resulting in a meaningful power.
This is the basis of logo therapy, a technique to treat neuroses by helping and allowing the patients/ victims to realize their purpose in life, a meaning that would lit fire of hope and life in them again.
Viktor E. Frankl, a psychiatrist and a neurologist, proposed that in such situations it is our spiritual strength that makes us endure such times however tremendous the suffering may be. He presented that trying to find meaning in every moment of life whether happy or sad results in the ability of a person to grow spiritually and a state of self- transcendence is achieved where a person can even endure an unavoidable suffering ( tortures of concentration camps in his case ) with dignity, provided that the person understands the bigger picture behind the veil of his suffering.
And who was Viktor E. Frankl? He was one of the camp inmates at Auschwitz concentration camps during World War II where the humanity suffered the grimmest of mental and physical tortures about which we read in history books. He was a direct victim of such horrible tortures and yet he comes and proposes that any situation is bearable with spiritual strength. This argument as it comes from him has earned the worthiness to be considered because he himself regarded his suffering in camps as his preparation that led him to understand human psychology deeply under grim circumstances. He carved a meaning out of his suffering and present his idea of “Logo therapy”.
He promoted the Nietzsche saying , “ He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”
A Brief introduction to book!
I have written my story based on the concept presented in this book, and summarizing it was harder than I’d imagined!
The book is authored by Viktor E. Frankl and it was first published in 1946 in German under the original English title, “ From Death- Camp to Existentialism.”
First part harbors the autobiography where the writer jots down the experiences of the events that happened in Auschwitz concentration camps. He attempts to explain the psychological basis of experiences and behaviors of the camp inmates towards the physical and mental tortures. He links these explanations to the second part of book where he introduces his concept of logo therapy and a lot of psychological terminologies with their explanations. Interestingly, logo therapy emerged as a third school of thought in psychotherapy. Logo therapy is a version of existential analysis, the very concept this book elaborates with logical, theoretical and qualitative evidence. I actually could relate to some explanations and appreciate the credibility of others!
The learning experience from this very thoughtful piece of work prompted me to cover it in my story. The book is really helpful and I hope the same goes for this article!
