Book Summary 8 — A Man’s search for Meaning!
Key Insights
The mental state and belief have a fundamental effect on the body.
The Will to Meaning
Search for meaning is the primary motivation, rather than secondary rationalisation.
- it’s unique and specific and can only be achieved by yourself, which is what makes it meaningful
Meaning of Life
- what matters is not the meaning of life in general, but more so the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.
- Don’t ask the question, but rather answer for yourself
Find:
1) by creating work or doing deed
2) experience smthg or encounter someone
3) attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering
Logo-therapy
- putting life together hanging on to one thin straw
- tracing neurosis back to failure to find meaning / responsibility
- Freud — sexual frustration
- Frankl — frustration in the “will-to-meaning”
Part I — The Camp
Periods in Concentration Camp
1) Admission — shock
2) Routine
3) Liberation
A) Shock
Delusion of Reprieve — illusion in the last minute that everything might turn out well
An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is a normal reaction.
B) Apathy
- emotional death
- The salvation of man is through love and in love.
- Love goes very far beyond physical person, deepest meaning in spiritual being / inner self
- Humour allows for aloofness and rising above situation in any situation for a few seconds
- Scale of relative luck (comparing yourself against others)
Fitting into the crowd — a method of self-preservation (to not be conspicuous
Unemployment / uncertainty around future makes days / hours feel much longer.
Suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
The mental state and belief have a fundamental effect on the body.
He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how- Nietzsche
When the impossibility if replacing a human being is realised, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude.
C) Liberation
- Bitterness — nobody recognises how much suffering
- Disillusionment — dreams goals not there or not as enticing as imagined
Part II -Logotherapy
Psychoanalysis
- telling about disagreeable things
- retrospective
- introspective
- strive for power / sex
Logotherapy
- listening to disagreeable things
- focus: future purpose
- the will to meaning
The Will to Meaning
Search for meaning is the primary motivation, rather than secondary rationalisation.
- it’s unique and specific and can only be achieved by yourself, which is what makes it meaningful
Noogebic Neurosis
- mind disorders
- existential problem
Existential Vacuum
- sometimes we don’t know what we want
- conformism — do what others do
- totalitarianism — do what others tell you to do
- manifest itself in the state of boredom
Meaning — will to …
- money
- power
- pleasure
Meaning of Life
- what matters is not the meaning of life in general, but more so the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.
- Don’t ask the question, but rather answer for yourself
Find:
1) by creating work or doing deed
2) experience smthg or encounter someone
3) attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering
Hyper-intention
- too focused on goal which is counterproductive (ie orgasm — concentrate on partner instead of yourself)
Paradoxical Intention
- do the opposite of what you want
- stay awake as long as possible if fear of sleeplessness
- tell people how much you sweat if you fear of sweating a lot
- joke about your situation
Every man can change anything.
MEn have good and evil within himself, which one is actualised depends on his decision, not on conditions.
Happiness
- can’t be forced
- but the reason to be happy needs to be found and then its automatic
- and you become optimistic
Mass Neurotic Symptom
- Depression — meaninglessness/unemployment neurosis, realise purpose later just give it time
- Aggression — only happy if joint task/purpose with another person
- Addiction — feel like life is meaningless
What’s the meaning?
- Study people who claim they found theirs
1) Create work / do a deed
2) Love
3) Attitude towards unavoidable suffering
- see it as growth experience “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
The world is in a bad state and will only be worse if we don’t do our best.
— Since Ausschwitz we know what man is capable of.
— Since Hiroshima we know what’s at stake.
