Is The Meaning… Meaning?

August 15, 2006

I’ve been meaning to get back into the habit of having a book to read at all times. While I was in school I had no choice but to read what my professors wanted. I told myself that when I was done I was going to start reading for pleasure again. Well… it’s been almost two years. It took me a while, but I finally started again during my vacation. I went to the bookstore my first day on vacation and wandered the aisles looking for something to read. I eventually found my way to the psychology section (imagine that) and picked up several books.

The first of my new purchases to get read was Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning, considered by many to be one of the “classic” psychological texts. Originally published in 1959, Man’s Search For Meaning, and the therapeutic approach he presents in it, earned Frankl the lofty title of “leader” of the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (FYI: Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and Alfred Adler’s version of psychoanalysis are generally considered the First and Second Schools, respectively). A reviewer from DePaul University went as far as to call Frankl “the most significant modern thinker in the field.” So I figured it was worth the small investment of time and money to give it a read.

Man’s Search, as I will refer to it from now on, is basically divided into two parts. The first part details Frankl’s experiences as a prisoner of the Nazis during World War II. Frankl spent many years at Auschwitz and Dachau and he details that time from a first-hand perspective. One notable difference between Frankl’s account and other accounts of concentration camp prisoners is that his recollection comes from the perspective of a psychiatrist… that is, he details the psychology of the concentration camp as much, if not more, than the day to day events of his life.

It is from these experiences that Viktor Frankl developed his approach to psychology, called logotherapy. According to Frankl (and logotherapy), the great motivator of human achievement and personal development is the search for meaning in life. Logotherapy got its name from the Greek word logos, which means… you guessed it… “meaning”. Even suffering, says Frankl, can have a meaning that makes its endurance a worthy cause.

I think Frankl may be on to something. And while I’m not ready to proclaim the search for meaning as the ultimate purpose in life, it’s hard to ignore the message of Man’s Search.

The First Viennese School of Psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, is built on what Freud called “the pleasure principle.” I discuss the pleasure principle in more detail in a past post. Basically, it says that human beings are motivated to pursue pleasure and avoid pain and that mental distress is the result of unpleasurable experiences and unsatisfied drives.

Logotherapy rejects this assertion. Frankl talks about “the will to meaning” as being the primary motivator of humans. Finding meanings in life, according to Man’s Search, is not a secondary consequence of life - it is the primary goal. Without meaning, life seems empty and the actions we take may seem aimless and unfocused. By finding a meaning to the choices we make and the actions we take, Frankl states that life can take on an entirely new and fulfilling purpose.

Even suffering, which Frankl became quite familiar with, has a meaning. In one example, he tells the story of man who came to see him because of a great loss. The man’s wife had recently died and he was suffering greatly because of it. Frankl asked the man what would have happened if he had died instead of his wife. The man replied that his wife would have suffered tremendously at his death. By experiencing the suffering he was going through, the man had spared his wife the same fate, Frankl explained. The man’s suffering had a meaning. And as Frankl tells the story, the man became a little happier, shook his hand, thanked him, and left.

Was it a stretch to pitch a meaning such as this to a suffering patient? Perhaps. Would everyone find solace in such a meaning? Probably not. But it’s hard to deny that it does possess a certain logic. Of course, most of the approaches to psychotherapy do contain a logic of their own. Whether or not they are successful depends on the patient in question more than anything else. Frankl had enough success with logotherapy to warrant it’s inclusion in most psychological training programs and college curriculums.

I’m glossing over the details of logotherapy here. It is a very in-depth and encompassing theory. Frankl talks about many specifics and counters many of the ideals that dominated psychology at the time of it’s inception. At it’s core, logotherapy is an existential approach to therapy. In Frankl’s own words, it is introspective as opposed to retrospective. Mental illness is the result of “existential frustration” or a lack of meaning in one’s life (or for specific situations). As I stated before, I’m not ready to agree that all of our frustrations, problems, and issues are the result of unidentified meanings. But I can see how a meaning could make certain situations more palatable. I can even see how an explanation for an unpleasant situation, such as the example above, could be comforting to some people.

I enjoyed Man’s Search a great deal. Frankl’s recollection of his experience in the concentration camps was quite interesting, albeit tragic. The psychological perspective is one not found in many other texts on the subject. The details of logotherapy also proved interesting, particularly in their deviance from traditional psychotherapy. I see Man’s Search For Meaning being informative to a wide audience, even those outside of the psychological community. All of us could use help finding meaning in our lives, as Frankl suggests. If you’ve ever wondered why something happened… why you feel a certain way… or what the purpose of your life might be, Man’s Search might help you find.

Frankl doesn’t tell us what the meaning of life is. But he gives us some tools to figure it out for ourselves… if we’re up to the challenge.

Posted in Advice, Book Reviews, Human Nature, Noteworthy

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