Victor Frankl's Man Search for Meaning - Book Report/Review Example

Review of Victor Frankls Man Search for Meaning The notion of suffering and meaning. Frankl explains the horrific suffering he and his immediate family underwent as prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps. To him, suffering is when his entire family; wife, mother, father, brother save for his sister all died. They died because of mistreatment and some of them executed through gas chamber poisoning. While at the camp prisoners faced hunger, cold, fear, brutal beatings, and constant threats of execution. The writer was able to tolerate the humiliation and the anger for the injustices committed against him. In the book, Frankl asserts that images of his beloved ones and his religious believes kept him strong enough to condone these experiences during some moments. He held on to the simple thing, like the beauty of a sunrise, a new day to keep going strong. Although these moments provided relief from the real sufferings he faced, Frankl argues that, such relief and comfort could never establish the basis of a mans will to live. They can only assist persons to understand the meaning of the unreasonable suffering directed upon them. The inhumane experience that he and other prisoners underwent and overcame can be construed to mean, human being have a tremendous capacity to overcome the darkest of all tragedies. It will mostly happen after the realisation that there is nothing to lose except the so ridiculously naked life one has. It is through the writers efforts of seeking the meaning for his miserable life at the time that provided the most convincing and motivating reason to carry on. The writer teaches that, while living, human being will inevitably face pain and suffering, enduring the pain and the suffering will provide a way to understand their meaning. The writers argument is, if there is a purpose for living this life, then it follows that there is a purpose for suffering also. Only an individual can find out their purpose and then take necessary responsibilities accordingly. Therefore, suffering cannot be considered as suffering the moment an individual finds its meaning, for instance, the real meaning of a sacrifice. 2. Existential Vacuum The writer uses this term to represent a situation in which human being are faced with the experience of emptiness and meaningless of their personal life to the extent that these experience comes to haunts them repeatedly. Human development has caused changes in the traditions that man initially relied on as the basis for his behaviour. Additionally, man having lost his animal instinct is left with no guidelines on what he should or ought to do. This leaves him sometimes with no idea of what he wishes to do or he just conforms by wishing to do what other do or just does what fellow human him wants to do. According to the writer, it is mostly in a state of boredom that the existential vacuum is likely to manifest itself. Progressive automation of tasks as a result of developments in modern technology is causing many employees to have additional leisure hours. Consequently, a majority of this worker lacks ideas of what to do with the increased free time, this is the problem. Individual will get depressed when the realisation that their life lacks content. This is especially when their busy working schedule is over, and the emptiness deep inside them is manifested. In a bid to fill this vacuum, search for meaning, other will find themselves in the depths of addiction or guided by the will of power and more. The writer arguments about existential vacuum are valid. Personally I have ever experienced this phenomenon. There were times during my holidays that I had to deal with emptiness, the kind of emptiness that kept leading me to bars and drinking spree in search for something to fill the vacuum. I was looking for a meaning of my whole existence. But, I was not alone. After reading the book, I have realised how our society struggles to deal with boredom. It ranges from friends who take sexual escapade solely because they have time, and the ones who have to struggle with addiction that started as a weekend adventure. 3. Text review The book is a representation of the authors personal experiences and those of fellow prisoners by telling the story of the everyday life in a Nazi concentration camp. They endured horrible and human experiences at the hand of the prison guards and Capos. Capos were prisoner whom status had been elevated to take the duties of disciplining supervising fellow prisoners. The writer tells of the cruelty that weak and sick prisoner had to go through. They were rounded up for transport only to end up being executed in the gas chambers and their bodies cremated. In a bid to survive in these camps, prisoner always kept the objective of staying alive with the hope of seeing their family one day and saving his friends. Men lost their qualms in their daily fight to survive and were willing any mean possible, excellent or evil to save themselves, this was after experiencing the brutality and the endless transfers from one camp to another. At the camp, betrayal, even from the closest friend was the order of the day. The author description of the first day at the camp is full of a mixture relief and dread. They were relieved to disembark from an unreasonably overloaded train. The sight of Auschwitz brought fear; the gas chambers, the crematoriums, and the massacres. At the camp, fifteen hundred prisoner was held in a shed constructed to house not more than two hundred individual. They used to receive One five-ounce piece of bread as the food ration for four days, and this is evidence that hunger was the major challenge that the prisoners faced. The writer asserts that, at the camp the leading desire for the majority of prisoners was bread, cigarette, and a nice bath and that, discussion about food was considered dangerous. This text is emotionally captivating, the prisoners, even after experiencing the cruellest experiences ever, they still enjoyed the simple aspects of nature like the setting sun and the glowing skies. It kept their spirits high, with hopes of seeing another day even after losing all that one owned. For instance, the writer lost his entire family except his sister. As stated earlier, this is the writers story of personal experience and as such, it contains a lot of biases. It is only he that knows the accuracy of the entire story since he is our only inside man. Some of his judgements are not objective and some evaluations out of proportion. For instance, I find hard to fathom how a manual labourer can survive with One five-ounce piece of bread for four days and remain productive. 4. Suicides The life at the camps was cruel to the extend some prisoners preferred committing suicide, ending it all, ending the suffering. They would run to the barbed wire fence that was wired to live electricity for security purpose and electrocute them. Other hanged themselves. At the camp, there were strict rules forbidding any individual from trying to save fellow prisoners attempts to commit suicide. In the text, the writer discusses two attempted suicides. The men in context had reached a point where they no longer expected anything out of this life. Frankl argument against this is that, although there was nothing to expect from life for this men, their lives still expected a lot from them. One man had a child waiting for him in a far-off country while the other, a scientist, had books to be published, and these was what life expected from them. Considering that many people used to die at these camps, I see the attempts to commit suicide as foolish since a typical inmate had the least expectation of making it out of the camp alive. They would rather have waited and see what life turned to be. Conversely, after perusing through the text and learning of the cruelty that the prisoners underwent, we can make an assertion that suicide in this context was the right thing. Compared to modern days, there is no experience whatsoever, leave the cruelty of the Nazi concentration camps, that can make suicide the right thing. 5. Personal account When I was in high school, my friend lost his both parents. This period was very challenging for him, and it was manifested by his constant crying and drinking. To him, he saw life as meaningless, and he even contemplated committing suicide. Luckily, the guy went to a specialist for counselling, and he got the help he needed. After reading this book, now I have the necessary knowledge that could have helped him. From the he text, when a man attains consciousness of the responsibilities he has toward other people who love and waits for him, or for an unfinished personal work, this person will never be in a position to give up his life. Attaining consciousness about ones life will bring an understanding of the reason to exist, and will always provide a way on how to carry on. My friend had an education to complete and also sibling looking up to him especially since he was the eldest. Through help, he was able to understand that, in life suffering is inevitable but what matters is the individuals choice of attitude. As well, life has a potential meaning for every person under any circumstances, even during the most miserable ones, and our job is to seek for that unique meaning. Work cited Frankl, Viktor E. Mans Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 2000. Print. Read More