EFFORTPOST Finding Meaning with Viktor Frankl

Chuds and Kanye fans can leave now. You won't like this one. Today I want to briefly discuss Viktor Frankl and his ideas that have helped me redefine my life. I've turned to Freud, Jordan Peterson, Campbell, and Jung, and while they all have something to offer, none have gripped me quite like Frankl. I do warn that I am on benzos right now and it's making my screen vibrate so apologies for any typos and if I slip into nonsense. My eyes are half-closed and I forgot how much I took.

Viktor Frankl - Will you be a moslem or a kapo

As we all know, Frankl was a doctor who found himself thrown into concentration camps during Nazi rule. He lived day to day, not knowing whether he would be sent to the furances the next day, or whether his family was still alive. Throughout his time, he makes many interesting observations about human nature. Most notably, he describes the moslems and the kapos of the prisons. Some men, not due to starvation, but rather the loss of a will to live, would begin to waste away. When such men are noticed, it is obvious they can work no longer so they are sent to the showers.

If you wake up, shave, and look smart, you will be made to work, but you will not be killed. In fact, you may even become a kapo, where you will be in charge of other prisoners. From this position, you can help others escape or give better treatment to the prisoners (though Frankl notes that many of the Kapo were as mean as the Nazis themselves, it should be noted that jews in such positions were responsible for secretly freeing prisoners, and it is estimated that the descendants of these freed jews number in the hundreds of thousands today).

Regardless, the point is clear. Each day we wake up in heck. Will you be a moslem or a Kapo? Will you slump over, give up, and allow weakness to overcome you, or will you shave, and face each day as though you are the best worker possible? Either choice is suffering, but which do you think is better? For some, being a moslem is superior. At least you die soon. For a rare few of us, we are wiling to endure the suffering to one day become a kapo and relieve the suffering of the moslems.

Frankl BTFOs Freud

During Frankl's time, Freud was the definitive voice when it came to mental health and psychology. Frankl basically said - "yeah, all of that's bullshit, throw it away." Frankl has no respect for psychotherapy. His reasons are simple. His main concern with psychotherapy is that it fails to adequately address humankind's drive for meaning. Instead, such impulses are viewed as ‘defense mechanisms'. This tends to lead to cynical conclusions about human nature.

As Frankl argues: “I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my ‘defense mechanisms,' nor would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my ‘reaction formations.' Man, however, is able to live and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values!”. And that's what it ultimately comes to - what meaning have you inscribed in life to make the suffering worth it? Whatever you have dubbed "meaningful", this is what you will live and die for.

I'm sure so many of us reading this have been on the precipice of suicide. You're still here, your attempt failed, so you're clearly giving life a second/third/fourth chance. Why? Why not try to end yourself again? Clearly some sense of meaning has gripped you, at least temporarily. For now, that meaning surpasses the influence suffering has on you. I'd like you to think deeply about what that meaning is in your life. This could be the most important revelation you make to yourself.

Personally, my meaning comes from crafting my imaginary world. I know it has value, and that the people within it deserve a universe made of love. I love the inhabitants of Encante, and I will suffer through the agony of existence to ensure their world is treated with the respect it deserves. Where does your meaning come from?

As evidence for the importance of meaning in life, Frankl points to several studies, including one that surveyed students on what they found important, with results revealing that “16

percent of the students checked ‘making a lot of money'; 78 percent said their first goal was ‘finding a purpose and meaning to my life.'"

Another critique of psychotherapy put forward by Frankl concerns the fact that the theoretical framework is very much focused on the symbolic and theorized psychic processes. Though this may be effective in some cases, Frankl believes that it does have its limitations. Such limits become obvious when dealing with patients suffering from noögenic neuroses, which Frankl describes as neuroses arising from existential frustration.

Though it may cause suffering, Frankl argues that “existential frustration is in itself neither pathological nor pathogenic”. Isn't that liberating to know? There's nothing pathological about questioning your existence or even being frustrated by the very fact of your existence. These are all normal emotions!

Consequently, rather than attempt to cure the condition, it is the job of the therapist to pilot the patient through his existential crisis of growth and development. Frankl argues that noögenic neuroses do not emerge from conflicts between drives and instincts but rather from existential problems. Hence, he proposes that in such cases, “the appropriate and adequate therapy is not psychotherapy in general but rather logotherapy; a therapy, that is, which dares to enter the specifically human dimension”.

Logotherapy? What now? What the frick is that?

Logotherapy

Logotherapy, as defined by Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning, concerns itself with the search for the worthwhileness of life. I agree with Frankl here that this should be the primary mode of tackling mental health. Someone is sad and suicidal. Our first instinct is to say "noooo don't do it." What we should be asking first is "is your life worthwhile? Why or why not?" Oftentimes, people who are depressed will claim their lives are not worthwhile, as their emotional states aren't improving regardless of what they do. Such folks are moslems.

The kapos, they are able to stand up and shave daily because they have found a reason to consider life worthwhile.

logotherapy deviates from psychoanalysis insofar as it considers man a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning, rather than in the mere gratification and satisfaction of drives and instincts, or in merely reconciling the conflicting claims of id, ego, and superego, or in the mere adaptation and adjustment to society and environment.

You're not here to soothe your id, fulfill base desires, or satisfy primitive instincts. Rather, if you're to not self-delete today, it will be because you've found meaning, not because you've escaped suffering (you can't). To understand what is being said, a radical change in your outlook on suffering is necessary.

You will suffer

Here's where most of us fail. We desire something and we believe it will bring us joy. We fail to acquire that thing, so we're plunged into depression and life feels meaningless. This is GOOD. The fact that you're suffering should be used as a rudder, directing you toward that which is truly meaningful. If that meaning does not exist, the suffering is not a rudder, it is a hole in your boat that will sink you to heck.

You're going to suffer, so here are your two options - suffer for meaning, or suffer for nothing. Unlike Freud, Frankl doesn't want to eliminate suffering. Instead, he wants to understand it as another important psychic process that is integral to our development and self-actualization.

the search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health. Hence, 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

This is the heroic "call to adventure" Joseph Campbell speaks of. Will you stay and suffer in your shitty hometown (die a moslem), or will you seek out meaning, suffering all the way there (and maybe become a kapo/hero)?

The value of suffering

Forget about pleasure and pain. Why do you believe will give you meaning? Is it:

• family

• art

• knowledge

• love

Whatever it is, if it is meaningful, you will endure all manner of suffering to acquire it. As Frankl summarises, “man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life". Though suffering is something that is often instinctually avoided, he argues that “man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning”.

This is a radical view, as it is often the assumption that those things that seem to take meaning away from human life include not only suffering but dying as well. From Frankl's perspective, these could be the very things that imbue life with meaning. This perspective is not a masochistic one, as Frankl is not arguing that suffering is essential to finding meaning. As he summarises: “meaning is available in spite of - nay, even through - suffering”, though if suffering is avoidable, the meaningful thing to do is to remove its cause.

Conclusion

It's okay for life to go sideways and for unimaginable suffering to strike. It is in these moments that we either become moslems whose lives were void of meaning to begin with, or we become greater than we ever were. Which direction will your suffering take you?

At least for now, I can hold onto the meaning of my parocosm, and it's enough. What is your justification for suffering? What makes it worth it? What would you endure Auschwitz for? Should be noted that when Frankl was freed his whole family was dead. All he had was his research. The same research that changed the world and helped millions, and I am attempting to relay it to you. Man's Search for Meaning is one of the bestselling books of all time, and I am glad he held steadfast to his meaning in the most dire circumstances.