Frankl's book is divided into two parts - the first recounts various experiences from his time in teh concentration camps, and the second part expands on his theory of "logotherapy" an approach which advocates the need for people to find meaning in their lives as a way of being able to deal with the things they go through.
The first section I found both challenging and inspiring - the brutality of what people can do to each other, but also the inspiration of the human spirit - as Frankl says:
"...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." (p.66)
It was humbling how in the midst of so much suffering and hardship people still found a way to help each other, comfort each other, support each other.
Some other pieces that inspired me:
"Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." (p.72)
"Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may simply be required to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand." (p.72)
Frankl talks about an existential vacuum - that as many as 60% of American students feel their lives have little meaning - are bored. I look at Andrew sometimes and I can see that beginning to play out - hours spent on the PC or playing video games. In itself there's nothing wrong with that - and it's partly his way of being social as he plays with his friends, but there's also the part of him that says he's bored and there's nothing to do - when we live in a society and at a time when the possibilities of what to do are more extensive then they have probably been at any other time.
"As to the causation of the feeling of meaninglessness, one may say, albeit in an oversimplifying vein, that people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning." (p.140).
The challenge is how to help Andrew, and others, access that freedom and help them to have something to live for.
As Frankl talks about the meaning of life, he doesn't identify a single thing that creates meaning, rather he says:
"What matters therefore is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment." (p.108). Comparing it to the best move in chess, he says that there is no "best" move in chess, apart from in the context of the particular game one is playing. In the same way, the meaning of one's life can't be divorced from the context in which the question is being asked. The particular time, the particular circumstance.
It's an interesting thought - as when I was younger and more actively engaged in church life, I would have said that the meaning of my life was bound up in my faith and belief in God. Now I think it's not as clear as that, and I could identify with Frankl's comments regarding it being more situational than permanent. In contrast to Freudian theory, or other theories that place the emphasis on people being "happy", and at a basic level are therefore somewhat selfish, the basic premise of logotherapy is that "...man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life." (p.113).
Another quite that struck me was:
"An incurable psychotic individual may lose his usefulness but yet retain the dignity of a human being. This is my psychiatric credo." (p.133) In other words, people have an inherent dignity and self worth and should not be seen as worth-less if they are unable to things which society deems as "useful" or "meaningful". In seeing people who are elderly, incapacitated, suffering from mental illness, society seems to assign these people to the scrap heap and I can see this happening more and more as the disparity between those who have and those who don't have grows. I want to challenge myself to look at the dignity beyond the "value" or "contribution" that a person can (or can't) make.
So where does this leave me...? What changes in me as a result of this book...?
I feel challenged to get more involved in giving myself away - in community service and other activities that focus me outwards. I recently helped at a Habitat For Humanity build day, and that's something I'd like to do again. Please challenge me and ask me how I'm doing...it's easy to want to change, it's a whole different thing to realize those changes.
More later.
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