Mans Search for Meaning by Victor Franki - Book Report/Review Example

Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Franki ID: When a man faces isolation caused by circumstances beyond his control, hestarts pondering about the wider topic of life and its meaning. The author wrote this book, a kind of autobiography, as he witnessed the death of his near ones, including his father, brother, wife and mother in Nazi concentration camps. These prisoners suffered fighting extreme cold, hunger and brutal attacks in such camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. The author constantly faced death as the overlooking danger of going to gas oven prevailed all the time. This persuaded him to think about the meaning of his life and its values. As he was a neurologist, philosopher and writer, all in one, he found an opportunity to delve deeper into the truth, in the perils of concentration camps. Giving away the fruits of lifetime efforts by a person needs lot of forbearance. As Franki surrendered the manuscript of his scientific research findings on the first day of his camp life, he realized that life is meaningless. Wondering about the goal of his scientific work and its net result ultimately led him to think seriously on the life’s pursuits and their meaning. Although he felt depressed in this situation, which compelled him to think that his life has no meaning, Franki remained a staunch optimist throughout the horror. While trying to create meaning of his inhuman life conditions, he pursued with his firm belief that a human being has the freedom to search for meaning of circumstances, while facing them. It requires courage and mental alertness to think beyond such horrible challenges that leave the person in a shattered state of mind, as the body goes through regular tortures. Even the author could not tolerate these brutalities, as he was prepared to commit suicide at one time. However, his optimism prevailed over such depression. Will to live and achieve more With everything lost and death hanging constantly like a sword, the will to live remains the strongest tool in the man’s armory. Although the situation that the author faced was creation of men who masterminded Nazi concentration camps, the natural disasters also pose similar mental challenges to the people going through such experiences. For example, during Asian Tsunami, people survived even as they could visualize the end of life, after witnessing death of their dear ones. The mental willpower to survive was the only motivation for such people during those crucial moments. As Franki imagined the embodiment of his wife almost every minute, these mental thoughts proved to bring solace to a person like Franki as he lived for listless dark days in the concentration camps. The power of positive thinking can take a man out of any dangerous and horrible situation, while negative thinking means surrendering to even the smallest trauma in life. Franki knew this very well as he dreamt about things such as getting out of Nazi camps and restarting his scientific pursuits all over again. The imagination of his giving a lecture on one of his favorite subjects in a classroom brought smile on his face, while he was practically surrounded by all brutalities that posed constant danger to his life. His search for life’s meaning created the desire in him to note down whatever he could remember from his surrendered manuscripts. The book mentions about men who had lost any hope of survival. Franki writes that such people would smoke a cigarette while being desperate to die, although same cigarette could have brought life to them by exchanging it with a bite of food. As Franki has correctly condemned such feeling, he blames the people’s expectation from life to cause this trauma. Often people wish to get whatever they expect from life. When this expectation does not materialize, depression sets in. The author has suggested, rightly, that we should not think about what we want from life. Instead, it is better to wonder about what life wants from us. Accordingly, Franki suggests that a man can hope to find the truth, which guides him through difficult situations, and its meaning only when he undergoes severe suffering and pain. The author has emphasized that people need mustering the courage to ponder on the question of what life expects from them, even under most challenging conditions. Going through the worst kind of suffering can provide answer to such a question. Franki has summed it up in the following words: “..rather than being a symptom of neurosis, suffering may well be a human achievement” This provides the reader an opportunity to understand the level of optimism that a person like Franki had, as he was cornered by all possible brutalities of life. He wanted to survive and keep alive his desire to pursue his scientific research under those trying conditions where death seemed imminent. Willpower of the man makes his life. This notion has found support from many practical examples, such as a terminally ill man getting normal although doctors had lost all hope of his survival. The will to meaning Before World War II, Franki had been searching about the meaning of new topics like psychotherapy and logotheraphy, as he wanted to expand on Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis as well as individual psychology theorized by Adler. The author could find fodder for his thoughts, during his horrible camp days, to pursue his research. His search for finding the ‘will to meaning’ led the doctor to the topic of logotherapy. While Psychoanalysis of Freud points towards the ‘will to pleasure’, psychology of Adler focuses on the ‘will to power’. However, Franki states that the greatest motivating power in all human beings is the will to meaning. Accordingly, it is essential to be curious and probe into the possibilities that life can provide and explore their meaning. The book mentions about an episode when an American diplomat blamed the foreign policy of the country for his discontentment and referred USA like a father figure. However, the author mentions that the real problem with this diplomat, who had spent years studying psychoanalysis, was due to his biological father, rather than the American government. Franki suggested the diplomat to change his career, as he spotted a lack of purpose in his work, which proved fruitful. Franki was blessed with scientific and philosophical talents, as he had twin doctorates in Medicine and Philosophy. This provided him with additional advantage of investigating deeeply into the human mind. Franki went ahead of Adler and Freud to suggest that a man’s life must be viewed beyond the spectrum of being adjusted to life or satisfying the personal instincts. Instead, the writer and philosopher believed that human beings are blessed with ‘free will’, which remains the most significant feature of their life. In addition, Franki believed that any distress is not just a mental or neurosis disease, but it points towards the desire of the person to search for meaning to life. After liberation, the writer and doctor pursued his occupation as head of neurology department at a policlinic hospital, based in Vienna. Logotherapy—the therapy of meaning The author has demonstrated in his several writings including this book that a man will remain mentally disturbed when there is a conflict between his desire, to achieve his full potential and worth, and his existing occupation. However, the author believes that the modern man has too much freedom, which takes him away from knowing the true meaning of life. The will to meaning is thus hijacked by the desire for acquiring wealth, property, entertainment, sex and other material comforts of life. However, the writer has well detailed the different sources of meaning, in this book. These included doing a creative work, experiencing some emotions like love or having an encounter that leads to such experiences. Finally, the author has signified the greatest source of this meaning to being the way people counter unavoidable and challenging horrors of life. As the basic intent of a man is seeking happiness, Franki opines that people cannot expect happiness to occur directly. Instead, this can be achieved through doing something that satisfies the mental needs of the concerned man. He further writes that when a man involves himself into the tasks that fulfill his talents, instincts and imagination, the fruit of such work is the desired happiness. Referring to the other source, Franki opines that experiencing something new can fill the man’s desire to achieve, in the modern society revolving around the idea of achieving. The last source of meaning refers to the suffering. According to Franki, the suffering has a meaning that a sufferer may not know immediately. However, that certainly cannot lead the humanity to believe that there is no meaning to suffering, because people are not able to understand the meaning. The author has further distinguished between the meaning of life and disability to fulfill the potential. This is the response that author has to the idea, which many people comprehend that life is transitory and therefore remains meaningless. The writer opines that not exploring one’s full potential is meaningless, rather than the life being meaningless. Franki has clarified the topic by detailing that people require sharing freedom and responsibility in equal proportion. Accordingly, when a man realizes his full potential, he leaves an imprint on the world history, thus bringing in a sense of achievement for him. The author opines that the concerned man is satisfied as he feels that he has discharged his share of responsibility in contributing something new to the world history, on a permanent basis. Franki has emphasized in his writings, including this one, about the psychological freedom that enables people to determine their feelings and thoughts as being the basis of his philosophical thinking. Accordingly, this remains the main theme of his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”. He has explained this theme while detailing the experience of horrors and perils, which he faced in Nazi concentration camps. However, his free will to search for meaning of life under such terrible conditions has reinforced this theme. According to the author, it is always possible to find ways to discover the meaning of life in such challenging circumstances that meant facing despair and death at every passing moment. Franki nourished his positive thinking by imagining about his achievements. He had a strong determination to live for contributing more to the world of science. The writer’s experience of life in concentration camps provided an opportunity to him for going beyond the Freud’s theory. While Freud believed that people would pursue single collective urge to have food when all of them are denied food, as they would forget about everything else. However, after going through the experience of facing death and torture continuously in the camps along with other men, Franki continued to believe that few individuals would demonstrate the opposite, thus going against the mob mentality. The author reaffirmed his belief despite the fact that these camps treated humans worse than animals and subjected them to different desensitizing methods that involved torture, hunger and pain. This resulted in his declaration that individual behaviors can vary drastically, leaving no chance to generalize them. The book is an announcement that human beings can be free in true sense. Citing the reference of going to gas chambers at the concentration camps, Franki mentions that men had the freedom to enter with their head held high. However, few had the courage to do so. The author has written almost 30 books, covering the subjects such as psychotherapy, existentialism, neuroscience, among others. He dictated this book for nine days after liberation from the Nazi camp life. Since then, the book has been published in more than 24 languages while selling more than nine million copies. While the book has provided great inspiration to writers who support self-help and positive thinking as means of living the life satisfactorily, the current edition is divided into three parts, starting with the writer’s own experience of life in concentration camps. Essay on logotherapy follows this, as final chapter of the book ends with notes detailing ‘The case for a tragic optimism’.(Butler-Bowdon) Work-Cited Butler-Bowdon, Tom (nd). Man’s Search for Meaning (1959)--Review. 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