Focus on TUSD - May 2008

Rereading a Classic:
Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning
Why re-read a classic? The answers vary according to the book. But in the case of Viktor Frankl's harrowing account of his incarceration in Auschwitz, the answer resides in the addressing of a universal question: What is the meaning of suffering?

All human lives have their challenges. And often many of those challenges, to one degree or another, involve humiliation, degradation, and the impugning of our dignity. But never before in modern history has suffering been imposed on so many innocent people as in the Nazi death camps of the Second World War. To realize that one man's experience in these chambers of horror has led to a classic of modern literature is all the more astonishing.

There are perhaps three primary aspects of Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, first published in German in 1946, that compel its readers to return to it for sustenance: its writing style, its structural composition, and its message. The writing style is at once stark, unadorned, and yet filled with compassion. There are no baroque flourishes, no attempts to impress the reader with literary pyrotechnics. The style--appropriately--is simple and direct. Early in the book, Frankl relates the story of his first arrival into Auschwitz. He had been taken into custody in Vienna and placed on a train headed east toward an unknown destination. The rest of the telling is Frankl at his best:

"The carriages were so full that only the top parts of the windows were free to let in the grey of dawn. Everyone expected the train to head for some munitions factory in which we would be employed as forced labor. We did not know whether we were still in Silesia or already in Poland. The engine's whistle had an uncanny sound like a cry for help sent out in commiseration for the unhappy load which it was destined to lead into perdition."

The writing is of such a high quality that many people find themselves reading through the famous first section in a single setting, unable to close the book. A large part of the book's appeal also has to do with its construction--a brilliant literary strategy that is almost never commented on. The book, interestingly, is organized along the lines of a periodic sentence in Latin with the verb not appearing until the end. The first 80 percent ofs its pages are filled with tales that are gripping in the extreme--but there are no lessons, no significance drawn from these events. It is only near the end that the larger meaning of these tragedies begins to unfold. And at that point one sees the gradual, painstaking flowering of what is now known as the third school of psychotherapy (Freud and Adler being the fathers of the first two schools).

Frankl arrives at his theory--that the search for meaning in our lives, especially in suffering, is the single element that saves us from the "existential vacuum" that often leads to despair. He relates the story of one patient of his in Auschwitz whose health was rapidly declining. Her death was imminent but her state of mind entirely serene. Intrigued, he questioned her as to how she had arrived at such a point of calm despite the horrors of her surroundings. He tells of her reply.

"'I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard,' she told me. 'In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously.' Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, 'This tree here is the only friend I have here in my loneliness.' Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. 'I often talk to this tree,' she said to me. I was startled and didn't quite know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously, I asked her if the tree replied. 'Yes.' What did it say to her? She answered, 'It said to me--I am here. I am here. I am life, eternal life.'"

At this point, Frankl's message becomes unveiled just as a painting is unveiled at an exhibition. Frankl believes that Man is free to choose his reaction to life's events regardless of the nature of those events. Despair, anger, calm, serenity, recrimination, equanimity--these are all emotions that are products of a decision, the decision to react to life in a certain way. Frankl's patient could easily have reacted with a sense of panic, terror, or anxiety. Instead she chose reconciliation and enlightenment. Above all, she found meaning in her suffering. Frankl quotes Nietzche who says, "He who has a why to life can bear with almost any how."

Clearly, Frankl's seminal work is more than just an historical document or required reading for students of psychotherapy. It is a classic that speaks to all human beings. It urges all of us to search for meaning even where hope seems most remote--in our challenges, our tragedies, and the events of our daily lives.

-- By Robert Padilla
Executive Director, Educational Enrichment Foundation

Photos in the May issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the June Focus is Friday, June 13. The Focus will be published Monday, June 23. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.