If we’ve ever wondered about the value of life, what we do and how we live, perhaps this example from contemporary science can provide an answer.
Viktor E. Frankl
The very name of Frankl’s logotherapy is based on one of the meanings of the Greek word “logos” – meaning. The fundamental focus of his therapeutic method is the meaning of human existence and the search for meaning. In this regard, the role of the psychotherapist, according to the author himself, is “more like that of an ophthalmologist than a painter: the painter tries to show us the world as he sees it, while the ophthalmologist tries to enable us to see the world as it truly is. The logotherapist’s role is to expand the patient’s field of vision – so that the entire spectrum of meaning and values becomes visible and conscious to him.”
The main impetus for creating such a therapy system for its founder were the problems of the present time that need to be addressed and answered. According to Viktor Frankl, the burning problem today is the lack of meaning and values in many people’s lives. The state of senselessness. As early as 1946, in his publications, he describes the condition of patients who turned to psychiatrists due to a feeling of meaninglessness. In later works, he cites a range of studies conducted on different age groups, with different problems, including drug addiction, alcoholism, suicide attempts, and even the so-called “midlife crisis”. The research results confirmed the growing sense of meaninglessness in life that Frankl refers to as “existential emptiness”. This condition is widespread in both rich and poor countries, and the main symptoms are depression, aggression, and dependence.
Analyzing this state, he synthesizes two main causes: choosing wrong values and losing traditional values. In his book “Man’s Search for Meaning,” he says: “We have been dreaming the same dream for too long, and now we are waking up: we believed that everything would be fine and that people would become happy if we improved their socio-economic status. The truth is that as that facade crumbled”. In the struggle for survival, the question arises: survival for what? Today, there are more and more people who have all the necessary conditions for life, but they don’t see a purpose to live for. Unlike other animals, humans are not instinctively aware of what they should do, and unlike humans in the past, traditions and traditional values no longer tell them what they should do. The consequence? They do what other people do – which is conformism – or they do what others want them to do – which is totalitarianism.
The need for meaning, therefore, is becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s society. The unfulfilled need for meaning can jeopardize a person’s mental health and cause deviant behaviors, and by neglecting this need, society as a whole compromises its own well-being. Today’s society clearly does not satisfy the need for meaning, as elements of existential emptiness are visible in all generations. The rapid development of technology has allowed for more free time, making survival and performing daily tasks easier. However, this has also created a void in meaning, leading to feelings of purposelessness and a search for meaning in life. There are jobs, but people have less and less “time” to fill their free time with what they love. The lack of healthy engagement that would be a natural part of the education system and thus accessible to all young people is evident. As a result, young people are left to whatever the “market” offers, and statistics show an increasing number of suicides. Life in the “third age” is also not secure. It mostly depends on the kindness and financial status of the family, and society itself does not offer them many opportunities to not feel “unnecessary”.
However, although today’s society represents a “challenging circumstance” in fulfilling the need for meaning, it itself is not the only actor in this development. The source of this need is the human being itself, so the solutions should be found in the human being, the individual.
Frankl starts from the basic characteristic of the human need for meaning: “Regarding the question of whether the feeling of meaninglessness itself represents a mental illness or not, Sigmund Freud says in a letter to Princess Bonaparte: ‘At the moment when a person begins to ask himself But does the meaning and value of life exist, he is sick.’ However, I believe that the search for the meaning of life is more of a proof of humanity rather than a reflection of mental illness. A person does not have to be a neurotic individual to be interested in the question of the meaning of life, but they must be a true human being… The cry for meaning represents a distinct mark of humanity. No other animal, including Conrad Lorenz’s geese, has ever been concerned with the question of whether or not life has meaning. But a human being is.” “There are writers who claim that meaning and values are ‘nothing more than defense mechanisms and reaction formations and sublimations’. But as far as I’m concerned, I would not want to live solely for my ‘defense mechanisms’, nor would I want to die for my ‘reaction forms’: because a person is capable of living and even dying for their ideals and values.” Therefore, the need for meaning and the search for meaning is something natural in humans. A human being expresses their humanity through this and that is why ‘a person always strives to attain meaning. he repeatedly starts the search for it.
However, the need for meaning is not only natural to humans, but it is also their primary motivational force:
“… only the person who finds the desired meaning is ready to suffer and sacrifice for that meaning, ready to lay down their own life if necessary. On the other hand, if meaning does not exist, a person is inclined to take their own life and is ready to do so even when all other needs are met.”
Frankl refers to this inner driver of man as the will to meaning. It does not represent a projection of momentary desires, but rather an impulse that comes from the highest part of the human being. Frankl distinguishes between the spiritual and psychophysical dimensions of man and, in that regard, talks about higher and lower needs of the human being. While lower needs are related to psychophysical survival and the creation of favorable material conditions, the will to meaning is a reflection of spiritual, higher need that obligates a person to fulfill a certain value, something that needs to be fulfilled precisely. He is the one.
This need arises in all circumstances. Stable life circumstances can provide an incentive to seek meaning:
“… An assistant at Harvard University showed that among graduates who continued to lead a completely successful and seemingly happy life, there was a high percentage of those who complained of a sense of insignificance, wondering what their success is for?”
But also circumstances where psychophysical existence is threatened also provoke the same need: “Let’s just take such situations encountered in death camps, or simply those on their deathbed: who would deny that in such circumstances an unstoppable thirst for meaning, moreover, for ultimate meaning wells up?”
Such thoughts are self-evident when death approaches. We would find it harder to understand what happened in the Theresienstadt ghetto during the war: a transport with about a thousand young people was scheduled to leave the next morning. In the morning, it was discovered that the library had been looted overnight. “In the ghetto, each of those young men – who were sentenced to death in the Auschwitz concentration camp – took several books by their favorite poet, novelist, or scientist and hid them in their bags… ”
“Not only in all situations, but the meaning is also accessible to every individual. Frankl supports this claim with research by a series of authors who have empirically proven through tests and statistics that the search for and finding of meaning is possible for every human being:
“… regardless of gender and age, IQ or level of education, regardless of the environment in which they live or the type of character they have, or regardless of whether the person is religious or not, and if they are, then regardless of which faith they belong to.”
Frankl calls this ability of humans to find the sought-after meaning in all conditions, self-transcendence: “To be human means always to be directed towards something or someone else: towards a purpose to be fulfilled, or towards an encounter…” with another person, for some reason that needs to be satisfied, or with a loved one.”
The ability of self-transcendence is the ability of a person to forget about themselves and dedicate themselves to something that is not themselves. Through dedication to something outside of oneself, a person surpasses the situation they are in because their consciousness is not focused on themselves and the circumstances they are subjected to. By having something before them that is somehow more important than their current state, it then gains a dimension of meaning. Surpassing one’s own limits, fears, and anxieties gives a person the possibility to do something in relation to the situation they are facing, to change themselves, or to change reality if necessary. In this way, a human being manages to express their own, often hidden potential.
However, self-transcendence is the result of a conscious process and is related to human freedom: “A person is not free from the conditions imposed on them. However, they are free to take a stance in relation to them. The conditions do not condition them.” fully. It depends on him whether he will or will not succumb to the conditions and give in.”
“However, freedom is only half of the truth because: “Freedom can degenerate into mere self-will if it is not lived in terms of responsibility. That’s why I would like to suggest that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be joined by the Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”
“Life never lacks meaning,” says Frankl. Potential meaning exists in every situation: in work, in love, in illness, in hopeless situations when we face an unchangeable fate. But each person must find and discover it for themselves. The meaning for each person is unique, but in order to be fulfilled, everyone must take on the responsibility that that meaning requires. Every situation is simultaneously an opportunity and a challenge for a person to participate in it, choosing their actions in a way that they can stand behind them as a human being.”
Frankl does not express his thoughts on life solely based on his education and extensive medical practice. He demonstrates his conviction in the power of the human spirit through his own personal experiences, having survived the atrocities of the Holocaust. He emphasizes the importance of resilience and finding meaning even in the most difficult circumstances. According to Frankl, it is not what happens to us that defines us, but how we choose to respond. The unconditional meaning of life is also drawn from his own life experience: three surviving years in concentration camps Auschwitz and Dachau, where he lost almost his entire family. Upon his return, he writes the book Ein Psychologe erlebt das KZ (in the newer Croatian edition titled Život uvijek ima smisla). However, he does not write this work as a scientist. “Number 119104” wanted to convey what he had learned: “Who among us survivor prisoners would not be able to tell stories about people who walked around the assembly points and barracks, sharing a kind word here, their last piece of bread there? Even if there were only a few of them, they still provide evidence that everything can be taken away from a person – except for one thing: the fundamental human freedom to choose one’s attitude in any circumstance, to accept one’s own path. And the choice had to be made constantly!”
chance to survive the atomic age - but only if people and nations come together for common tasks... in a collective will for a shared purpose?" Frankl, the scientist, responds: "I don't know the answer to that question. I would be satisfied if I knew whether I asked the right question."