#1 BookBites: Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

This article is the first of a series of articles called BookBites. These articles will include summaries, quotes and/or meanings from the books I’ve read. They serve as catalysts for me to reflect on and deeper understand these books and to give bite-sized views into these books to other readers.

This book is authored by Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor. He describes his experiences in concentration camps and his psychotherapeutic method called logotherapy, which involves finding something in life (from the past or future) to feel positive about and then immersing oneself into imagining it.

This article chronicles quotes, excerpts and meanings that stood out to me from this book. As a design researcher, I enjoy working closely with, speaking to and understanding people from different walks of life and this book piqued my interest by offering a glimpse into the minds of human beings who suffered possibly the peak of all human suffering.

Sensitive people who were used to a rich intellectual life may have suffered much pain, but the damage to their inner selves was less. They were able to retreat from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom

The salvation of human is through love and in love. One who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of their beloved.

In the experience of suffering, the prisoner tends to experience the beauty of art and nature as never before.

Creativity and human imagination seemed to be at the core of human survival. Imagination took over and helped some prisoners of the Holocaust to escape from their present surroundings into the imagination of the memories of their past life, their possibly brighter future and their beloved (whether it’s a human being or scientific papers that they have half-written).

Art, performances and humour were the human soul’s weapons for self-preservation in the concentration camps. Creativity served as liberation. As liberation from a provisional existence where the end was unknown.

Time is a subjective concept. When we are waiting for something to happen, time seems to be passing so slowly. At other times, time can seem to be passing fast. Research done on unemployed miners showed that they suffer from a deformed inner time which is a result of their unemployed state. This unemployed state relates to a provisional existence, similar to that which prisoners in concentration camps faced.

In camp, a small unit of time, a day, for example, filled with hourly tortures and fatigue, appeared endless. A larger time unit, perhaps a week, seemed to pass very quickly.

Dostoevski said, “There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.” The way in which one accepts their fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which one takes up their cross, gives them ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to their life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation, one may forget their human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for one to either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford them. And this decides whether one is worthy of their sufferings or not.

One who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.

— Nietzsche

When our life doesn’t turn out as we expect it to (or better), we suffer. In these times, one might feel like giving up on life. What can help in such situations is changing one’s frame of mind from what they expect life to be to what life expects from them. Once that frame is adopted, one can be more motivated to react with the rightful strength of action in body and mind.

Life, inevitably, will offer suffering, pain and torture to every individual at some point. Such is life. C’est la vie.

What are your interpretations, discoveries and favourite quotes from this book? Drop them in the comments!