his traumatic experiences in the Nazi death camps, and the second part is a
description of his personal theory of psychoanalysis, which is called
logotherapy. For the purpose of this paper I am going to concentrate solely on
the second section of this book, because I only have time enough to briefly
summarize some of its major ideas. Frankl’s theory of logotherapy, in its
simplest form, is the psychoanalytical process that assists a patient in
discovering the meaning in his or her life. It evolved out of his ability to
derive meaning in his own existence, while he was being subjected to the brutal,
naturalistic, and dehumanizing suffering of the Nazi concentration camps.
Frankl, during his captivity, was robbed of his family, his pride, his
possessions, and his health, but he was miraculously able to survive because he
was wholly committed to the furthering of his work and the love of his wife.
Logotherapy was also created to provide its patients with a compassionate and
nurturing view of human existence, which is a component that is missing from
nearly all other approaches to psychotherapy. Since most people have enough to
live by, but essentially nothing to live for, the goal of logotherapy is to make
people feel responsible to life for something. Frankl is essentially an
empiricist in the tradition of James, because he believes that the meaning in a
person’s existence can be discovered in the experiences of his external
environment, rather than buried in his subconscious. Thus, when a person
forgets himself, by giving himself to a cause or to serve another, the more
human he becomes and the more he actualizes himself. This theory should not be
misconstrued to mean a person should abandon their free will, it simply means
that the best way for a person to learn about himself is through his
relationship to others. Frankl, like many other existentialist thinkers,
believes that the essence of life is suffering, and to survive is to find
meaning in that suffering. Thus, when a person chooses to be worthy of their
suffering they gain the capacity to surmount their outward fate, and
subsequently their inner-anxieties and neuroses. It is certainly no surprise
that chief among Frankl’s concerns is the rapid proliferation of nihilism in the
twentieth century, a phenomenon which he has named the ?existential vacuum.? It
is a neurosis that is often derived from boredom, which makes it seem like a
benign illness, but it is often responsible for creating the foundation, from
which, many other much more serious conditions arise. Depression, aggression,
addiction and even suicide have been directly linked to nihilism and the ?
existential vacuum?, therefore, it is not to be confused with simple laziness
and apathy, and it should not dismissed as a petty problem. Frankl, like James,
refutes the doctrine of monism, because he believes the meaning of life is a
wholly personal experience that is constantly changing. Thus, it is not man who
is asking the meaning of life, but rather, it is man who is questioned by life
to find meaning, and man’s response should be to become vigilant in his pursuits,
responsible for his actions and consciously contemplative of his situation.
I live in an culture that is obsessed with opulence and ostentation,
instant gratification and overnight success, and above all the escape from
actuality at any cost. It is a time when problems are solved by synthetic means
and meaningful spirituality has been all but replaced by self-help seminars and
twelve-step programs. The Western world has invented a ?cure? for almost
everything: if a person is feeling depressed they see their pharmacist, if they
have low self-esteem they see their plastic surgeon, if they feel unfulfilled
they learn how to get rich by buying and selling real-estate with ?no money
down,? if they have trouble expressing their emotions they join a support group
or buy the instructional ?books on tape,? and if they don’t have the money for
these things they can always charge it to their credit card and worry about it
later. The computer is slowly eliminating the existence of necessary human
interaction: it is replacing meaningful human knowledge with an overload of
primarily useless information, it is substituting ?virtual reality? for actual
experience, and it is helping to burgeon a generation of ?hackers? and video
game champions, rather than intellectuals and athletes. It isn’t hard to
imagine why our culture is now comprised primarily of narcissists and nihilists,
myself inclusive, because we have forgotten how to interact with each other, let
alone how to lead a meaningful existence. I was not conscious of the void in my
own existence until I read the literature required of this course, and now I am
trying to systematically redefine my misplaced values and beliefs by combining
the teachings and ideologies I have learned, with my own personal experiences.
As I mentioned before I have been fortunate enough to come from a fairly
affluent and nurturing family, but in my opinion, the lack of misfortune and
suffering in my experiences has caused me to live without questioning why,
because I have never had a profound enough reason to question the meaning in my
life. I believe that I am fortunate to have been enlightened to my nihilism,
because many people in my culture do not become aware of the lack of meaning in
their existence until much later in life, when it is affectionately called a ?
mid-life crisis.? I wholly agree with the existentialist belief that there is
no determinism, and that man is free to be the master of his own fate. I also
believe that man’s existence depends on suffering, because it not only can
provide a person with a profound source for meaning, but it is also provides the
necessary comparison by which success and happiness are measured. My beliefs,
like those of James and Frankl, divulge from the theories of existentialism at
this point, because I value faith to be an integral component of my existence.
I have a devout faith in the existence of God, an afterlife, love, and truth,
although I know that during my lifetime I will never know with any degree of
certainty whether any of these things exist. Now comes the hardest part, which
is finding out what the meaning of my existence is, and to be perfectly honest,
at this point, I have no idea what it is. Perhaps it is simply to discover my
calling in life while I am still young, after all I only became conscious of the
utter lack of meaning in my existence a short time ago. Nevertheless, I am
wholly confident that I will find something, by which, or for which to live in
the near future, because as Nietzsche brilliantly stated: ?He who has a why to
live, can bear almost any how.?