Viktor Frankl was a famous neurologist and psychiatrist in Australia. During the holocaust in 1940s, he spent around 3 years as a prisoner along with his family. His father, mother & brother died in these camps. He was faced with extreme hunger, illnesses & much more. But he somehow managed to find hope & meaning during such brutal conditions. So, one day one of those prisoners had a dream that they will escape soon on a particular day. So, he was waiting for that day with hope. But when he came to know that it isn’t possible, he fell ill suddenly and he died. That day Viktor came to know that illness is not the cause of death. The actual reason of death was lack of hope. Lack of hope ended his life. From many such experiences he understood “what’s the meaning of life” and that’s what he narrated in “man’s search for meaning” book. So basically there are two parts of this book. In first part he wrote his experiences in those concentration camps and In second one he told about Logo-therapy. And we can learn 3 powerful lessons from this Logo-therapy.
The very first lesson is “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how” For example, most of people goes in such professions where they can’t find interesting because their why is not cleared. Why I’m doing this? They couldn’t find the reason. And when any tough situation appears they couldn’t push themselves forward. That’s why everyone should have a goal in their life which give us meaning to our life. And them whose life has no goals becomes victim of anger, depression & addiction. Many times we blame our life like why is this happening? Why me? But there is no point of saying that. Because life doesn’t give us anything, life expect something from us like what is your goal, why you came here, what is your combination towards world?, etc. So instead of blaming your fate find your talent, hobbies, skills and work according on it.
Second lesson is Love. Love is the ultimate & highest goal to which man can aspire. Now love means what? Love is not that they show us in movies. That is totally selfish love, right? So, love is that which give meaning to our lives like father’s love for his child that kept him pushing forward, wife’s love for his man who see his potential and help him reach it. That’s the definition of selfless love which gives us beautiful meaning to our lives automatically.
And the last lesson is suffering. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Now there is no guarantee that we will get good job, nice partner. But suffering. Suffering is guaranteed for everyone. We have to suffer in our life somewhere someday. When Viktor was in concentration camps, he used to imagine that he is in a big lecture room and he is sharing his experiences to others. Viktor says here when we give meaning to our suffering, our suffering get destroyed. So when we pass through difficult situations, find out what lessons this suffering teaching you. We also see in movies & stories that hero has to struggle. Because that’s what gives meaning to his/her achievements.
Some things in our are unavoidable. Let’s take example of Corona. Right now, we are dealing with pandemic. People loosing their job, some people are going in depression, some are loosing their closed ones. Also terminal illnesses, forgotten memories & loss of loved ones. But whatever we do this book challenges us to accept that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it. Find meaning in it and move forward. Summary of this book is we have to find meaning in our lives. And there are three ways to achieve it: work, love & suffering. And Viktor Frankl narrated this very beautifully in this book. And it’s no wonder it became one of the most influential books in the world.
