Viktor Frankl’s LogoTherapy: Man’s Search for Meaning: Life, Love, and Suffering

Today we will learn and reflect Viktor Frankl’s reflections on surviving the
Auschwitz work camps under the Nazi regime.
Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, is a life-changing book
and one of my favorites, it touched me deeply when I first read it many
years ago. The main theme of the book is no matter what challenges you
face in your life, or how busy you are, you always have time to be kind to
all those whom you encounter, to be a positive influence on the lives
whom you touch. Although he does not directly mention stoicism, his
account of how he survived Auschwitz is a living example how a stoic
mindset can help you survive and thrive through any challenge life may
throw at you.

At the end of our talk, we will discuss the source used
for this video. Please feel free to follow along our
PowerPoint script posted to SlideShare. Please, we
welcome interesting questions in the comments. Let
us learn and reflect together!

YouTube Video:
Man’s Search for Meaning,
Logotherapy, Reflections from the Auschwitz Death Camps
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The first edition of his book described his “Experiences in a
Concentration Camp.” Most of the Jews were sent directly
to the showers, where they were gassed, but some Jews
who were judged fit to work were sent to the work camps,
where most still died from abuse, starvation, and
overwork. Frankl tells us how he followed some advice as
to which line to select, where the inmates were so
thankful when water came out of their showers. We have
many interesting details in our first video on his
experiences in the work camps.

Frankl mentioned how his experiences shaped and
influenced his views on psychology, and since many
readers wanted to know more about his psychological
system, he added another chapter, “Logotherapy in a
Nutshell.”
Sigmund Freud thought that repressed sexual drives
propelled our subconscious desires, but Viktor Frankl
disagrees, his theory posits that Man’s Search For Meaning
is what drives him. Frankl saw that this search for meaning
is what kept people alive in the death camps.

Polish prisoners in Dachau toast their liberation.

What many laymen do not realize is that the detailed ideas of
Sigmund Freud no longer have a major influence on current
psychological practice. When you sample the history of
psychology courses, such as the lectures by Professor Daniel
Robinson of the Teaching Company, lectures on the Freudian
theories are always among the beginning lectures. But if you
listen to courses by practicing psychologists, even though they
agree with the core essentials of the Freudian theory that
unconscious urges drive our feelings, modern therapists usually
do not find that these early psychoanalytic theories are useful in
clinical settings.

Frankl observes that
“the most common
delusion of Freudian
orthodoxy is that the
durability of results
corresponds to the
length of the therapy.”

Another reason for this disenchantment with Freudian theories is
the discovery of the incredible effectiveness that Lithium and
other drugs in treating schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.
This discovery enabled the government to shrink and close many
of the sprawling psychiatric hospitals, I have listened to lectures
how so many psychologists were haunted by the memories of
how they blamed supposedly dysfunctional mothers for the
schizophrenia of their children.

Insane Hospital
in Lyon,
Francoise-
Auguste Biard,
1800’s

The Madhouse,
Francisco de
Goya, 1819

Logotherapy was one of the classical psychological systems,
where often the personality and life experiences of the founder
of the movement influenced their theories profoundly. This was
certainly true of Viktor Frankl, although he had formulated many
of his theories during the interwar years as a practicing
psychologist, his experiences in the death camps of Auschwitz
definitely influenced his psychology. When he was in high school
Frankl wrote to Freud, who actually arranged for him to publish
his ideas in a psychological journal before he graduated from high
school!

There are not many psychologists today who claim to be logotherapists. However,
Dr Wikipedia agrees with me that logotherapy is very similar to the modern CBT,
short for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The founders of this therapeutic technique
found Freudian analysis frustrating and not that useful, because many who seek
counseling are often not mentally ill but are simply facing challenging life situations.
CBT therapists are willing to talk about your family of origin if that is relevant to your
current problems, but they are mainly interested in showing you how you can better
cope with the life stresses you are currently facing. The Teaching Company, now
Wondrium, has several series of lectures demonstrating how CBT works. Although I
did not pick up on this when listening to these courses, the founders of CBT drew
many of their core concepts from classical stoicism, and we have many lectures on
stoicism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

https://www.wondrium.com/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques-for-retraining-your-brain
https://amzn.to/3xcT7C5
https://www.wondrium.com/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-for-daily-life
https://amzn.to/3RL6bXe

https://youtu.be/Dhd543kov-E https://youtu.be/wgD8skYi3I0
https://youtu.be/0qHpReZYhv4
https://youtu.be/-uQxq1O9xSY

One good example of this practical approach is when Frankl
describes a former patient who was a high-ranking diplomat. This
patient was frustrated with his current psychoanalyst, they had
spent years in psychoanalysis exploring why he was dissatisfied
with both his career and the direction of American foreign policy.
His prior psychoanalyst was having him explore unresolved
conflicts with his father as a remedy. When this patient explored
with Frankl his feelings, Frankl thought that the patient had some
valid concerns, so Frankl simply asked him, Why not change
professions? Which he was able to do, and as a result his new
line of work was much more gratifying.

Fairchild Gardens, Miami
As Frankl tells us, “Not every conflict is necessarily neurotic; some amount of conflict
is normal and healthy.” “A man’s concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness
of his life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease. It may well be
that interpreting the first in terms of the latter motivates a doctor to bury his
patient’s existential despair under a heap of tranquilizing drugs. It is his task, rather,
to pilot the patient through his existential crises of growth and development.”

Fairchild Gardens, Miami
“So, if therapists wish to foster their patients’ mental health,
they should not be afraid to create a sound amount of tension
through a reorientation toward the meaning of one’s life.”

What was the innermost drive for concentration
camp prisoners? Was sex the innermost drive, as
Freud taught?

Crematoria II and III and their chimneys in the background.
Viktor Frankl asks,
“What did the prisoner
dream about most
frequently?”
He dreamed of “bread,
cake, cigarettes, and
warm baths.”
“The lack of these simple
desires led to their wish-
fulfillment in dreams.”

Frankl tells us the most important lesson he
relearned in the Nazi work camps: “The truth is that
love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man
can aspire.” In the suffering of the camps, Frankl
tells us that he realized that “the salvation of man is
through love and in love. I understood how a man
who has nothing left in this world still may know
bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the
contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter
desolation, when man cannot express himself in
positive action, when his only achievement may
consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way, an
honorable way, in such a position man can, through
loving contemplation of the image he carries of his
beloved, achieve fulfillment.”
Moses shows the Tables of the Law,
Exodus, Marc Chagall, 1966

This following advice I have found helpful, because
often in life, especially at work, you are really not
allowed to have problems, you are not allowed to
show weakness, you are there to work and make
money for the company, you are expected always to
have the positive mental attitude and be bubbly and
happy and fun to be around.

After a few weeks at Auschwitz, a colleague of Viktor snuck
into his barracks with advice. “Shave daily, with glass if you
have to.” “If you want to stay alive, there is only one way:
look fit for work. If you even limp, because of a blister on
your heel, and an SS man spots this, he will wave you aside
to be gassed.

Do you know what we mean by a ‘Moslem’? This is a man
who looks miserable, down and out, sick and emaciated, and
who cannot manage hard physical labor any longer. Sooner
or later, usually sooner, every ‘Moslem’ goes to the gas
chambers. Therefore, remember: shave, stand and walk
smartly; then you need not be afraid of the gas.” And the
most important advice: “Do not be conspicuous.”

Those prisoners
with a rich inner
spiritual life were
more likely to
survive. Viktor
Frankl remembers,
“In spite of all the
enforced physical
and mental
primitiveness of life
in a concentration
camp, it was
possible for spiritual
life to deepen.” Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

“Sensitive people who
were used to a rich
intellectual life may suffer
more 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. Only in
this way can one explain
the apparent paradox that
some prisoners of a less
hardy make-up often
seemed to survive camp
life better than those who
were more robust.” Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

Viktor Frankl tells us, “The experiences of camp
life show that man does have a choice of action.
Apathy can be overcome; irritability can be
suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of
spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even
in terrible conditions of psychic and physical
stress.” No matter how dire your circumstances,
you can always be kind to those around you.
Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

Focus of Logotherapy
Frankl tells us, “Logotherapy focuses on the
future, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the
patient in his future.” “Man’s search for meaning
is the primary motivation in his life and not a
‘secondary rationalization’ of instinctual drives.

Frankl views Logotherapy as more a training process. This is reminiscent
of the teachings of the monastic Church Fathers, that life is a matter of
fostering healthy habits that improves you as a person, which is really
self-training, as well as listening to and following the advice of our
spiritual guides, or your logotherapist. Frankl says that traditional
psychoanalysis focuses on the past, on past experiences that may have
warped their perception of the world, so that that psychoanalyst asks
their patient to lay down on a couch to reveal memories that are
disagreeable to tell. In contrast, logotherapy focuses on the future, on
what meaning the patient should seek in his life, so that the logotherapist
asks that their patient remain sitting erect so they can hear advice that is
disagreeable to hear.

Frankl says, “Logotherapy tries to make
the patient fully aware of his own
responsibilities; therefore, it must
leave to him the option for what, to
what, or to whom he understands
himself to be responsible. That is why a
logotherapist is the least tempted of all
psychotherapists to impose value
judgments on his patients, for he will
never permit the patient to pass to the
doctor the responsibility of judging.”
Fairchild Gardens, Miami, FL

This reminds us of the Prayer of St Ephrem:
O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despair,
lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my
own transgressions,
and not to judge my brother,
for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages.
Amen.

Frankl adds that you should have the
patient realize what they need to do
rather than telling them what to do.
Frankl explains, “Logotherapy is
neither teaching nor preaching. It is
as far removed from logical reasoning
as it is from moral exhortation.” “The
logotherapist’s role is to broaden the
patients view so the whole spectrum
of potential meaning becomes
conscious and visible to him.”

Meaning of Life, Love, and Suffering
Frankl believes that “the true meaning of life is discovered in the world
rather than in man or in his own psyche, as though it were a closed system.”
“The more one forgets himself, by giving himself to a cause or another
person to love, the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”

How can we discover the meaning of life? “According to
logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in three different ways:
• By creating a work or doing a deed.
• By experiencing something, such as goodness, truth and
beauty, in nature or culture,
• Or encountering someone, by experiencing another person in
his very uniqueness, by loving him.
• By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.”

What is the meaning
of love? Frankl
suggests, “Love is
the only way to
grasp another
human being in the
innermost core of
his personality. No
one can become
fully aware of the
very essence of
another human
being unless he
loves them.”

“By his love he is
enabled to see the
essential traits and
features in the
beloved person;”
both their obvious
strengths, and also
their potential
strengths, strengths
hidden that blossom
with encouragement,
like flowers that
bloom after it rains.

https://youtu.be/uQCnAJMPoos
This attitude is expressed when the
Judeo-Christian tradition exhorts us to the
two-fold Love of God and neighbor. All of
life, all of scripture should be lived with
this two-fold Love in mind.

St Augustine is my favorite saint, because this
two-fold Love of God and neighbor is the central
theme of all his major works, he always mentions
them explicitly.

https://youtu.be/DgL7Y5pIFAU
In particular, St John of the Cross speaks of this
two-fold Love of God and neighbor when he
teaches us that we should choose those to be
close friends, and you can argue spouses and
lovers, as those who increase in us our Love of
God, our love of truth and kindness.

Likewise, Frankl
reminds us that love is
not sex, but healthy
intimacy is an
expression of love.
Frankl states,
“Pleasure is, and must
remain, a side-effect
or by-product” of
romantic love, “and is
destroyed and spoiled
to the degree to
which it is made a goal
in itself.”
The wedding of Tobias and Sarah, in the Book of Tobit: Raphael binds the demon. Jan Steen, 1660

In this delightful book, Tobias and Sarah pray before their first night as
newlyweds.
(REPEAT) In the Hebrew and in the transliteral translations of Leviticus,
there are multiple commandments that say THOU SHALT NOT UNCOVER
THE NAKEDNESS OF anyone who is not your wife, and this is not a
doctrinal issue since these same commandments in Exodus use concise
words that are similar to English usage that mean having sex with, in
more or less vulgar or clinical terms. This language in Leviticus
emphasizes that even illicit and immoral physical relationships can lead to
either deep emotional attachments, or deep emotional resentments, and
trauma, so we always prefer to use the phrase, being physically intimate,
because this also suggests that the cousin of physical intimacy is
emotional intimacy in a caring relationship.

https://youtu.be/Si0TsO5bNr0
In Leviticus, there are multiple commandments that say THOU SHALT NOT UNCOVER
THE NAKEDNESS OF anyone who is not your wife. This language in Leviticus
emphasizes that even illicit and immoral physical relationships can lead to either
deep emotional attachments, or deep emotional resentments and trauma, so we
always prefer to use the phrase, being physically intimate, because this also suggests
that the cousin of physical intimacy is emotional intimacy in a caring relationship.

Many of the monastic works of the Eastern Church Fathers
discuss that those who truly love their neighbor act
selflessly rather than selfishly, particularly the works of St
Maximus the Confessor in the Philokalia, who also teaches
us that because we love our neighbor, we should be eager
to forgive our neighbor his faults, and his transgressions
against us.

What is the meaning
of suffering? Frankl
posits that “man’s
main concern is not
to gain pleasure or to
avoid pain but rather
to see a meaning in
his life. That is why
man is even ready to
suffer, on the
condition that his
suffering has
meaning.”

From a stoic perspective, if you strive to live a godly life, this question is
simply absurd. If you seek to live a godly life, often you will be happy, but
sometimes not. The question is not whether suffering has meaning, but
whether, with God’s help, you can endure the suffering, enduring your
suffering gracefully, without rancor, without bitterness.
Many of Frankl’s observations are compatible with stoic philosophy,
particularly the philosophy of Epictetus, who said that a tyrant may take
everything you own and enslave you, but he can never take away your
inner freedom or your soul.

Epictetus says this: “Are you not scorched by the sun?
Are you not pressed by the crowd? Are you not wet
when it rains?” Has not the Lord granted you the
strength to endure all the trial life may bring? “Have
you not received greatness of soul? Have you not
received manliness? Have you not received endurance?
Why trouble yourself about anything if you possess
greatness of soul?” What should our attitude be when
facing life’s difficulties? Should we cower like cowards in
the face of adversity? Do not cower, “bring now, O Lord,
any difficulty that thou pleases,” for You have given me
the means and power to bring honor to myself through
the difficulties I endure.”
EPICTETUS: ROMAN STOIC PHILOSOPHER

This is a perfect philosophy to endure the sufferings of the death
camps.
Frankl explains that logotherapy was not therapy in the
traditional sense, in that there was no mental problem, only a life
problem that needed to be endured, all Frankl could hope to do
is help the patient reflect on how he could change his attitude.
In a case study that illustrates this, Frankl said he had an elderly
patient who was severely depressed because his beloved wife,
for whom he lived for, had died several years before.

Frankl asked him, “What would have happened
if you had died first, with your wife surviving
you?”
The patient answered, “For her this would have
been terrible, how she would have suffered!”
Frankl replied, “You see, your suffering has
spared her this suffering, but at the price that
you have to survive and mourn her.” Frankl
remembers how the patient shook his hand
and calmly left his office. Frankl observes,
“Suffering ceases to be suffering at the
moment it finds a meaning, such as the
meaning of a sacrifice.”

Frankl decries that “our current mental
hygiene philosophy stresses the idea that
people ought to be happy, that unhappiness
is a symptom of maladjustment. Such a
value system means that the burden of
unavoidable unhappiness is increased by
unhappiness about being unhappy.” On the
contrary, we will all face unhappiness, we
will all have loved ones who depart, we will
all face challenges when we are rejected,
maybe divorced, many fired from our jobs.
Frankl encourages us to view our suffering
as ennobling rather than degrading.

(Snap, my hat)
I am just not obligated to have a positive mental
attitude every minute of my life, I am allowed to
wallow in my misery from time to time, but never for
very long. Sadness is part of life, just don’t welcome
or wallow in your sadness.

EXISTENTIAL VACUUM OF MODERN LIFE
Frankl describes the existential vacuum that modern man experiences,
but which I think has been encountered by all men who in the past, as
everyone historically sees himself as modern, with the difference that the
ancients embrace tradition more firmly, while modern men must tolerate
the change that technological advances have thrust upon us.
Only man can fear the future with dread, because only man is not ruled
primarily by instinct, only man can sense that his actions today have
consequences tomorrow, not to mention the unfair consequences
suffered because of the bad or evil choices made by others. Only man
fears the uncertainties of his future.

Existential Vacuum of Modern Life

Frankl explains, “No instinct tells man what
he has to do, no tradition tells man what he
ought to do; sometime man does not even
know what he wishes to do. Instead, he
either wishes to do what other people do,
he seeks to conform; or he does what other
people wish him to do, which can lead to
totalitarianism.” Or I might add, after much
reflection our noble man may choose a
brave new path, and seek to establish a new
normal, rejecting that path most others
choose to follow, seeking a more virtuous
path, which can also be a lonely path.

Frankl states that “the existential vacuum manifests
itself in a state of boredom,” or sometimes distress.
We work for the weekend, and when the weekend
comes, we search for something to do. Shouldn’t life
be more than the weekends? What is worse, what
are we going to do once we retire? Does our life
really have purpose?

Frankl elaborates, “there are
various masks and guises under
which the existential vacuum
appears. Sometimes the frustrated
will to meaning is vicariously
compensated for by a will to power,
including the most primitive form
of the will to power, the will to
money. In other cases, the place of
frustrated will to meaning is taken
by the will to pleasure,” often
selfish sexual pleasure.

When in the death
camp, once he tried
to encourage his
fellow prisoners to
patiently endure the
unbelievable suffering
that they had to
endure to survive. “I
asked the poor
creatures who
listened to me
attentively in the
darkness of the hut to
face up to seriousness
of our position.”

“They must not lose hope
but should keep their
courage in the certainty that
the hopelessness of our
struggle did not detract
from its dignity and its
meaning. I said that
someone looks down on
each of us in difficult hours,
a friend, a wife, somebody
alive or dead, or a God, and
he would not expect us to
disappoint him. He would
hope to find us suffering
proudly, not miserably,
knowing how to die.”

Prisoners in Auschwitz during liberation by the Soviet Red Army, January 1945 Who survived the
camps? Frankl tells us
that “on the average,
only those prisoners
could keep alive who,
after years of trekking
from camp to camp,
had lost all scruples in
their fight for
existence; they were
prepared to use every
means, honest and
otherwise, even
brutal force, theft,
and betrayal of their
friends, in order to
save themselves.”

Prisoners in Auschwitz during liberation by the Soviet Red Army, January 1945
“We who
have come
back, by the
aid of many
lucky chances
or miracles,
whatever one
may choose
to call them,
we know: the
best of us did
not return.”

FRANKL’S LIFE AFTER THE CAMPS
Before the war, Viktor Frankl had remained in Germany to
take care of his elderly parents, even though he could have
emigrated. After the war he learned that not only did his
wife perish in the death camps, but his parents and his
brother also died in the camps, though his sister had
escaped to Australia. He was alone, he and his sister were
the only ones in his family who survived.
When so many Jews in his position emigrated, why did
Frankl remain in Vienna, Austria?

Frankl’s Life After the Camps

In the afterword, Dr Winslade says, “Frankl
felt an intense connection to Vienna,
especially to psychiatric patients who
needed his help in the postwar period. He
also believed strongly in reconciliation
rather than revenge; he once remarked, ‘I
do not forget any good deed done to me,
and I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.’
Notably, Frankl renounced the idea of
collective guilt. Frankl was able to accept
that his Viennese colleagues and neighbors
may have known about or even
participated in his persecution, and he did
not condemn them for failing to join the
resistance or die heroic deaths.”

When Jews returned to their old homes, often they
found that others had moved in, and quite often they
refused to leave what they saw as their home. We do
not know what the post-war Austrian policy was in
these situations, this passage suggests that Frankl
had moved into his old house, or at least found
another in his old neighborhood.

Dr Winslade continues,
“Instead, Frankl was deeply
committed to the idea that
even a vile Nazi criminal or a
seemingly hopeless madman
has the potential to
transcend evil or insanity by
making responsible choices.”

SOURCES:
The main source of course is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning,
which is definitely a must-read life-changing book.

And we have many photos from the Miami Beach
Holocaust Memorial, which also have many plaques
honoring those Jews and entire families, rich and
poor, who lost their lives in the camps.

Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

https://www.flickr.com/photos/193480080@N04/albums/72157719778759885
https://holocaustmemorialmiamibeach.org/

For our other slides we had some happy
backgrounds from the Fairchild Tropic Botanic
Gardens in Miami, a world class botanical gardens.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/193480080@N04/albums/72177720302091746
https://fairchildgarden.org/

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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