# Viktor Frankl's struggle for survival: Meaning



## RonPrice

SEARCH FOR MEANING

Part 1:

When _*Man's Search for Meaning*_ was first published in 1959, it was hailed by Carl Rogers(1902-1987), a founder of humanistic psychology, as "one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years." Now, more than fifty years and 5 million copies later, this tribute to hope in the face of unimaginable loss has emerged as a true classic.* 

Man's Search for Meaning-*-at once a memoir, a self-help book, and a psychology manual-is the story of psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's struggle for survival during his three years in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Yet rather than "a tale concerned with the great horrors," Frankl(1905-1997) focuses on the "hard fight for existence" waged by "the great army of unknown and unrecorded." Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

Part 2:

Viktor Frankl's training as a psychiatrist allowed him a remarkable perspective on the psychology of survival. In these inspired pages, he asserts that the "the will to meaning" is the basic motivation for human life. This simple and yet profound statement became the basis of his psychological theory, logotherapy, and forever changed the way we understand our humanity in the face of suffering. 

As Nietzsche put it, "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." Frankl's seminal work offers us all an avenue to greater meaning and purpose in our own lives-a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the act of living. The Library of Congress/Book-of-the-Month Club called the book: "one of the ten most influential books in America." 

Patricia J. Williams, author of _*Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race,*_ wrote that: "Viktor Frankl's timeless formula for survival. One of the classic psychiatric texts of our time, _*Man's Search for Meaning *_is a meditation on the irreducible gift of one's own counsel in the face of great suffering, as well as a reminder of the responsibility each of us owes in valuing the community of our humanity. There are few wiser, kinder, or more comforting challenges than Frankl's."-Ron Price with thanks to* Beacon Press,* 29 January 2011.

Part 3:

I joined the Baha’i Faith that year,
in ’59, but had my hands full with 
10th grade, autumn football, hockey
and my concupiscent control system. 
I was comfortable in that smalltown 
smugness of my childhood, born as
securely as we all were, then, into
salvation’s complacent trinity of:
Catholic, Protestant and Jew.

My world was small, safe and so
familiar--and very white. Indians
were the bad guys who got licked
in movies on Saturday afternoons
amid candy wrappers and girls
necking in the dark back row seats.

The tempest came slowly back
then in my childhood, snuck-up
on me year after year into the
my adolescence; I was lucky to 
survive the hurricane and the 
psychological violence….that
depression, the schizo-affective
state. But I came through it all
and still I sang the new song that
up from the Siyah-Chal it rose. I
faltered, Lord; I quavered: yet I 
sang---and still, Lord, I sing!!!*1

1 Roger White, “New Song,”* Another Song Another Season, *George Ronald, Oxford, 1979, pp.116-118.

Ron Price
30 January 2011


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## Runs like Dog

Frankl's extension of Jungian analysis was very radical for its time. One thing that struck me about Frankl was his approach to fear and doom. He notes "Before we were sent to Auschwitz we lived in fear, afterward, we lived in hope". Which is pretty astonishing when you think about it.


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## Catherine602

I have read this short intense book at different times in my life so far. My first reading was life changing but I did not really grasp it's profound nature. At 20 it was a story of survival; at 25 a story of perseverance under adversity and at 30 it is an autobiography of man who was able to do a rare things - control his perception of his reality, maintain his faith in the human ability to be transformed, the differential ability of each man to maintain humanity under stress and identify hope as essential to sustain life. 

Joseph Conrad's "heart of darkness" covers some of the same territory although fictionally. 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## RonPrice

Thanks, folks, for your thoughful comments on Frankl and his book _*Man's Search For Meaning*_. Speaking of Conrad, and your posts above, I am moved to post the following reflection:
----------------
Conrad

Jean-Paul Sartre's pronouncement that prose is an attitude of mind applies equally well to poetry. It is telling, too, that Conrad himself associated the symbolic, suggestive, and inconclusive quality of prose writing specifically with poetry and art. To be a writer, he wrote in a letter in 1895, "you must treat events as the outward signs of inward feelings," and to accomplish this "you must cultivate your poetic faculty.”(1) Conrad wrote in another letter:

“A work of art is very seldom limited to one exclusive meaning and not necessarily tending to a definite conclusion. And this for the reason that the nearer it approaches art, the more it acquires a symbolic character. All the great creations of literature have been symbolic, and in that way have gained in complexity, in power, in depth and in beauty.”(2) -Ron Price with thanks to: (1)Joseph Conrad, "To Edward Noble: 28 Oct 1895,” *The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad: Volume I: 1861-1897,* eds.Frederick R. Karl and Laurence Davies, Cambridge University Press, NY, 1983, p.252; and (2) Joseph Conrad,"To Barrett H. Clark," 4 May 1918. _*Joseph Conrad on Fiction,*_ ed. Walter F. Wright, University of Nebraska Press, Lincohn, p.36.


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## cb45

I knew a ba'hai fellow from
NYC back in the '80s. He told/taught me alittle 'bout them.

basically a pacifist religion that promotes a self-awareness,
new age like/kinda belief system that "respects" Jesus but
doesnt give him his "props" or deity status as do Christians,
is what i remember him teaching/telling me.

yrs later, when witnessing to a somewhat belligerent,
argumentative muslim, i countered his denials of the
demonic, violent nature of Islam with what i knew of the 
butchering of ba'haists in Iraq/Iran (80's, mostly saddam
hussein). 

Never saw a muslim "clam up" so fast/so effectively.
The look in his eyes "dazed, wheels spinning/turning" etc.

Priceless.

thought i'd share if it ever comes up in yer life situations
or witnessing opps.

shalom.


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## Runs like Dog

Bhai are considered Muslim apostates by Muslims.


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## Conrad

Runs like Dog said:


> Bhai are considered Muslim apostates by Muslims.


Just like most others.


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## CoffeeTime

Catherine602 said:


> I have read this short intense book at different times in my life so far. My first reading was life changing but I did not really grasp it's profound nature. At 20 it was a story of survival; at 25 a story of perseverance under adversity and at 30 it is an autobiography of man who was able to do a rare things - control his perception of his reality, maintain his faith in the human ability to be transformed, the differential ability of each man to maintain humanity under stress and identify hope as essential to sustain life.
> 
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


I think this type of analyzation of meaning takes a heightened self awareness on your part. I can't wait until you read it at 40


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## cb45

Runs like Dog said:


> Bhai are considered Muslim apostates by Muslims.


resisting the urge to kick u to the curb (and hence, the reason for yer sad-tail-btwn yer legs doggie pic/avatar) like most would with yer one ambiguous
sentence reply to b'hai post:











*What on ever do u mean by yer sentence/stmt?*


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## Runs like Dog

B'hai started as a splinter group from Islam. As did Druze (although Druze is much older). Shiia Islam, at the least, considers B'hai to be Islamic apostasy and in Iran it is semi-illegal and subject to all sorts of persecution including death. Other faiths don't have tht prejudice and could not care less where B'hai comes from. Their world center is in Haifa Israel where Jews and Druze and Christians treat them just like anyone else.


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## cb45

Runs like Dog said:


> B'hai started as a splinter group from Islam. As did Druze (although Druze is much older). Shiia Islam, at the least, considers B'hai to be Islamic apostasy and in Iran it is semi-illegal and subject to all sorts of persecution including death. Other faiths don't have tht prejudice and could not care less where B'hai comes from. Their world center is in Haifa Israel where Jews and Druze and Christians treat them just like anyone else.


Methinks it best that folks
just go to the site and read for themselves, forthwith:

The Bahá

apostate in this/their case is just an EXCUSE to bully/butcher
a weaker (pacifist) vessel than themselves (islam-muslims).

a POOR excuse at that. crappy is yer belief system if u have
to go out and persecute non-violent, productive peoples who
decide ayotollahs shall not govern their spiritual lives with 
God. This is true of any religions, anywhere, anytime, including
our very own.

yet, dont forget some key pts i made/listed. 1. non-violent
2. peaceable 3. productive

i.e., one could understand/sympathize (somewhat) if splinter
groups were say, extremist/terrorist in nature or beliefs.

shalom.


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## RonPrice

It has been 6 months since I was last at this thread, a thread which has come a long way from the content of Viktor Frankl's book. But that is often the way with internet threads. They jump from topic to topic. 

I have been associated with the Baha'i Faith for 60 years since my mother joined the Baha'i Faith in Canada in the early 1950s. 90% of this Faith's 200,000 adherents lived in Iran back in 1953. Now 90% of its 5 to 8 million followers live outside Iran. 

Thanks, cb45, for posting the official international Baha'i site. Anyone who wants to know about this religion which claims to be the latest of the Abrahamic religions can read about it at that place in cyberpsace among many other sites.--Ron in Australia


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## mr.miketastic

cb45 said:


> Methinks it best that folks
> just go to the site and read for themselves, forthwith:
> 
> The Bahá
> 
> apostate in this/their case is just an EXCUSE to bully/butcher
> a weaker (pacifist) vessel than themselves (islam-muslims).
> 
> a POOR excuse at that. crappy is yer belief system if u have
> to go out and persecute non-violent, productive peoples who
> decide ayotollahs shall not govern their spiritual lives with
> God. This is true of any religions, anywhere, anytime, including
> our very own.
> 
> yet, dont forget some key pts i made/listed. 1. non-violent
> 2. peaceable 3. productive
> 
> i.e., one could understand/sympathize (somewhat) if splinter
> groups were say, extremist/terrorist in nature or beliefs.
> 
> shalom.


Don't blame a religion if there are extremists who act radically. Not all muslims are violent and intolerant, just like not all christians, jews or [insert faith here]. No one can know the transcendent, so no one can say what the "true" faith is. All are worthy, and all are part of the plan. Anyway, much of the original intent of this thread seems to touch upon the concept of beauty and horror unified. Running and returning. 

"you must treat events as the outward signs of inward feelings"

Very apt, and very true.


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## Blanca

One of my favorite books! Such an inspiring story. I could never see going to him for therapy, though. Can you imagine complaining about your problems to him?!?


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## Noel1987

Impressive Mr. Price I haven't read the book but ill try to search it online and cb45 you got a wonderful pic


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## RonPrice

Thanks again, Noel1987. I'll post my website here, a site now in its 4th edition: Ron Price - Pioneering Over Five Epochs


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## UCanTalk

Blanca said:


> One of my favorite books! Such an inspiring story. I could never see going to him for therapy, though. Can you imagine complaining about your problems to him?!?


Yes my father who was also in Auswicz has no time for me training as a therapist.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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