Man's Search for Meaning

These notes are old and were written while reading — they don’t necessarily reflect my current views.

The first reaction to the arrival in Auschwitz was shock, this soon turned into a weird sort of humour. The situation was so hopeless, that suicide seemed to be too burdensome as compared to just being killed later anyway. The prisoners seemed to adapt to unthinkable situations if necessary. Furthermore, states of disgust or uneasiness were conditioned away by punishing them directly.

After describing the terrors of concentration camp in some detail, he gives his account of the meaning of life. He quotes Nietzsche (a lot) by saying that “the man that has a why can bare any how”. He then goes on to describe how only people with a sufficiently strong why were able o keep up with the circumstances of the camp.

He goes on to describe Kierkegaard’s Angst, by calling it existential vacuum. He goes on to lean heavily on Nietzsche by saying that the increasing free time in our world and the decay of religion and moral structures will further this problem.

Frankel goes on to say that the meaning of life can’t be a static thing but differs from person to person and from situation to situation. Just like there is not one best move in chess, there is no single meaning of life.

He advises to live life like you already lived it and made the mistakes you are about to make.

Self actualisation is only possible as a side effect of self transcendence.

You would miss self actualisation if you would aim for it, it only works as side-effect. The meaning of life does always change but is always there. Love can be a strong aim.