Viktor Frankl on Logotherapy and Man's Search for Meaning

        In his book Man's Search for Meaning (1958), psychiatrist Viktor Frankl suggests that man's quest for meaning constitutes "the primary emotion in his life and not a 'secondary rationalization' of instinctual drives" (Frankl 121). Ethical principles play an essential role in the self-discovery process, although some authors, he observes, relegate them to mere "defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations." Frankl stresses that he himself would be unwilling to life for the sake of defense mechanisms or reaction formations, but man can "live and die for the sake of his ideals and values" (121).Here Frankl differs from traditional psychoanalysis by suggesting that man's existential frustration is "in itself neither pathological nor pathogenic." In other words, man's despair over the apparent futility of his life is what he terms an existential distress that must in no way be diagnosed as a mental disease. Although the analyst would be tempted to "bury his patient's existential despair under a heap of tranquilizing drugs," the psychiatrist must avoid this alternative and commence the task of steering the subject "through his existential crisis of growth and development" (125). Man must respond to the questions of life only as they pertain to his own unique circumstances, a meaningful life demands responsibility, a characteristic that logotherapy recognizes as the crucial embodiment of human existence.

              In essence, man should not worry about discovering some abstract meaning of life but rather should seek to find purpose in his daily existence. Frankl says, "Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment" (131). This concept echoes what Christ admonishes believers to seek in their quest of self-denial. In the same respect, Albert Schweitzer encourages men to find meaning in the challenges of their everyday life. In this way, a person does not have to perform his service to mankind abroad or in a foreign land. Finding purpose can consist of the smallest deeds of kindness, humor, or encouragement to those suffering from loss or neglect. These simple acts of love, courage, or sacrifice equally fulfill man's purpose. Fulfillment derives from service in the external world, not from personal gratification. Self-transcendence, as the author calls it, begins with responsibility and leads to the actualization of one's potential. "The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or to another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself," Frankl suggests. This idea of total surrender of self closely parallels Dostoyevsky's concept of active love as expressed by Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov. In the story, a desperate woman asks Father Zossima how to regain the certainty of her faith, and the he tells her through the "experience of active love," which he defines in the following passage: "Strive to love your neighbor actively and indefatigably. In as far as your advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbor, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul" (Dostoyevsky 62-63). In both cases, ethics plays a much greater role in man's social and emotional development. Frankl even suggests that humor, for instance, plays a vital part and he encourages subjects, in times of unavoidable suffering, to search for something humorous every day because it lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul (147-148).

              Assuming responsibility for one's ethical behavior compels the individual to focus on positive relationships with others rather than merely gratifying his own personal drives or reconciling conflicts between the Id, Ego, and Superego. In this manner, the subject takes charge of his life by becoming a contributing influence in his own growth, not a pawn of cultural or hereditary factors. As Frankl says, "Inasmuch as logotherapy makes him aware of the hidden logos of his existence, it is an analytical process, To this extent, logotherapy resembles psychoanalysis; however, in logotherapy's attempt to make something conscious again, it does not restrict its activity to instinctual facts within the individual's unconscious but also cares for existential realities, such as the potential meaning of his existence to be fulfilled as well as his will to meaning" (125-126). Like other psychologists of his day, Frankl identifies what he terms the existential vacuum, a common complaint of patients suffering from a feeling of meaninglessness in their lives. This phenomenon closely parallels Kierkegaard's despair and Sartre's nausea. This widespread condition largely in Americans manifests itself in fits of depression, aggression, addiction, or crises of pensioners and aging people (128). Frankl notes that there exist "various masks and guises under which the existential vacuum appears. He goes on to say, "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. That is why existential frustration often eventuates in sexual compensation. We can observe in such cases that the sexual libido becomes rampant in the existential vacuum." Frankl maintains that by filling the existential vacuum, the subject can commence the growth process and hopefully avoid subsequent lapses of anxiety or depression (129-130).The subject can fill this void by making the proper ethical choices. Frankl says, "Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment" (154). The author stresses that even during his time in the concentration camps, he witnessed some of his comrades behave like "swine" and others like "saints." The meaning of life, he maintains, depends upon individual decisions, not conditions (157). Choices determine how one responds to pain, guilt, and death; and whether the subject elects to use these unfortunate circumstances as opportunities for growth and achievement (162). This concept closely parallels Freud's notion of sublimation in that he individual rechannels repressed energy, or in Frankl's case, unfortunate circumstances, to create a positive direction in life. Here, ethics plays the vital role. Frankl furthermore suggests that these values are inherent in man's personality; these are ethical responses that "have crystallized in the course of the evolution of our species." This thesis presents possibly the most compelling case for the need of ethics in society today because it presupposes the existence of what he calls "a pre-reflective axiological self-understanding . . . ultimately anchored in our biological heritage" (170). In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis describes ethics in a similar fashion in the following passage: "These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in" (Lewis 21).If indeed man possesses this innate predisposition, yet neglects its application on an individual or collective level, the outcome would result in greater suffering for both parties.

             Frankl also suggests that the meaning of life always changes but never ceases to be. According to logotherapy, man can discover the meaning of life in three different ways: 1) by creating a work or doing a deed, 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone, and 3) by the attitude one takes toward unavoidable suffering. The object of logotherapy, the author notes, is neither pleasure nor the avoidance of pain but the perception of meaning in one's life. In this context, man can accept suffering as long as he understands the meaning for it. Ideally, every attempt should be exerted to mitigate the causes of suffering, whether psychological, biological, or political. Unfortunately, the circumstances of one's existence often entail inevitable suffering that challenges the person to accept them with courage and responsibility, even until the very end (136-137). Ironically, Frankl's alternative challenges the individual to accept life's apparent meaninglessness rationally and responsibly. This concept that Frankl calls the super-meaning presupposes a divine order that transcends human understanding, a position that parallels Hume's notion that the attributes of God are infinitely greater than the understanding of the human mind. In both respects, the subject's faith serves to enhance his ability to accept this transcendent order (142). The meaning of one's suffering may not be realized for years or even generations. Consequently, one must seek to envision a broader picture of life and its purpose. Faith allows the subject to accept this larger scheme. In this way, one begins to realize that the transitory nature of life in no way negates its ultimate design or outcome. Thus, logotherapy suggests a moment-by-moment existence of possibilities that constantly demand active ethical choices that contribute to or detract from the meaning of one's life. Frankl says, "Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done, and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy" (144). Wordsworth echoes a similar sentiment when he says, "Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower, we will grieve not, but rather find strength in what remains behind. In that primal sympathy which having been must ever be, in the soothing thoughts that spring out of human suffering, in the faith that looks through death in years that bring the philosophic mind." In a section entitles "The Super-Meaning," Frankl explains an idea similar to, if not the same, as faith: "The ultimate meaning necessarily exceeds and surpasses the finite intellectual capacities of man; in logotherapy, we speak in this context of a super-meaning. What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms. Logos is deeper than logic"(141).

             Like Frankl, psychiatrist Victor White agrees that traditional psychoanalysis fails to address the problem of existential despair in the appropriate manner. Writing in God and the Unconscious, Victor White draws a similar conclusion in his comparison between Freud and Jung. According to White, "It seems that whereas for Freud religion is a symptom of psychological disease, for Jung the absence of religion is at the root of all adult psychological disease" (White 47). Ironically, the need for God manifests itself even in the ungodly acts of unbelievers. Jung furthermore affirms that "whenever the Spirit of God is excluded from human consideration, an unconscious substitute takes its place." Jung then asserts that "when God is not recognized, selfish desires develop, and out of this selfishness comes illness" (Jung, in White 17). This reasoning closely parallels the function of Freud's libido, whose power Jung attributes to God (Jung, in White 16-17). As Jung notes in Psychology of the Unconscious, the same "power" which "always wishes evil thus creates a spiritual life" (Jung, in White 56). Thus, Jung suggests God as the source of all energy, psychic or divine, and the repression of either leads to neurosis. As White maintains, "The language of religion will talk of the 'wrath of God' when He is neglected or scorned; the language of psychology can say only that he law of compensation demands that if the God- image be repressed or ignored, it must react negatively on the health and consciousness of the subject" (White 19). Expressing this notion in religious imagery, White poses the following question: "Could it be that gods and demons, heavens and hells, are ineradicable from the nooks and crannies of the human mind, and that if the human mind is deprived of its heaven above and its hell beneath, then it must make its heaven and corresponding hell on earth?"(White 17). The boundaries of the unconscious, White observes, have yet to be discovered and are probably undiscoverable, whose very existence is best expressed as "a postulate known[as if God, according to Aquinas], only by its phenomenal effects" (White 37). Jung admits that the origin of the unconscious, like archetypes and the collective unconscious, cannot be explained by any "empirically verifiable hypothesis" (White 71). Physician-psychologist C. G. Carus in his Natur and Idee, a text which White suggests contains parallels found late in Jung's work, expresses a similar concept of the unconscious, in this case as "the creative activity of the Divine." According to Carus, "The highest aspiration of the conscious mind, the attainment of God, can be approached only by its submission to the deepest depths of what to us is purely unconscious" (Carus, in White 31).

                                                           Works Cited for Man's Search for Meaning

Frankl, Viktor. Man's Search for Meaning. Revised and Updated. New York: Pocket Books, 1985.