Logotherapy: Man's Search For Meaning

In the book, Jurassic Park, Ian Malcom does demonstrate the grad at grad, intellectually competent. One of the characteristics of intellectually competent is developing mastery of logic and critical thinking. Ian Malcom demonstrates this characteristic when he says, “Chaos theory throws it out of the window and it says you can never predict certain phenomena at all” (Crichton 178). This quote shows Malcom’s ability to think in a complex manner. Another characteristic of the grad at grad intellectually competent is beginning to understand both rights and responsibility as a citizen of one’s country. Ian Malcom shows that he possess this characteristic when he says, “The graph you actually got is a graph of the breeding population” (215). Ian

“Our Time” by John Edgar Wideman is a homage to his brother, who is currently incarcerated for robbery and murder. Wideman goes into the depths of the jail where his brother is currently incarcerated and the family dynamics that he believes put him there. Robby’s best friend and the leader of his gang Garth was killed due to negligence and that is where Robby’s downward spiral began. His brother Robby was the youngest of

During the holocaust, six million men, women and children were murdered by the nazi regime, a notoriously cruel enemy to the Jewish people. However, the ultimate conflict for Jews was not with the racist political party but instead with themselves and their personal thoughts and feelings. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the reader is introduced to Elie’s younger self and follows him through the horrors of the holocaust. Though it is easy to assume that the greatest struggle for Elie was to physically survive Auschwitz, it was instead the inner struggle to remain human against Nazi dehumanization. After the Nazis caused Elie to lose the necessary human components of faith, health, dignity and relationship, he found it very difficult to be

Shock, apathy, and disillusionment were three psychological stages that the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps experienced. Ironically, it took an event of such tragedy and destruction to enable us to learn more about how the human mind responds to certain situations. Frankl’s methods for remaining positive can be used by every human being to give them a meaning in their lives regardless of what predicament or mental state they are in – it is in many ways like a phoenix risen from the

Viktor E. Frankl, a psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria on March 26, 1905. Throughout his early life Frankl portrayed an immense interest into psychology and the inner workings of the human thought process. Frankl completed his schooling in psychology at the University of Vienna in 1925. He practiced psychiatry until 1942, when he and his family were deported to the Nazi ghetto of Theresienstadt where he was kept until he and his wife were transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp. It is here that Frankl’s written story begins. Frankl, however, does not write the story of the typical concentration camp survivor. Frankl would agree with Thomas Hardy when he says, "A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling; it must have something more unusual to relate than the ordinary experience of every average man and woman." Frankl does not solely speak about the dismal existence that was created in the concentration camps that he was housed within. He also speaks of the psychological factors that were at play during his time in the concentration camps, and what he believed was going on inside the minds of the prisoners. In this is the reason Frankl’s story is truly unique. Frankl’s story is not simply unique it is, as stated by Hardy, “exceptional”. Frankl in order to convey his analysis of the psyche of the prisoners utilized vivid visual imagery, passionate appeals to pathos, and elegant and dramatic

Both Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and “For an Auschwitz Survivor, His Son’s Graduation Spelled Freedom” by Harley Rotbart, draw upon real life experiences to relay how powerful an optimistic mindset can be in allowing one to overcome the most arduous of hardships. The parallel can be drawn between both stories in the inmate using introspection to seek towards and appreciate his goals of the future instead of dwelling upon the forced and oppressive life he had while in the concentration camps. In having an intense amount of suffering while in the camps, the persons cultivated a deeper meaning from that experience that later set him forward to find purpose in his life. From Frankl’s perseverance, he found more meaning in personal accomplishments, and from Rotbart’s father’s perseverance, he found more meaning in his son’s

Traumatic life experiences can have a variety of effects on a person, like constant flashbacks, PTSD, or depression. But very difficult life or death experiences can also seriously change a person’s personality. In Maus, Art Spiegelman explores how living through the Holocaust affects his father’s personality and personal relationships. By showing us Vladek’s story in both the past and the present, we get to see his experiences in the Holocaust changed who he is as a person thirty years later. On the surface, modern-day Vladek appears to be an uptight, miserly, crotchety old man, but by examining how his experiences in the Holocaust and what he had to in order to survive, we can see how they continue

Although each individual person has their own unique responses to crises, there are often commonalities in behavior following certain events. On October 1, 2015, a man came onto the campus of my town’s community college, killed nine people, and injured many more. The entire community was stricken with grief; however, it was even worse for those who knew the victims. A close friend of mine named Daniel lost one of his best friends in the shooting, and as he was grieving, his behavior began to reflect the symptoms of the third stage concentration camp prisoners experienced as described in Viktor E. Frankl’s autobiography Man’s Search for Meaning.

A good way one can respond to conflict is to find meaning. In Viktor Emil Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he shares his experiences in Aushwitz and he proposes a theory called logotherapy. Logotherapy is the search for meaning broken into three parts: accomplishing something, experiencing something or encountering someone, or turning a personal tragedy into triumph.

Part 2: Victor Frankl is one of the many people who experienced the wrath of the Nazis

The terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is a journey of pain that none shall forget. Hope and optimism vanished while denial and disbelief changed focus during Wiesel’s journey through Europe. A passionate relationship gradually formed between the father and the son as the story continued. The book Night genuinely demonstrates how the Holocaust can alter one's spirits and relations.

Psychologist Victor Frankl’s novel: Man's Search for Meaning delivers a powerful and humbling perspective on life that inspires introspection in the minds of all those that read it. The book achieves this by taking us on a journey with Frankl as he describes his personal experiences of the Holocaust. During his time spent in four different concentration camps Frankl gradually learns lessons in spiritual survival. Devoid of all pleasures and possessing nothing but his “naked existence” Frankl is forced to look inward and in the process discovers what he believes to be the primary motivating factor of all men (p. 15).

American culture through films and creating markets for American-made products. Through this partnership, masculinity became the deputy cinematic emissary for the United States. Male identity developed as a psychological construct bordered by feelings of insecurity and anxiety, especially in the immediate post-World War II American society. During the war, as more men enlisted in the armed services, women filled those better paid, higher status job positions.

In September of 1942, Viktor Frankl was arrested in Vienna and taken to one of the many Nazi death camps. Frankl was working on a manuscript which was confiscated from him in a move to Auschwitz. In this manuscript entitled, The Doctor and the Soul, Frankl had began his work on a theory he would later call logotherapy. The term logotherapy is derived from the Greek word logos, which means meaning. According to logotherapy, the striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man (Frankl 121). Frankl’s theory and therapy generated and grew through his experiences in the concentration camps.

Experiences encompassed in times of struggle can lead to a new transformative perspective of one’s relationship with self and the world. William Shakespeare’s last play “The Tempest” (1610), canvasses loss catalysing rediscovering the importance of life resulting in a greater understanding of how our flaws compromise our humanity. Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan, shows this to be true, moving from a mindset focused on vengeance to a profound discovery of self. Similarly, in “Man’s Search for Meaning” (1946), fulfillment with discovering how we choose to cope and find meaning/purpose in life through unrelenting struggle is illustrated. The three-part non-fiction told by psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl, depicts his ordeal inside of concentration camps during the Second World War, elaborating on finding true meaning in life even under the most horrific circumstances. Frankl shares his process of discovery demonstrating his ability to overcome the most overwhelming experience leading to doorway of meaning, purpose and happiness.