Man's Search for Meaning - Frankl
I quote from "Man's Search for Meaning" (a book that Chris Pine, "Capt Kirk" from the recent Star Trek has read and found very useful)
"Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. Now, how could I help him? What should I tell him? Well, I refrained from telling him anything but instead confronted him with the question, "what would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have to survive you?" "Oh," he said, "for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!" Whereupon I replied, "You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering - to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her." He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left my office. In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a scarifice."
This is one of the many from the book that I found inspiring.
It was a quick first read, amidst a busy schedule, and I shall attempt to consolidate in gist what I found useful.
"What is the meaning to life?" is a question that many might ask oneself in response to one's existence.
Without a good response, one might then suffer from existential distress/vacuum/frustration
And loses the will to (seek) meaning
For some, they may instead channel their energy towards the will to (seek) power/sex/money/pleasure...
Which May serve as a facade that meaning in life has been found.
Only to realize in later years that it has not been and feel besieged with emptiness.
Or that without meaning in life, one loses the motivation and in extreme cases the will to live (leading to suicides).
Dr Frankl, the author (a Professor of neurology and psychiatry) based on his learning and a large part, his experience as a 3-year prisoner in concentration camps in Auschwitz and others (imagine how he managed to survive the mental and physical torture!) proposed that:
Instead of seeking the meaning to life, man should try to focus what life seeks of man and thus find meaning in one's existence.
That is to do one's best to what one's life puts forth to him and have no regrets (in life):
>>> Through work/deed - which brings benefits to others and (hence) to oneself
>>> Through love - with those around. True love would bring about effective empathy and engagement in another's life, to identify another's potentials and then to help them realize their potentials.
>>>Through suffering - to realize that suffering is inevitable (which manifest in many forms in one's life course) and one should will to find meaning in one's suffering, to make the suffering worthwhile (you can't avoid it and why not make it worth?). An e.g. would what was quoted at the beginning of this post.
(With regards to suffering, an interesting discussion/question was mentioned: "The question was whether an ape which was being used to develop poliomyelitis serum, and for this reason punctured again and again, would ever be able to grasp the meaning of its suffering. Unanimously, the group (who was asked this question) replied that of course it would not; with its limited intelligenece, it could not enter into the world of man, i.e., the only world in which the meaning of its suffering would be understandable. Then I pushed forward with the following question:"And what about man? Are you sure that the human world is a terminal point in the evolution of the cosmos? Is it not conceivable that there is stll another dimension, a world beyond man's world; a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human suffering would find an answer?")
>>>Through the maxim that "Live as if you were living already for the 2nd time and as if you have acted the 1st time as wrongly as you are about to act now".
Life is like a movie, to produce a movie, much effort has to be invested to ensure the entire film is in order. Whether the movie is good or not, an audience would only be able to comment at the end, after watching the movie. Similarly, whether one's life has meaning, most possibly, towards the end of one's life, one could then only be able to tell and that whether this is a life well-lived would rely on how one has willed to forged one's life path.
Yup, this is what I've gathered (and hopefully learnt) so far, based on my limited understanding and capability of description. Any comments or views are welcomed.
"Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. Now, how could I help him? What should I tell him? Well, I refrained from telling him anything but instead confronted him with the question, "what would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have to survive you?" "Oh," he said, "for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!" Whereupon I replied, "You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering - to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her." He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left my office. In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a scarifice."
This is one of the many from the book that I found inspiring.
It was a quick first read, amidst a busy schedule, and I shall attempt to consolidate in gist what I found useful.
"What is the meaning to life?" is a question that many might ask oneself in response to one's existence.
Without a good response, one might then suffer from existential distress/vacuum/frustration
And loses the will to (seek) meaning
For some, they may instead channel their energy towards the will to (seek) power/sex/money/pleasure...
Which May serve as a facade that meaning in life has been found.
Only to realize in later years that it has not been and feel besieged with emptiness.
Or that without meaning in life, one loses the motivation and in extreme cases the will to live (leading to suicides).
Dr Frankl, the author (a Professor of neurology and psychiatry) based on his learning and a large part, his experience as a 3-year prisoner in concentration camps in Auschwitz and others (imagine how he managed to survive the mental and physical torture!) proposed that:
Instead of seeking the meaning to life, man should try to focus what life seeks of man and thus find meaning in one's existence.
That is to do one's best to what one's life puts forth to him and have no regrets (in life):
>>> Through work/deed - which brings benefits to others and (hence) to oneself
>>> Through love - with those around. True love would bring about effective empathy and engagement in another's life, to identify another's potentials and then to help them realize their potentials.
>>>Through suffering - to realize that suffering is inevitable (which manifest in many forms in one's life course) and one should will to find meaning in one's suffering, to make the suffering worthwhile (you can't avoid it and why not make it worth?). An e.g. would what was quoted at the beginning of this post.
(With regards to suffering, an interesting discussion/question was mentioned: "The question was whether an ape which was being used to develop poliomyelitis serum, and for this reason punctured again and again, would ever be able to grasp the meaning of its suffering. Unanimously, the group (who was asked this question) replied that of course it would not; with its limited intelligenece, it could not enter into the world of man, i.e., the only world in which the meaning of its suffering would be understandable. Then I pushed forward with the following question:"And what about man? Are you sure that the human world is a terminal point in the evolution of the cosmos? Is it not conceivable that there is stll another dimension, a world beyond man's world; a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human suffering would find an answer?")
>>>Through the maxim that "Live as if you were living already for the 2nd time and as if you have acted the 1st time as wrongly as you are about to act now".
Life is like a movie, to produce a movie, much effort has to be invested to ensure the entire film is in order. Whether the movie is good or not, an audience would only be able to comment at the end, after watching the movie. Similarly, whether one's life has meaning, most possibly, towards the end of one's life, one could then only be able to tell and that whether this is a life well-lived would rely on how one has willed to forged one's life path.
Yup, this is what I've gathered (and hopefully learnt) so far, based on my limited understanding and capability of description. Any comments or views are welcomed.