Free Essays on Mans Search for Meaning

Man's Search for Meaning The purpose of this paper is for me to critique and give my opinion of the book â€Å"Man’s Search for Meaning† by Viktor Frankl. This inspiring book expresses Frankl’s own experiences by analyzing and drawing conclusions of the events in his life during the holocaust. These life-altering experiences reveal some universal ideals that I have verified in my life and some philosophies that I have verified in my life and some concept that he portrays and I find to be true is that we all have been created on this earth for a special reason. This story is of survival and of deep meaning optimism. Through his unconditional love and faith, Frankl survived such a trial and was able to create this work of art and his psychotherapeutic method to treat man. This book has enforced and provided new and interesting and helpful ideals for me. After Frankl writes of his concentration camp life he includes a section on his theory of logotherapy. I see it as an effort to rehumanize psychiatry to allow for spiritual quest and transcendence. He recognizes the need for a spiritual life. I can relate to this from a personal experience in my life. A very good friend of mine was dying of cancer and she told me that there was something missing in her life. She was in great physical shape and very smart, but she told me that she needed to get back in touch with her spiritual life. Once she was able to reconnect with her spiritual side, she dealt with her suffering and died. Frankl says that a man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the â€Å"Why† for his/her existence will be able to bear almost anything. My friend understood this and was able to complete her life in p eace.! I believe we are all patients living in a world trying to make sense of who or what we ar... Free Essays on Man's Search For Meaning Free Essays on Man's Search For Meaning Man's Search for Meaning The purpose of this paper is for me to critique and give my opinion of the book â€Å"Man’s Search for Meaning† by Viktor Frankl. This inspiring book expresses Frankl’s own experiences by analyzing and drawing conclusions of the events in his life during the holocaust. These life-altering experiences reveal some universal ideals that I have verified in my life and some philosophies that I have verified in my life and some concept that he portrays and I find to be true is that we all have been created on this earth for a special reason. This story is of survival and of deep meaning optimism. Through his unconditional love and faith, Frankl survived such a trial and was able to create this work of art and his psychotherapeutic method to treat man. This book has enforced and provided new and interesting and helpful ideals for me. After Frankl writes of his concentration camp life he includes a section on his theory of logotherapy. I see it as an effort to rehumanize psychiatry to allow for spiritual quest and transcendence. He recognizes the need for a spiritual life. I can relate to this from a personal experience in my life. A very good friend of mine was dying of cancer and she told me that there was something missing in her life. She was in great physical shape and very smart, but she told me that she needed to get back in touch with her spiritual life. Once she was able to reconnect with her spiritual side, she dealt with her suffering and died. Frankl says that a man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the â€Å"Why† for his/her existence will be able to bear almost anything. My friend understood this and was able to complete her life in p eace.! I believe we are all patients living in a world trying to make sense of who or what we ar... Free Essays on Man's Search for Meaning This book, Man’s Search for Meaning was set in World War II Europe concentration camps. This book was about the prisoner’s minds and their emotions. It is safe to assume that an average citizen knows about the torturous ordeal the Germans put the Jewish people through. It is not safe to assume though that the average citizen knows what went through the minds of these prisoners and what type of emotions these prisoners expressed. This books author thought the prisoners ordeals were in phases, they showed emotions in three different phases. The first phase was the minds of these prisoners immediately after being detained and herded off to the several different concentration camps. The second phase was their minds after incarceration and them becoming accustomed to the everyday life of prison life. The third phase was their minds after being released and no longer a prisoner. This book showed the reader that some minds are stronger and can endure more than others. The mind can expand when you need it to expand, it can cause your body and soul to endure one more hit, one more night without food. It can also fail you. The mind is as strong as you make it. This book showed the reader that the mind can make your life more suitable for your lifestyle. The mind can make you live for tomorrow if you have something to live for, even if it is only in your mind. The mind can also make you not want to live. If your mind has nothing to live for, eventually death will come. This book showed this writer that life is in your mind; your mind dictates emotions and how you respond to certain situations. The mind will let you live or will let you die.... Free Essays on Man's search for Meaning Man’s Search for Meaning is a relatively short but powerful novel about an experience through a concentration camp from the eyes of psychologist and author, Victor E. Frankl. In this novel, he illustrates the relevance of psychology through his experience at a concentration camp during World War II. With psychology interwoven through the passages of his novel, he makes a clear picture of the minds of the prisoners, what they, the prisoners, including himself, suffered through and how they survived. During this novel, he states that, â€Å"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life-daily and hourly† (pg. 85). In this quote, Frankl is explaining that people should not seek what they want from life but, on the other hand, endeavor to find the goal that life has in store for them. By seeking the meaning of life, we overlook what life desires from us. Instead of searching for the meaning of life, we should be awaiting the questions that life has for us in order to fulfill it’s design for us. The point of life is not the answers that we seek from life to find meaning, it is the questions from life that we ourselves must answer to uncover that meaning, every hour of the day and every day of our lives. It is the responsibility of the ones that understand this meaning to teach the â€Å"despairing men† that do not understand. We must take their attitudes, their wrong perceptions of how to seek the meaning of life, and change that so they may find the truth, that life dictates what questions we answer, that we do not ask the questions of life. I agree with Frankl’s statement because I understand wha... Free Essays on Man's Search for Meaning Man’s Search for Meaning is a relatively short but powerful novel about an experience through a concentration camp from the eyes of psychologist and author, Victor E. Frankl. In this novel, he illustrates the relevance of psychology through his experience at a concentration camp during World War II. With psychology interwoven through the passages of his novel, he makes a clear picture of the minds of the prisoners, what they, the prisoners, including himself, suffered through and how they survived. During this novel, he states that, â€Å"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life-daily and hourly† (pg. 85). In this quote, Frankl is explaining that people should not seek what they want from life but, on the other hand, endeavor to find the goal that life has in store for them. By seeking the meaning of life, we overlook what life desires from us. Instead of searching for the meaning of life, we should be awaiting the questions that life has for us in order to fulfill it’s design for us. The point of life is not the answers that we seek from life to find meaning, it is the questions from life that we ourselves must answer to uncover that meaning, every hour of the day and every day of our lives. It is the responsibility of the ones that understand this meaning to teach the â€Å"despairing men† that do not understand. We must take their attitudes, their wrong perceptions of how to seek the meaning of life, and change that so they may find the truth, that life dictates what questions we answer, that we do not ask the questions of life. I agree with Frankl’s statement because I understand wha...