Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION III – CENTRAL LUZON
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF TARLAC PROVINCE
san roque, tarlac city

Name: JENEA MAE D. MEDINA Score: ___________

Activity III. Post-Listening/Viewing Activity.

Dr. Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning (New York: Washington Square Press,
Thesis 1966) is both an autobiographical account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi
Statement
concentration camps and a presentation of his ideas about the meaning of life. The
three years of deprivation and suffering he spent at Auschwitz and other Nazi camps
led to the development of his theory of Logotherapy, which, very briefly, states that
the primary force in human beings is "a striving to find a meaning in one's life" (154).
Without a meaning in life, Frankl feels, we experience emptiness and loneliness that
lead to apathy and despair. This need for meaning was demonstrated to Frankl time
and again with both himself and other prisoners who were faced with the horrors of
camp existence. Frankl was able to sustain himself partly through the love he felt for
his wife. In a moment of spiritual insight, he realized that his love was stronger and
Introduction more meaningful than death and would be a real and sustaining force within him even
if he knew his wife was dead. Frankl's comrades also had reasons to live that gave
them strength. One had a child waiting for him; another was a scientist who was
working on a series of books that needed to be finished. Finally, Frankl and his friends
found meaning through their decision to accept and bear their fate with courage. He
says that the words of Dostoevsky came frequently to mind: "There is one thing that I
dread: not to be worthy of my suffering." When Frankl's prison experience was over
and he returned to his profession of psychiatry, he found that his theory of meaning
held true not only for the prisoners but for all people. He has since had great success
in working with patients by helping them locate in their own lives meanings of love,
work, and suffering.

One of my reactions to the book was the relationship I saw between the “Capos” and
ideas about anxiety, standards, and aggression discussed in our psychology class. The
Capos were prisoners who acted as trustees, and Frankl says they acted more cruelly
toward the prisoners than the guards or the SS men. Several psychological factors help
explain this cruelty. The Capos must have been suppressing intense anxiety about
“selling themselves out” to the Nazis in return for small favors. Frankl and other
body prisoners must have been a constant reminder to the Capos of the courage and
integrity they themselves lacked. When our behaviors and values are threatened by
someone else acting in a different way, one way we may react is with anger and
aggression. The Capos are an extreme example of how, if the situation is right, we
may be capable of great cruelty to those whose actions threaten our standards.

I think that Frankl’s idea that meaning is the most important force in human beings
helps explain some of the disorder and discontent in the world today. Many people are
unhappy because they are caught in jobs where they have no responsibility and
creativity; their work lacks meaning. Many are also unhappy because our culture
seems to stress sexual technique in social relationships rather than human caring.
People buy popular books that may help them become better partners in bed, but
 Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION III – CENTRAL LUZON
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF TARLAC PROVINCE
san roque, tarlac city

that may not make them more sensitive to each other’s human needs. Where there is
no real care, there is no meaning. To hide the inner emptiness that results from
impersonal work and sex, people busy themselves with the accumulation of material
things. With television sets, stereos, cars, expensive clothes, and the like, they try to
forget that their lives lack true meaning instead of working or going to school to get a
meaningful job, or trying to be decent human beings.
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I have also found that Frankl’s idea that suffering can have meaning helps me
understand the behavior of people I know. I have a friend named Jim who was always
poor and did not have much of a family—only a stepmother who never cared for him
as much as for her own children. What Jim did have, though, was determination. He
worked two jobs to save money to go to school, and then worked and went to school
at the same time. The fact that his life was hard seemed to make him bear down all
the more. On the other hand, I can think of a man in my neighborhood who for all the
years I've known him has done nothing with his life. He spends whole days smoking
and looking at cars going by. He is a burned-out case. Somewhere in the past his
problems must have become too much for him, and he gave up. He could have found
meaning in his life by deciding to fight his troubles like Jim, but he didn't, and now he
is a sad shadow of a man. Without determination and the desire to face his hardships,
he lost his chance to make his life meaningful.

In conclusion, I would strongly recommend Frankl’s book to persons who care about
conclusion why they are alive, and who want to truly think about the purpose and meaning of
their lives.