Discover the Meaning of Your Life
"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how"
—Friedrich Nietzsche.
Viktor Frankl was a prisoner and survivor of Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Based on his training as a psychotherapist and his experiences as a prisoner and survivor, he formulated the theory that he called "logotherapy," that he explains in his book, Man's Search for Meaning."1
According to Frankl, logos is a Greek word denoting "meaning," and logotherapy
"focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as [one's] search for meaning....[T]his striving to find meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in [humans]....This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by [the person] alone; only then does it achieve the significance which will satisfy [their] own will to meaning. . . .[Logotherapy] tries to make the patient aware of what [they] actually long for in the depth of [their] being. . . .(Man's Search for Meaning, pp. 104-108).
Based on Frankl's experience while imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps, "one could have witnessed that those who knew that there was a task waiting for them to fulfill were most apt to survive." (Id. at p. 109). In other words, those who experienced a purpose and meaning in their lives had a better chance of surviving than those who did not. This creates a certain degree of tension in one's mental health,
the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensible to mental well-being. . . . What [a human] actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What [a human] needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by [them] (Id. at pp. 109-110).
Frankl offers that the meaning of life
differs from [person] to [person], from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. . . .One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has [their] own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment....In a word, each [person] is questioned by life; and [they] can only answer to life by answering for [their] own life; to life [they] can only respond by being responsible.
Frankl asserts that persons are "responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of [their] life." He continues,
I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within [a person or their] own psyche, as though it were a closed system. I have termed this constitutive characteristic "the self-transcendence of human existence." It denotes that fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself—be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets [themselves]—by giving [themselves] to a cause to serve or another person to love— the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. . . .self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence. . . .(Id. at p. 115).
Frankl claims that "the meaning of life always changes, but that it never ceases to be" (Id. at p. 115). He proposes three different ways through which we can discover the meaning of life:
(1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering (Id.).
According to Frankl, the first way of finding meaning—"the way of achievement or accomplishment"—is obvious. He believes the second and third ways need further clarification. He contends the second way of finding meaning in life is attained "by experiencing something—such as goodness, truth and beauty—by experiencing nature and culture or, last but not least, by experiencing another human being in [their] very uniqueness—by loving them. (Id.).
With respect to the third way, Frankl believes we can find
meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement....
Frankl asserts that a person's "main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in [their] life. That is why [a person] is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that [their] suffering has meaning" (Id. at p. 117). But Frankl seeks to make "perfectly clear that in no way is suffering necessary to find meaning. I only insist that meaning is possible even in spite of suffering—provided, certainly, that the suffering is unavoidable. If it were avoidable, however, the meaningful thing to do would be to remove its cause, be it psychological, biological, or political" (Id.
According to Catholic Christian teaching, "God created us out of God's free and unselfish love" and "wanted to share [God's] endless joy with us, who are creatures of his love." We are created "in order to know and to love God, to do good according to [God's] will, and to go someday to heaven."2
1 Frankl, Victor E., Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984). The first part of the book discusses Frankl's experience of being a prisoner with others in the concentration camps. The second part of the book explains his theory of logotherapy. As of 2022, Frankl's book has reportedly sold more than 16 million copies and has been translated into 52 languages.
According to Frankl, "When we are no longer able to change a situation—just think of an incurable disease which is inoperable cancer—we are challenged to change ourselves" (Id. at p. 116). This willingess to change one's attitude is consistent with Frankl's underlying belief that "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way" (Id. at p. 75). A person has the ultimate responsibility and freedom to make choices, no matter what the situation is.
Take some time to reflect about who or what gives meaning to your life now? What do you discern God is calling you to become or do at this time in your life?
2. Schönborn, Cardinal Christoph, YOUCAT—Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church, (San Francisco: Liturgical Press, 2011), nos. 1 and 2, p. 14.