The eight elements that brought meaning to Victor Frankl’s life was his intense inner life, camaraderie, his manuscript, spiritual well-being, his attitude, humanity, faith, comforting or soothing images of the past, and fate. Intense inner life: I believe that Frankl was constantly in the mindset of the doctor he was. He was continually thinking of ways to keep his mind busy. Helping others, thinking of ways to ration his bread, obtaining medicine for the typhus patients, inspiring others, or hiding comrades Frankl kept his mind busy. Although at times he struggled he found his meaning in life and his inner life kept him motivated to go on. To keep his mind busy he was constantly thinking like a psychologist and analyzing others. Camaraderie: There were many prisoners that came and went from …show more content…
Despite all the adversities and anguish Frankl observed nature and love. He thought of his wife habitually and observed nature. He kept his mind busy which kept his spirit up. Even though he struggled he ultimately came to the conclusion that his existence did have significance; he had a purpose which he was going to accomplish. This permitted him to be in a spirit of well-being. Attitude: Everything can be torn away from a man but one thing; which is the last of human liberties. Frankl said, “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.” The way anguish can be tolerated is a genuine inner achievement, and this makes life purposeful and significant to one. By still implementing this autonomy he found that having an attitude would keep him thriving; it came down to whether his perspective was optimistic or
The insight of Frankl’s ideas and meaning, have helped the other inmates physically and psychologically survive under the inhumane abuse. This is why the author and main character Viktor Frankl affected me the most during my reading of these torturous experiences. Whether he was curing ones typhus, or causally giving advice to the other prisoners, he was always thinking of others, and was seen as a courageous figure to the other individuals at the camp. For example, on page 58 Frankl talks about how he will be escaping the camp with his friend. He states how he checked on his patients one last time before his freedom and saw the sad look in one of his deathly patients eyes. He felt unsatisfied with leaving his hopeless patients and then began to tell his friend that he could not leave camp. He stated, “I did not know what the following days would bring, but I gained an inward peace that I had never experienced before. I returned t...
This demonstrates that the prisoners are part of a system where the needs of the collective are far more important than the needs of the individual (in both communism and in the prison.) It also reveals the corruption of the Soviet Union because it while it claims that everyone should be equal, the life of the prisoners in the camp are not valued at all. This could be due to the fact that prisoners in the camps aren’t viewed as people, but rather as animals that are being worked to their death.
I aspire to become a leader in my family and community inspiring those around me to maximize life to its fullest potential. To use my God given gifts and talents to apply the principles necessary, to make a significant difference in the lives of others. To live a balanced life challenging myself intellectually as well as allowing time for my mind to rest and do things I enjoy. To look at life through a child’s eyes, not being distressed about the past or worrying about the future. All the while dancing like nobody’s watching.
...ences the individuals dealt through in the Nazi concentration camps. He writes to avoid any personal bias, as he was a prisoner himself and emphasizes the notion that man has the ability to determine what will become of his life, as he himself was able to apply this thought while living three years in captivity. His notion of finding meaning in life becomes a key factor in survival, which was ultimately able to help him and help others under his teachings, to make it out from the camps alive with a positive attitude. The need for hope, gave him a purpose to keep fighting, although others became struck down with the thought of suicide. Though Victor E. Frankl faced many difficulties and challenges while in captivity and days following his release, he comes to the ultimate realization that life will never cease to have meaning, even when under the cruelest conditions.
Later in life when I have a job of my own I hope to become like my grandfather and get a job and make it my life. Also I hope that once I find my goal that nothing will stop like the miners in Crown of Dust.
Existentialists believe that “to live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in the suffering”. Despite all the horrific experiences in the concentration, Viktor Frankl is determined to not lose the significance of his life and succumb to the cruelty of his situation. With the use of three literary techniques- argumentation, rhetoric, and style- Frankl gives his proposition warrant that a man will not find meaning in his life by searching for it; he must give his life significance by answering questions life asks him.
Viktor Frankl's concept regarding survival and fully living was developed through his observations and experiences in the concentration camps. He used his psychiatric training to discern the meanings of observations and to help himself become a better person. He uses analysis to develop his own concepts and describes them in steps throughout the book. When the prisoners first arrived at the camp most of them thought they would be spared at the last moment. The prisoners believed they had a chance of surviving, but this belief was eventually eliminated and it was at this time when the prisoners began to learn how to survive by using their internal strength. A sense of humor had emerged among the prisoners. This humor helped to get through some difficult situations they faced. Viktor also observed how much a person could really endure and still live. Even though the prisoners could not clean their teeth and were deprived of warmth and vitamins, they still were able to survive. The sores and abrasions on their hands did not suppurate despite the dirt that gathered on them from the hard labor. The challenge of staying alive under these wretched conditions was to have and maintain strong internal strength. During the time he spent in the camps, Viktor learned what was needed to survive and how to keep his internal strength despite his weakening external strength. During the second stage of Viktor's psychological reaction, prisoners lost their sense of feeling and emotion toward events that would be emotional to people outside the camps. This was a result of the violent environment, which consisted of beatings of prisoners and the death of many others. The prisoners could no longer feel any disgust or horr...
While being held prisoner in the death camps, Frankl began to observe his fellow inmates. He payed close attention to the prisoners who survived and those who did not. Frankl concluded that those who felt they had meaning in life such as hope in seeing loved ones at home, unfinished business or great faith had better chances of survival than those who had no hope. This quickly became the basis of his theory. Frankl extrapolated that philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was correct in saying, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” (Frankl 126).
The death camp!” (Hackett,130).This text evidence shows the the deep dark information about what actually was happening when the Frank family was in hiding. One other way that the drama shows mood is when Mr.Frankis speaking. It says “ for 2 long years we have lived here, side by side. We have managed to live in peace.
The first stage he noticed was a state of shock upon their initial arrival at the camp. However, he noted that the second is a phase where the prisoners progressed into “the phase of relative apathy, in which he achieved a kind of emotional death” (Frankl, 20). He explained that despite the unimaginable torture the prisoners endured there were other more severe tortures that caused the prisoners to slip further into a state of meaninglessness in their life. For instance, he stated that “there was his boundless longing for his home and his family [that] often could become so acute that he felt himself consumed by longing.” And “then there was disgust; disgust with all the ugliness which surrounded him”
"On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for
My biggest dream of all is to be remembered. I want to touch people in such a way that they will never forget who I am. I want them to tell their grandchildren stories about me and for them to tell their grandchildren and so on. That way, I’ll still be alive years after I actually die. However, this will be very difficult.
My long-term personal goal is to be at a place where I am genuinely happy with myself and my life and not allowing others and their opinions on me or what I have done or am doing in life to
... to spend some time with my friends also as my friends will also be of my age at that time and they will understand me the best. One day I have to die, as death is a natural process but after dying my real legacy would be my values to my children and my grandchildren. I want that when I die, my children and society remember me as a good person who was always able to act upon her values. As children also learn from their parents so I want my children to get a treasure of good values from me, so that my values could help them to handle various situations in life. I want them to remember with a feeling of proud for me. I want to end my life in such a way that I complete all my purposes for which I have born on this earth as we all have got only one life, so it is really precious, that’s why I want to end my life meaningfully and worthwhile.
The meaning of life, defined by Victor E. Frankl, is the will to find your meaning in life. It is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. He believes that if you are approached with the question of “what is the meaning of my life” or in this case, “life is meaningless,” then you should reverse the question to that person asking the question. For example: What are you bringing to me? What are you as an individual contributing to this life? This forces the person in question to take a look at themselves and to ultimately be responsible. Frankl says that if you are a responsible member of society than the meaning of life transcends from yourself rather from your own psyche. He also says that if we for some reason cannot find meaning within ourselves it has to be from some outside source. This is referred to as service. And an example of this is love. Victor Frankl describes three ways in which we can discover the meaning of life; Creating work-doing a deed, experiencing something-someone, and by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.