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Man's Search for Meaning
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Man's Search for Meaning
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Your college book list is a great idea! I love the laid back nature of this group!
I'm going to pick up my copy at the library on Monday morning
From the forward, the following sentences really resonate with me:"..Frankl approvingly quotes the words of Nietzsche: 'He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.'" (pg ix)
"Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning." (pg x) - this really resonates with me because this is what I have concluded for myself in difficult times. I believe there are many people who believe their purpose is to quest for pleasure or power, but subconsciously, it's to have meaning. Pleasure and power gives people a (false?) sense of purpose/significance/meaning.
The following had a different effect on me:
"You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you." (pg x)
I started to write my explanation to the above quote but am having trouble putting it into words. Basically, if you're a super even keel person who is healthy in mind body and spirit before trauma finds it way to you, then this makes sense. However, controlling how you will feel, it's reaching a bit, unless you're enlightened. I'm also considering that Western culture generally viewed emotions as something to be controlled & even suppressed, so this statement seems to reflect the era in my view..which opens up a whole other conversation in my head, haha.
Mod
Three things confirmed so far; Love, Spirituality & Laughter are crucial to both surviving and thriving in life.
On page 56, Frankl refers to the story of Death in Tehran:"A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse. On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, “Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?” “I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran,” said Death."
One analysis I read was that Frankl uses the story "..to suggest that we are often our own worst enemies, that our very fear of something can make it come about". I also took a lesson of following your intuition. When he followed his intuition, he seemed to narrowly escape worse circumstances than what he ended up in. I wonder what others take away from this?
Mod
I watched the movie Run Hide Fight last night at dailywire.com. It was a fantastic movie and there is a line in that movie that really resonated with me. Even if you move far away, you still have to take yourself with you. So even though the servant flees to Teheran, he has to take all the good and worst parts about him with him and that includes Death because Death is very much a part of all of us.
I'm curious how this story applies to someone who is a holocaust prisoner. How would a prisoner interpret this story? I'm not as far as you in the book, so maybe he mentions this.
Mod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIBhp..."
Awesome!
I get the sense that this story would be interpreted differently by each prisoner dependent on their response to their surroundings. Some people had no idea where they would be next, or what would happen to them. So some might see themselves as being damned if you do and damned if you don't, and lose hope. Some people let go of their morality and tried to survive by stealing and taking from others when possible. Others made the best of their situation by making jokes, and a few even gave their food away to others. Frankl mentions that what was left in people was the choice to give meaning to their life and their death. And that was what really mattered. He gave several examples of narrowly escaping death by following his intuition and not forcing a situation to happen. There were a lot of times when it looked like making one decision was a good idea and people ended up losing their lives as a result. I'm still digesting it. I don't want to spoil it for you so the examples are vague on purpose, haha
Mod
Thank you! That's great, I hope you'll enjoy it. There is so much in each page. The following quotes pop out to me. There are aspects of each one that resonate with me, but I also am not convinced that this applies to all people in all situations.
On page 74 Frankl quotes Spinosa in "Ethics".
"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
Page 77-78
"When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No on can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden."
Sorry for slacking off on everyone. In my defense, I am a college student and an English major at that. I'm actually thinking about posting what I have to read for Spring and if there's a book that looks interesting to you, we could read it together. I could post what I learn about the book in class.
Man's Search for Meaning was recommended. The book is quite short but I did make the deadline at the end of the month. I'm not going to do a regular week-to-week chapter breakdown because, again, the book is so short. I also want to remind everyone that this group is very laid-back. If you don't finish the chapters by the end of the week don't think that I'm going to cut you out of the group and throw you into an abyss. The chapter guides are just that: a guide. I set up discussions early so people can come to them whenever they are ready. If you don't finish the book until much later, you can still post to the discussions. The goal of this group is to let your book nerdiness let loose.
If there are any questions, suggestions, or comments, let me know!