Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl – Review
Concentration camp (1939-45) in Auschwitz which is in the southern part of Poland highlights the devilish nature of mankind. A quick look at the numbers will elucidate the trauma each of the captured civilians, prisoners of war or jews had to undergo. A total of 1.3 million who belonged to the non-German creed were captured, out of which 1.1 million were murdered in the concentration camp. This would give an inmate roughly 1/10th of a chance to survive the brutal treatment met out to them.
Under the influence of concentration camp, which disregarded
the value of human life and made each inmate an object of extermination. The
only reason a Schutzstaffel guard left a prisoner alive was to extract every ounce
of physical resource in each of them. With the given background, every prisoner
lost his sense of being an individual and identified himself as a part of the
pack, regressing to an animal form of life which can be herded around. In short,
the man has retreated himself to a primitive age and all that he
longed for was bread, soup and warm bath on an average day.
With brutal implementation of a forced undesirable condition,
Viktor who was one of the victims of Auschwitz concentration camp tries to find
the meaning of his existence under strenuous suffering arising from mental,
physical and spiritual side of a human. He is amongst the small percentage of
prisoners who survived the concentration camp, lived till 1997 and authored 6 books
centred around logotherapy and psychotherapy.
Viktor makes a deep-rooted statement, “He who has a strong why
to live for can bear with almost any how.” In the case of Viktor it was strong
desire to complete his manuscript while for a few others it’s the longing to be
back with their family.
An interesting incident from his experience in concentration
camp was put forward by Viktor. In the month of February, an inmate had a dream
that the war will come to an end and he will be released by 30th
of March. As the date drew close by, there was no sign of war coming to an end
and liberation was out of question. The inmate suddenly became ill and caught
high temperature on the day his prophecy voiced into him the promise on
conclusion to war and suffering which never actually reached fruition within
the said date. To all outward appearances, he died due to typhus the next day.
On a deeper lever, we can realize that there is a strong correlation
between hope and immunity system in our body. As the expected liberation didn’t
arrive, he lost all hope on release from suffering, which lowered his body’s resistance
against the latent typhus infection. A clear indication of how emotions plays
with physiology of the body.
As years passed by, the Soviet cracked down on the Germans
eventually leading to the end of war and the breakdown of concentration camp.
The liberation brought in tremendous joy but there is a flip side to liberation
as well, which can be termed as post liberation trauma. As the released inmate
marched joyously towards his home, he failed to realize that his family has
been gassed in the concentration camp marking him as the only one alive. The
homecoming inmate realised that he has no one to live for which eventually
pushed him into a zone of disillusion.
The fundamental point in Viktor’s narrative is that unavoidable
suffering can create a pathway in identification of meaning towards one’s
existence provided the same is fully accepted. Once a soul realizes the meaning
of his existence, he drives his entire life towards actualizing the same.
No need for recommendation. It’s a brilliant narration coming
out of an individual’s hard life experience.
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