Dr Paddy Barrett@Paddy_Barrett
Sometimes, a book can change your entire life.
Victor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ changed mine.
Here is why.
As a doctor and a scientist, I have devoted most of my life to pursuing scientific truth.
But when you wield the unforgiving sword of truth-seeking, you can eventually cut the branch on which you sit.
And then you fall.
And like Emily Dickenson, when that happened to me, ‘I Felt A Funeral In My Brain’ when:
“A Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing - then”
The branch I had been sitting on was a belief in an overarching ‘Meaning of Life’.
My realisation was that there was none to be found.
I deeply wanted there to be one.
I was and am, as JL Schellenberg would describe, a “Nonresistant, nonbeliever”.
Someone who is not resisting a higher meaning and is entirely open to the idea but realises no compelling evidence has been provided and is unlikely ever to be presented.
This is not an argument to change anyone’s mind on their own belief systems.
In a sense, I envy those who have one that encompasses an overarching meaning of life.
I do not have that belief, however.
And I know that for millions of people worldwide, the sentiment is the same.
As a doctor, I have spent years watching people suffer tragic illnesses, often through no fault of their own.
It all just seemed so random and void of meaning.
I found that incredibly hard to process.
And So I Searched For Meaning.
This can be a dangerous path.
As Albert Camus writes:
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
But still, we search.
Meditation is a way to reach a plane of existence where the mere question of ‘the meaning of life’ can fall away.
When you are 100% deeply engaged with the present moment, the question itself is no longer relevant.
The meaning of life is this very moment.
And your attention to it.
But this is hard to achieve and harder to sustain.
And even when you glimpse this idea you still have to live your life.
And then I read Viktor Frank’s ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’.
And it changed everything.
We Live In A Time Of A Crisis Of Meaning.
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who spent four years in Nazi concentration camps during World War 2.
Frankl also views this vacuum of meaning, which he describes as the ‘Existential Vacuum’ as having left mankind with a sense that:
“No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes, he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).”
As a consequence of this meaning vacuum, it leads to the neurotic triad of depression, aggression and addiction. It also appears as apathy, boredom, lack of initiative or interest in the world.
For those who struggle with the crisis of meaning, these features will resonate to varying degrees.
For some, we see them in full force in the world around us today.
And the consequences are not so pretty.
Frankl says, “We [need] to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who [are] being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Life ultimately means the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfil the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual”.
The meaning of life, then, is not a singular answer but a process.
It is not a destination but a lived experience.
It is discovered by engagement with life in such a way that makes meaning emerge through action.
The Will To Meaning.
Frankl’s ‘Will To Meaning’ is not a simple prescription where everyone does the same thing.
It is, in fact, quite the opposite.
Frankl believes that “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfilment”.
That task is unique to each person and is determined by their individual path to meaning.
A path that is fulfilled by the pursuit of activities that embody the values that we hold as our highest values.
These are always internal or autotelic values, i.e., those that lead to activities we pursue for their own purpose and not for secondary gain.
We pursue them because we find them intrinsically rewarding.
Not becasue we can trade the rewards of pursuing those values for other things such as money, power or status.
The three categories of values that Frankl describes as leading to meaning are:
- Creative.
- Experiential.
- Attitudinal.
Creative values are embodied by our desire to create, succeed and add value to the world. This may be in the form of a successful business or in the creation of art or music. It is a reflection of our deep desire to bring value into the world.
Experiential values are found in engaging with the truth and beauty of the world. This can be in the search for scientific truth as a researcher but also as someone who simply wishes to experience the profound beauty of the world. Even in the moments of a sunrise are the essential and adequate ingredients of a meaningful life present. Nothing more is required.
Experiential values also include how we experience another person. This is the domain of love. It is in this profound state that to question ‘the meaning of life’ would seem ridiculous. Just try to do that with a newlyborn child in your arms.
It is in the pursuit of these first two values that most people will find a deep sense of meaning in their lives.
But What About Those Who Cannot Pursue Creative or Experiential Values?
We have all encountered periods of our lives when we can no longer pursue the values we hold highest.
For some, these times are temporary.
For others, often through no fault of their own, they find themselves in a situation where the opportunity to fulfill these value ambitions has been thwarted.
Illness, tragedy, and bad luck can strike at any time and take away our ability to engage with our highest pursuits.
What then?
This is when we must embrace Attitudinal Values.
Frankl believes that even in the most dire situations, we can always derive a deep sense of meaning by crafting our attitude in response to that situation.
It is here we encounter the most famous line in Frankl’s book:
“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.“
It is in our choice of how we respond to the tragedy and suffering of our lives that we create meaning.
It is being brave in the face of adversity.
It is holding your composure in a time of chaos.
It is the recognition that although life is fleeting and largely forgotten, each moment of one's life is stitched into the fabric of time forever.
How we respond to any given situation becomes a permanent marker in time that no one can ever erase.
It is in recognising this fact that should shape our attitude even in the most challenging of circumstances.
Now before you respond with your own story of difficulty and why this does not apply to you, please realise these are the words of a man who spent four years in a Nazi concentration camp.
Frankl was stripped of every single possession.
His wife and family were brutally murdered.
He endured unimaginable cruelty at the hands of the prison guards.
And yet.
He chose to find meaning in his response to such a tragic situation.
You Must Have A Vision.
During Frankl’s time in the concentration camps, he recognised the extreme importance of having a future vision or goal in order to survive.
The prisoners who lost sight of their vision often lost their will to survive and quickly perished.
This is where Frankl draws on Nietzsche's words:
"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
To survive, one must have a why.
To find meaning, you must have a compelling vision for the future that sustains you.
The challenge is that most people do not have such a vision.
How often have you been met with a blank stare by another or even yourself when posed with the question:
“What do you want from life?”.
If you do not know what you want.
You have no vision.
If you have no vision.
You are lost.
According to Frankl, your vision is the pursuit of your highest values: creative, experiential or attitudinal.
But what if those values seem lost in the haze of the modern world, obscured by the blinding streams of social media and chattering commentary?
Then You Start With An Anti-Vision.
Negative emotions are more potent than positive ones.
We are often motivated more by the threat of a life not aligned with our true values, even if we cannot fully articulate what our true values are.
We may not be able to describe our highest values but we are usually crystal clear on what they are not.
Like the sculpture, we often cannot see our highest vision in the rock until we carve away all that is not supposed to be there.
And when we do, what remains is the purest representation of who we are.
As Michaelangelo said:
“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”
My Anti-Vision.
Over the last ten years, I have realised that my highest values are in experiencing the beauty of the world, the acquisition of knowledge and the presence of those I love.
I do not seek power, fame or money.
When asked recently what I would do with ten million dollars as startup capital for a new company, I replied that I would simply hand it back to whoever gave it to me.
Understanding this about myself has made my life so much more enjoyable.
My life is now primarily focused on the pursuit of the goals that offer me the deepest sense of meaning.
In a world that does not have a precise answer to the question ‘What is the meaning of life?” I have found a way of being that provides a profound sense of meaning.
And for me, that is enough.
This path does not make me immune to the tragedies of life.
They still find me.
And will continue to do so.
But recognising that even in the most tragic circumstances, I can always aspire to find meaning in how I choose to approach any given situation has helped me immensely.
Life is brief.
And in my view must be lived in the most authentic way possible.
Only You can discover what that way is.
No one else can tell you.
And even when the tragedies of life arise and present us with obstacles to the pursuit of our highest values, we must remember the words of Viktor Frankl and why, for me, his book changed my life forever.
“We must never forget that we may also 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. When one is no longer able to change a situation.. we are challenged to change ourselves.”
