DE Weekly: Frankl, Logotherapy, & Tragic Optimism
Last week, I wrote about Viktor E. Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning, which he published in 1946. It details his experiences in a concentration camp during World War II and shares his psychological analysis of not only himself, but of other prisoners and of human beings faced with adversity in general.
This week, I want to expand on what I wrote previously by focusing specifically on the two sections of the book which follow the main narrative: “Logotherapy in a Nutshell” and Frankl’s 1984 postscript “The Case for a Tragic Optimism.”
DE Weekly: Frankl, Suffering, & Man’s Search for Meaning
“He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.” I recently read Viktor E. Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning, and he cited this quote from Friedrich Nietzsche a few times throughout the narrative, reminding himself and the reader just how important a sense of meaning can be.
Frankl wrote Man’s Search for Meaning in 1946 as more of a therapeutic outlet than anything else. The book details his experiences in a concentration camp during the Second World War; above all, the book tries to answer the question: “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?”