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?”
DE Weekly: Reflections, Thoughts, & Beliefs
Hello, friends. This edition of the newsletter marks one year since I sent out the first one. It started as the first step in what I’ve always had a drive to do: to share my thoughts and my love for philosophy with people who appreciate it the same way I do. In the past year, it’s fulfilled all that and more.
Through Daily Existentialist Weekly, or DE Weekly for short, I’ve been able to cover not just existentialism, but all other kinds of philosophy and pop culture that ties into it.