Victor Frankl-Mans Search for Meaning

Victor Frankl-Mans search for Meaning

Frankl's Super-meaning

Reflection and Meditation

So long as I am suffering, I know I am alive

So long as I can be moved to ask why This tree, this house, this smoky plume

Rises into the sky, I know I am alive.

A cannot see beyond this moment in time.

A cannot see beyond the branch, the fire, burning

Day and night, but that is enough.

God gazes at all the world He made,

Asks why, he lives, but I cannot see beyond My life, still, like a little sliver of the why of the divine, I ask, why, why, why.

Victor Frankl believed that every human needs to have a sense that his or her life has a purpose, or a meaning. If an individual lacks a sense of leading a meaningful life, the suffering he or she will invariably encounter will seem unbearable, and the triumphs of life will seem hollow. This sense of leading a purposeful life sustained Frankl in the concentration camps during World War II. There he witnessed other Jews finding meaning in their lives. Some men found that their love for their wives made life meaningful while others found meaning in religious faith. Finding meaning in the world helped them cope with what would otherwise be unbearable sorrow and travails.

Frankl believed that the super-meaning of life, the ultimate purpose of human existence could only be understood or put into words by ordinary people. The super-meaning of life was infinite, but the human capacity to understand the world beyond our own narrow terms and limits was finite (Hanes 2001). Still, human beings must try to make limited meaning out of their lives to be psychologically healthy and to make the most of human existence.