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Man's Search For Meaning Sparknotes

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Template for UH 200 Final Paper Part 1 - Introduction Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust. After his release, he founded logotherapy, a type of psychotherapy that focuses on finding the purpose of life. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl first addresses what happens psychologically to an inmate in concentration camps. He then goes on to explain the basic principles of logotherapy and how it works. How did his experiences in the concentration camps inspire his creation of logotherapy? Was this mental enlightenment unique to him, or did the prisoners collectively experience it? Was Frankl able to find meaning within the suffering of himself and countless others? As an individual reads this book, they …show more content…

Since the other prisoners refused to give him up, they were all being starved. Why did Frankl believe that his encouragement was necessary? Frankl saw the deep inner good and evil within people in the concentration camps. Even though it would cause them more pain and misery, the prisoners decided to show humanity and not give up their fellow prisoner. Frankl wanted to foster this inner goodness. The other prisoners were just as tired and hungry, and one of them would likely soon rat out on their comrade. Frankl wanted to encourage them to continue suffering for a good reason. If they were to give up now, they would have still suffered just as long. Furthermore, by breaking the willpower and collective humanity of the prisoners, the guards would be able to further dehumanize and cause many prisoners to lose their motivation to keep living. Frankl knew he had the ability and knowledge to encourage the other prisoners, so he had an obligation to himself to try and speak to them …show more content…

Could this be applied to more trivial matters or is this advice exclusive to extreme suffering? This could be applied to many domestic disputes or arguments. For example, if there is a chore that both someone and their partner dislikes, such as doing the dishes, that person could embrace doing the chore as way to avoid making their partner suffer. By thinking of it as a sacrifice, the one person could feel pride in doing a disliked job, while the partner can appreciate not doing the job and the fact that their partner is willing to do it for them. If both partners were to employ this philosophy, their relationship could run

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