Man's search for meaning

ithinkisee

A book that I cannot recommend enough. One of the more balanced views of life from someone who was stripped down to his very existence as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps.

The book is short - half the book is dedicated to covering his actual experience in the camps. The other half is a clinical analysis of his life there. (He was a psychotherapist so he analyzes what caused people’s reactions there.)

There are lessons of resiliency that inspired me. There are lessons in accepting that certain things are out of our control, but that we need to be ready to take action when things ARE in our control.

What was interesting to me is how the prisoners actually got to a point where they liked the concentration camps. They got used to it. They started developing little cliques and got used to the “routine”.

In fact, the author notes that some prisoners resented being freed because now they had choices and opportunity and had to face up to making decisions on their own instead of deferring to the authority.

The author went on to note how certain types of people actually prefer giving up their freedom in order to have life spelled out for them. They liked the predictability and ultimate control being handed over to someone else - even if that someone else took advantage and abused them. Sort of a WWII version of “The Matrix” movie where that guy Cipher wanted to be put back into the Matrix because he couldn’t handle the real world.

I also learned that many things people attributed to “God” helping them in the concentration camps was nothing more than sheer luck or coincidence. The same things that happened to people in the camps that happened to the members of one religion were the EXACT SAME THINGS that happened to people in every other religion in those camps. (i.e. “If it’s unexplainable, then it must be the hand of God!”)

In the camps, there were people in many different religions that prayed for food - and it miraculously showed up via a friendly guard or some other coincidence. All religions affected by Nazis have the same “ooh-aaah” stories that invoke their members to say, “Wow, God must have really been with them!”

In short, a great book that isn’t a thinly disguised sales pitch for any particular religious group.

-ithinkisee

Open mind

Thanks for the recommendation ithinkisee. I'll add it to an ever-lengthening list.

To do list: Take a speed reading course.

Open Mind

mavie

One of the great texts of modern existentialism. We make our own meaning.

Crumpet

I agree with Mavie - we do define life personally.

In the camps, there were people in many different religions that prayed for food - and it miraculously showed up via a friendly guard or some other coincidence. All religions affected by Nazis have the same “ooh-aaah” stories that invoke their members to say, “Wow, God must have really been with them!”

That is interesting. I wonder if a really terrible experience could ever lead me to depend on a God of any sort. It hasnt so far. Maybe its only the half-godless that want this kind of meaning.

I dont need there to be any meaning at all. I am here and now I just have to make sure I enjoy it before I am not here.

startingover

Thanks for the recommendation ITIS

I'm with Crumpet, I have absolutely no need for there to be any meaning.

frankiespeakin

Meaning is limited to humans imagination. What if meaning is what a feeble egoic mind keeps searching for,, motivated by the egoic-self,, lost in seperation do to limited comprehension. Maybe the meaning is far beyond what our feeble inquisiting ego can relate with.

freedomloverr

I really enjoyed this book also. there's an excerpt in that book where he talks about speaking with a woman in the camps who was close to death. she was laying in a tent for days waiting to die and she tells him about a conversation she had with a tree that was in her view through a window. at the time the author thought she may have been crazy but she wasn't. she had come to a higher consciousness due to her experience and she had a tremendous peace that is still awe-inspiring to me whenever I think of that story.

aSphereisnotaCircle

I read this book shortly after leaving the dubs, and although I enjoyed it, i was also very frustrated by it.

I thought it would tell me the meaning of life, and it didn't. I think that's pretty funny now.

I think it's time to read it again , now that my brain is less dub indoctrinated.

theinfamousone

perfect, i was just trying to come up with something to readnext... this will be my next purchase!!! or maybe ill add it to my birthday wishlist.. lol, my birthday is next week... can't wait

the infamous one

bernadette

Ithinkisee, that is an excellent book - took it with me on holiday recently. Here is another quote, the author says

"the perception of meaning as I see it, more specifically boils down to becoming aware of a possibility against the background of reality or, to express it in plain words, to becoming aware of what can be done about a given situation."

Viktor Frankl writes about finding meaning in the context of life in the moment rather than a grand scheme of things in the distant future or up in the sky.

I definitely recommend it.

bernadette

Man's search for meaning

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