Man’s Search for Meaning
Man’s Search for Meaning
by Victor Frankl
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Self-transcendence of human existence Term Analysis

Frankl uses this term to refer to the fact that one can only find meaning through an encounter with something external to oneself. In other words, you must forget yourself and focus on your responsibility to something else in order to make your life meaningful.

Self-transcendence of human existence Quotes in Man’s Search for Meaning

The Man’s Search for Meaning quotes below are all either spoken by Self-transcendence of human existence or refer to Self-transcendence of human existence. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Experiences in a Concentration Camp Quotes

Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understand how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.

Page Number and Citation: 37
Explanation and Analysis:
Frankl’s model for human happiness, what he calls the self-transcendence of human existence, consists ultimately in our ability to lose ourselves in something, or someone, else. Love, as Frankl maintains, is part of life’s super-meaning; it is, in other words, one of the things that justifies our existence against a backdrop of pain, guilt, and death. It may give us relief “only for a brief moment,” but according to Frankl even this brief moment of self-consciousness-destroying love can be enough to make up for years of pain. Like Freud’s earlier psychoanalytic model for the human mind, Frankl’s draws heavily on Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Vo

Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.

Page Number and Citation: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
This quotation forms the essence of Frankl’s self-transcendence, the “going beyond the physical person of the beloved” that he sees as so essential to survival when the physical person—either the body of the lover or of the beloved— is in danger, either due to uncontrollable external circumstances (as in a concentration camp) or due to the deep existential frustration that can drive mind and body to self-destruction. Frankl’s conception of human existence maintains a dualism between body and spirit— your body can be in a terrible place, but you can transcend this physical reality by turning to the spirit. The Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus

At that moment there was very little I knew of myself or of the world—I had but one sentence in mind—always the same: “I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in the freedom of space.”
How long I knelt there and repeated this sentence memory can no longer recall. But I know that on that day, in that hour, my new life started. Step for step I progressed, until I again became a human being.

Page Number and Citation: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
Channeling Dostoevsky, the famous Russian author who said he found god in his most desperate moments while being held in prison, Frankl creates a mantra in order to survive, in a high-religious or even scriptural tone. God opens up the freedom of spiritual space for Frankl, whose body has been forced into this “narrow prison.” Interestingly, this narrow prison is not Auschwitz but Frankl’s post-liberation existence. Falling to his knees in the most traditional gesture of religious submission, Frankl realizes what he wants to be responsible for, the meaning of his life: helping other people out of the “narrow prison” Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores

Logotherapy: The Meaning of Love Quotes

Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized.

Page Number and Citation: 111
Explanation and Analysis:
Frankl maintains that love is the only force which allows us to transcend the three types of trauma central to human existence— pain, despair, and guilt. To see beyond the superficial aspect of another person’s experience, into their “very essence” or “innermost core,” we must love that person. Lest we begin to believe that Frankl’s insistence on finding our own meaning in life means we should ignore other people and selfishly work only toward our own fulfillment, this passage reminds us of the importance of seeing other people’s “essential traits and features” and, even more importantly, the potential in them. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Qu

Logotherapy: Psychiatry Rehumanized Quotes

Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers at Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.

Page Number and Citation: 134
Explanation and Analysis:
The tragic realism Frankl mentions throughout his book comes into clear view here: because members of Frankl’s generation have experienced some of the most pointed suffering life can offer and gone on, upon their release from the camps, to realize that outside life brings still more suffering, they are uniquely poised to make claims about the most extreme aspects of the human soul. This realistic view reveals that humans are both innately good and evil. The latter is expressed in their invention of the gas chambers of Auschwitz, the former in their refusal to bow down before those gas chambers Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omni
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Self-transcendence of human existence Term Timeline in Man’s Search for Meaning

The timeline below shows where the term Self-transcendence of human existence appears in Man’s Search for Meaning. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Logotherapy in a Nutshell: The Essence of Existence
The Search for Meaning Theme Icon
Freedom, Optimism, and Responsibility Theme Icon
Psychology and Logotherapy Theme Icon
...a responsibility to something or someone other than oneself. Frankl calls this phenomenon the “ self-transcendence of human existence .” By forgetting oneself and focusing on an encounter with something else, man finds more... (full context)