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Super-meaning
Frankl defines tragic optimism as the decision to say “yes” to life despite the pain, guilt, and death that one must necessarily face. These three negative forces are counteracted by the positive forces of hope, faith, and love.
Tragic optimism Quotes in Man’s Search for Meaning
The Man’s Search for Meaning quotes below are all either spoken by Tragic optimism or refer to Tragic optimism. 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
I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious “Yes” in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose.
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In his insistence on total commitment to something outside of oneself as the only way to transcend the pain and difficulty that accompany human existence, Frankl offers a precursor to Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s well-known concept of “flow,” the “state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter,” according to Csikszentmihalyi’s 1990 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. According to both Frankl and Csikszentmihalyi, when we are fully immersed in an experience, whether of love or hope or meaningfulness, we are transcending ourselves and experiencing joy. Frankl explains this in more spiritual 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. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque i
If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.
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Frankl’s logotherapy is always as much philosophy as psychology, and here he makes a classic philosophical move: if there is to be meaning in life, there must be meaning in suffering, because suffering is always part of life. Now, in fact, this is not that well-crafted as a logical statement, because unless suffering and life are one and the same the “meaning in life” could reside elsewhere besides in its suffering. However, despite the loose logic of his philosophical statement, we get Frankl’s point: suffering is a necessary part of life, and if we want to find meaning in life 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. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui
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.
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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 Life Quotes
One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.
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As Frankl has explained in earlier quotations, his book is not about finding the “abstract meaning of life”— the general answer to that perennial question, “What is the meaning of life?” Instead, Frankl pushes us always toward our “specific vocation or mission in life,” which consists of our “concrete assignments.” It is never quite clear who assigns each of us with these tasks, but given Frankl’s spiritual predilections the taskmaster is most likely God. Because each person’s task is unique, each life must also be unique and so cannot be repeated. This provides a basis for the tragic optimism central 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 exped
Logotherapy: The Meaning of Suffering Quotes
It is one of the basic tenants of logotherapy that man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning.
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Here again Frankl opposes his framework of logotherapy to other dominant strains of philosophy (hedonism is all about gaining pleasure, for example) and therapy (in some traditions, about avoiding pain). Frankl rejects the pleasure principle— Freud’s means of asserting that humans hurtle toward whatever is pleasurable and away from what is painful— and suggests that meaning is both more important and ultimately more enjoyable than either pleasure or pain. Much of Frankl’s book, understandably given its origin story, is about trying to see suffering as something besides needless pain. In this passage, Frankl says that people are willing to suffer 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 eaqu
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.
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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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Tragic optimism Term Timeline in Man’s Search for Meaning
The timeline below shows where the term Tragic optimism appears in Man’s Search for Meaning. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Postscript 1984: The Case for Tragic Optimism
Frankl defines tragic optimism as optimism in the face of “pain, guilt, and death,” or “saying yes to life...
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Frankl says that the best case for tragic optimism can be made by “the defiant power of the human spirit.” He cites as evidence...
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