Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Girl's Search for Meaning

When I was 18, in Psych 101 at the community college, our professor assigned Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. I didn't read it then because I was a punk-ass kid skipping out on my homework. But at the time, the book might have been lost on me. My life was full of meaning. My mom had just died and each day was a strange, rewarding struggle just to get through work and school, despite how fucked up and cruel life seemed.

But as we've seen from yesterday's post, I'm having trouble finding meaning today, in this slow "now what?" time after college. So I picked up the Frankl book, read it in one sitting and here's what I learned:

- "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how." -Nietzsche

-"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us." -Frankl

-With the fading of certain animal instincts and human traditions, many young people today find themelves in an existential vaccuum (a fancy term for being bored and not sure what to do with your life). Too many options, too few expectations.

-When acute mental tension is lifted (like when someone gets out of prison), a person experiences the emotional equivilent of the bends- they continue to act bitter and defensive, even though life around them is no longer brutal.

-Laugh in the face of pain, guilt and death. It's the only way to defeat them. Tragic optimism.

-Human action goes beyond the sublimation of animal drives (the id), contrary to what Freud accused.

-Meaning goes beyond utility. Learning, enjoyment and spiritual growth have meaning.

-To face a phobia, tease it. For instance, if you can't sleep, lie there and think about how you can't sleep until it gets funny and boring and you pass out. Drain the phobia of its mystery, of its power.

-Those with a rich inner life, as flaky as they may seem in normal situations, are often the ones who pull through a tragedy best. They have their internal world to lean on.

-Follow your meaning. It will save you. Example: a doctor (Frankl) stayed with his patients, from camp to camp and survived the Holocaust because of it. He did his job and somehow, things worked out for him.

-The meaning in "meaningless" tragedy is how you deal with it, how you grow.

-Humans can get used to anything. But happiness, homeostasis (the American dream) is not enough.
posted at 5:43 PM |