Finding Purpose Through Struggle: The Legacy of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy

How does one find meaning and purpose in their life?

Austrian psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl was a prisoner of the Nazi concentration camps during World War 2. He made a vow to survive the holocaust so that he could go on to teach the lessons he learned about himself and about human nature while enduring some of the most hellish conditions in recorded history.

Dr. Frankl would go on to author the book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, and founded logostherapy, which is a form of psychotherapy that emphasises the search for life’s meaning to be a central part of human motivation.

Frankl would closely observe people’s behaviour while in the concentration camps. People were subject to some of the most cruellest forms of torture and abuse, and Dr. Frankl found that those who checked out and gave up quickly deteriorated. However, he found that those who attributed meaning to their situation had the best chances of survival.

We can say that the idea of ‘God’ is a vehicle people use to attribute meaning to hard situations in their lives. You hear people say, “I’m here as part of God’s plan” — they are using their belief in God as a means to finding some sort of meaning from their situation.

The human mind is a meaning searching machine. You’re always looking to find the meaning behind things, people, stories and events; and according to the groundbreaking work of Dr. Frankl, attributing meaning to difficult life circumstances is healthy and advantageous.

Therefore, to find meaning and purpose in your life, look inward. What are your deepest struggles? What do they mean? How might you be able to learn from them? How can you use your lessons to enhance your own life and the life of those around you? Are these challenges here to prepare you to be a better employee, a better spouse, a better parent? — this is your purpose.