Reflective Questions on "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl

Reflective Questions on “Man’s Search for Meaning”: 

1. What are the major themes of the essay "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl?

2. Give two examples from NIGHT of exemplary (excellent, superior) behavior of prisoners in the camps, who have transcended their barbaric conditions. 

3. Give two examples from NIGHT of behavior in which the prisoners have given into their baser (lower) nature.

4. According to Viktor E. Frankl, in B. “The Power of Love”, what gave a prisoner a sense of humanity? If a prisoner lost this, what happened to the prisoner? Find an example in NIGHT where a prisoner was sustained by love. What happened to the prisoner when hope was lost?

5. According to Viktor E. Frankl, in C. “The Loss of Human Values”, what was the most important thing to the bureaucrats who ran the camps? What did this reduce the prisoners to? Give an example of how the bureaucrats saw sick prisoners and how this determined the bureaucrats’ treatment of those prisoners. 

6. In D. “The Importance of the Future in Suffering”, what was the most effective way of combating the camp’s psychopathological influence on the prisoners?

7. Describe the prisoner who has given up.

8. Explain what Nietzsche means when he says, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost and how.” 

9. Explain what Frankl means in the final paragraph in D. “The Importance of the Future in Suffering”. What must we change about ourselves?  What is more important than talk and meditation? What does life ultimately mean? 

Barbaric: uncivilized, violent, destructive, going against accepted codes of civilized behavior.