Twelve Compelling Questions We Must Ask When Reading Man's Search for Meaning

 

The Challenges of Teaching Man’s Search for Meaning (Lessons should cover these questions over 4 or 5 classes)

 

1. Are you a nihilist? Rodney Dangerfield, centripetal, centrifugal motion, movies rely on centrifugal narrative
2. Do you believe in Frankl’s main message that you are responsible for your attitude no matter your circumstances? Or are you an agnostic?
3. Can there be meaning in the face of theodicy? Think of God’s Problem by Bart Ehrman.
4. Do you live up to the standard Frankl describes or are you a hypocrite relying on false necessities, false definition of success and happiness and dependent on power?
5. What are the false necessitites of life that make our life a joke: a joke that we don’t see until we face a crisis?
6. Is Frankl giving us a self-help book full of clichés or something more and if the latter, how do you convey the specifics without resorting to homilies? Contrast self-help with Frankl’s prescription, which is far more challenging and doesn’t offer quick easy answers.
7. How do you apply the lessons learned in a concentration camp to less extreme challenges?
8. How do you explain the strong “inner life”? Imagination, intellect, spirit, a parallel universe as Martin Amis spoke of.
9. How do you explain spiritual transcendence with no specific religion?
10. How do you teach the urgency of Frankl’s apparent either/or choice? Nihilism or meaning.
11. How is the process of nihilism and depersonalization gradual and how does logotherapy counteract it?
12. What does it mean to be "life affirming" in the context of "tragic optimism"?