Updated for 12-8-16: Groundhog Day Assig., Meaning Mountain, Argumentation, Rebuttals, Counterarguments, Logotherapy, Establishing Credibility

Option Four: Groundhog Day

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that Groundhog Day character Phil Connors’ spiritual malaise and eventual spiritual transformation can be analyzed through the lens of the principles in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

Parallel Points Between Groundhog Day and Man's Search for Meaning As an Essay Outline

Both show that without meaning we are fallen creatures burdened with our self-centered, petulant, sour attitude, a disposition that eats away at us until we become unbearable to others and ourselves.

Both show that without meaning we descend into the "existential vacuum," a void so unbearable that we try to fill the chasm with misguided forms of happiness that actually make the chasm even worse. Thus we enter a vicious cycle.

Both show that we must have a turning point in our lives, a moment of truth, in which we take responsibility for our attitude toward the human condition and our actions.

Both show that digging ourselves out of the abyss we dug for ourselves is an arduous journey, but it can be done when we see our purpose because when we have a reason for living we can endure suffering and even embrace it gladly.

Both show that only with meaning can a human being undergo a radical transformation of personality and fundamental attitude.

Both show that the drive for meaning and the embrace of meaning is the therapy or the cure for our default setting of selfish, self-centered petulance.

Research Resources:

8 Creative Interpretations of Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day Succeeds by Breaking Rules of Every Genre

This Groundhog Day fan theory might change how you see the film forever

Breakthrough To the True Self

Everything I Know About Life I Learned from Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day: the perfect film, forever

Reliving Groundhog Day

Michael Faust essay

Grading Based on Students' Success with Fulfilling Student Learning Outcomes As Evident in the Final Essay:

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this course, students will:

Complete a research-based essay that has been written out of class and undergone revision. It should demonstrate the student’s ability to thoughtfully support a single thesis using analysis and synthesis.
Integrate multiple sources, including a book-length work and a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites. Citations must be in MLA format and include a Works Cited page.
Demonstrate logical paragraph composition and sentence structure. The essay should have correct grammar, spelling, and word use.

Your guidelines for your Final Research Paper are as follows:

This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.

You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.

You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.

At least one source must be from an ECC library database.

At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.

At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.

The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.

This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.

You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.

You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.

You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Your paper must be logically organized and focused.

Frankl’s Central Argument in 3 Sentences

One. No matter the circumstances, we all have the free will and therefore the responsibility to choose a dignified, meaningful life in the face of even the worst suffering.

Two. Failure to create a meaningful life for ourselves will result in the existential vacuum or unbearable emptiness.

Three. Without meaning we will try to fill the gnawing void with misguided distractions that will destroy us.

Some might conclude that Frankl's world is binary or either/or: Either we connect to life with meaning or we fail to find meaning and suffer the despair and regret of disconnection.

Others might conclude that meaning, contrary to Frankl, exists on a sliding scale or is relative and that this nuanced view of meaning eludes Frankl's strident message.

Critique Examples

"A Response to Viktor Frankl"

"Viktor Frankl and Auschwitz"

D.G. Meyers, author of the above essay, writes about how he feels about his terminal cancer in the context of meaning.

Meyers makes the following assertions:

1. There is not always a "why" except on Frankl's misreading of Nietzsche.

2. The Holocaust represents a new order of reality that defies meaning and this is affirmed by other survivors who don't have a "meaning agenda."

3. Frankl does not "plumb the depths of evil" in the Holocaust because to do so would not support his thesis that meaning can be found in all circumstances.

4. Being worthy or not of one's suffering is an irrelevant point when one is being sent to the gas chamber.

5. The Holocaust is too extreme and too unusual to make Frankl's message applicable to the common reader.

Let us look at "do-gooders" to see if they have found meaning or something else.

Read "Why Do-Gooders Make the Rest of Us Uncomfortable."

Thesis Sample and Outline for Groundhog Day:

Through the lens of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Groundhog Day's universal themes of damnation and salvation become crystal clear. We see that Phil Connors is without meaning a damned man doomed to live in an eternal loop of nothingness and despair. We see that without hope for a meaningful existence, Connors surrenders to his beastly impulses of cynicism and petulant childishness, resulting in his disconnection from himself and the human race. We see that Connors must be redeemed by love, one of the three ways humans find meaning, according to Frankl. Finally, we see that it is only the primary drive for meaning that, like the logotherapy used by Viktor Frankl, can provide the therapy and healing Connors' shrunken soul needs.

For paragraph 1, summarize Frankl's book.

For paragraph2, summarize the movie Groundhog Day.

For paragraph 3, write a thesis that presents your argument about meaning as you pit the book against the movie.

Paragraphs 4-10 should support your thesis.

Paragraph 11 will be your conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis.

The Four Realms of Meaning Mountain

At the bottom of Meaning Mountain is the bottom-dwelling realm, the land of the sloths, miscreants, narcissists, predatory hedonists, fops, dandies, pathological liars, impostors, grifters, mountebanks, snake oil salesmen, and other members of the Moral Dissolution Club. No fair-minded or decent human aspires to exist in this loathsome realm.

Traveling north up Meaning Mountain, we arrive at the middle realm, the land most people aspire to. Middle Mountain, as it's often called, hosts the world's decent people who do their work, fulfill their responsibilities, remain faithful to their partner and seek a life of security and comfort according to society's social contract.

These individuals seek the 8 Essential Needs, which we will peruse below. The people are "nice" but they tend to be invisible and rarely achieve anything "groundshaking" pertaining to the progress of the planet. For them meaning takes a back seat to comfort and security. They don't "make waves"; they simply get cozy in their cave and put their life on auto-pilot. But they fall short of Frankl because they avoid tension and conflict (105).

Between the middle and the top realm are the creative producers, those who flourish in their passion. They may not pursue Frankl's edict of self-sacrifice, but they do not settle for the mediocrity that pervades the people just below them. Often these people change society with their scientific breakthroughs and innovations. Think Apple and Steve Jobs. More generally, think about comedians, entertainers, actors, writers, musicians, artists, etc. These people cannot bear living without the torment of a struggle to better their work and art. To quit working would be, for them, a death.

Climbing past the cumulus clouds and then the misty shroud, we are now at Realm Four, the peak of Meaning Mountain. We are now in the presence of a rarefied breed of people, those disciples of Full-Potency Frankl. These are brave souls who cast away comfort and comformity to pursue Frankl's edict to take their cross and give up their life for the sake of others, to embrace suffering, theirs and the world's, and to seek what Life demands of them. For the Full-Potency Frankl acolytes, comfort and security take a back seat to meaning, sacrifice, and public service. Most people who change the world for the better come from this hard-to-reach mountain peak.

Defining Meaning

The Problem with Meaning Is That the Word Is "Loaded" and We Dismiss All Meaning When We See False Meaning

Examples of False Meaning

People who are delusional and commit acts of evil in the name of an ideology that gives them "meaning" like the white American settlers who wanted to be free from European tyranny but then relied on slavery to fuel their economy under the justification of white supremacy.

People who are vain posers and feel they have "meaning" when they post Facebook photos of themselves "helping the poor" for a weekend.

People who are eager to talk and write about their "meaningful" doctrines but don't live what they speak and are odious hypocrites.

People who find "meaning" supporting their family when in fact they wake up every morning and kiss the giant butt of Blind Ambition. They're superficial.

What Is Real Meaning?

Moral results

Transformative (learned helplessness and self-pity transform into courage and self-reliance, for example)

Redemptive (similar to above)

Meaning must be lived, not spoken

But do we all achieve "Power Meaning" like Frankl or relative meaning through the acquistion of the 8 Basic Human Needs?

Meaning Is a Learned Behavior and Meaning Comes from Moral Character Development

We are not born with meaning. We are born blank, a tabula rasa.

We need to learn boundaries to find meaning. A film about boundaries and the lack thereof is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. We see in both the film and VF's book that without boundaries we become animals:

August Gloop

Veruca Salt

Either we learn and emulate the common life of hedonic pleasures, vanity, and envy, or we learn and emulate the life of moral character, which consists of the following:

1. respect

2. integrity

3. dignity

4. honesty

5. caritas, charity and compassion for others

6. sacrifice

7. fortitude

8. listening for meaning, asking what life demands of us

9. wisdom: being wise enough to see the emptiness and danger of hedonic or hedonistic quests and reject the common life of vanity, envy, and hedonism.

When we have character, our lives are more meaningful, but is "more meaningful" the same as "meaning"?

The Problem of Specificity and Definition

Specificity: dealing with specific notions of meaning, free will, responsibility, to name a few. Without specifics, we’re simply rehashing feel-good clichés. As a result, the level of writing is fifth grade instead of college. We must avoid writing like fifth graders.

When dealing with terms like meaning, free will, responsibility, and other grandiose abstractions, we achieve specificity in several ways. Here are a few:

One. Be skeptical of clichés, overused terms and phrases like “think outside the box,” which is, ironically, so “inside the box.”

Here’s an example of the term meaning being reduced to a cliché: A man says, “My family is my meaning. Taking care of them, providing for them, that is my meaning. So don’t talk to me about meaning.”

This is a cliché that doesn’t mean anything. In fact, this man may work his butt off for his wife and children to the point that his life is one thing: MAMMAP—make as much money as possible. There’s good reason to make lots of money. It’s helpful, but it doesn’t define meaning. In fact, this man may be teaching his family that money is the elixir for all of life’s woes, thus afflicting his family with materialism and greed. In fact, this man may be addicted to work even as he becomes more and more emotionally disconnected from his family.

Here’s another example.

Someone says, “My faith in God gives me meaning.” That’s very possible, since in fact Frankl’s faith in God helped him find meaning in the concentration camps, but too many people engage in religious ritual and carry religious beliefs out of unquestioned habit. Meaning cannot be achieved by repetitious, unexamined behavior. Such behavior is mindless and being mindless cannot forge a path to meaning.

Here’s another example.

I derive meaning from my job, my career. We would be wise to gain meaning from our career, but too often our job title gives us a certain status and identity that becomes a mask.

Take away our job and often we lose our identity; there’s no meaningful core behind the title, just an emptiness. You hear about professional athletes all the time who retire from their sport and then live a life of moral dissolution, becoming drug addicts and alcoholics. You hear of people retiring from any job and going into a depression. A lot of people die shortly after retirement.

So we must be cautious of equating our job with meaning.

Two. Turn away from the absolute and move toward the relative by positioning the term on a scale. In other words, see the gray or nuance of a definition. Don’t use the term meaning in terms of black and white such as your life either has meaning or it has no meaning. Rather, consider the idea of meaning moving up and down a scale.

We get into trouble when we talk about meaning as in Absolute Ultimate Meaning. Now we’ve turned meaning into this elusive Holy Grail, Elixir, or Chimera, a cure-all mirage.

Rather, we should look at meaning as relative on a scale. Instead of saying our life has meaning or does not meaning, we can say we are tending toward meaning or tending away from meaning.

Examples of People Trending Away From Or Toward Meaning

A forty-five-year-old man, living with his mother, who sits in his pajamas all day while surfing the Internet and eating Hot Pockets is probably tending away from meaning.

A woman who has devoted her life to rescuing dogs from cruel puppy mills is probably tending toward meaning. She’s probably trending toward meaning.

A wealthy doctor languishes in his unfurnished house two years after his wife left him, taking all the furniture with her. He’s probably low on the Meaning Scale, that is to say, he is trending away from meaning in his narcissistic self-pity.

Any kind of addictive behavior in which one is seeking oblivion and numbness and disengagement from others is probably tending away from meaning.

Three. To strengthen your definition, put your term in a context or circumstance.

Example:

Meaning: From Sloth to Creativity

When Tennessee Williams the playwright became famous, he gave up writing, holed himself up in a hotel suite and ordered room service, champagne, and prostitutes until about six months into his debauchery he realized he was going crazy. He left the hotel, went to Mexico, and wrote his masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. For him, meaning was about struggle, hard work, and vocation. He discovered an important truth about meaning: The creative energy inside him to fulfill his artistic gifts had to be used; otherwise it would turn inward and kill him with self-destructive behavior. This is a truth Frankl witnessed in the concentration camps.

Not all suffering leads to meaning

It’s difficult to imagine meaning existing at all in some circumstances. For example, a student came to my office to tell me she didn’t believe in meaning. This is an 18-year-old whose boyfriend drives a BMW M3. She explained that a starving 3-year-old girl in Ethiopia watching her family die of starvation and disease and knows she has just a few months left to live has no meaning. I think we can say that such a person finds little relevance in a discussion about meaning.

While there are no absolute definitions of meaning, or non-meaning, there are extreme circumstances that make us even wonder if meaning exists for everyone.

Four. Use negation, what the term is NOT. Abstractions like meaning, love, fulfillment, etc., can be effectively understood when we examine their negation, fallacies, and misguided definitions.

Examples of Negation:

Meaning is not talking about it.

Why? Because with few exceptions, meaning is not talking about it. As we learned from the people of Thailand, if we live a rich life, we don’t think or talk too much. We’re too busy living. My cousin in Studio City seems like this. He’s a man with little thought or talk about meaning who lives a very full life.

However, Viktor Frankl was forced to think about meaning when he saw people lose or gain their humanity in the concentration camps. Under these extreme circumstances, he felt compelled to meditate on the effects of meaning, or its absence, in people’s lives. In other words, he’s earned the right to talk about meaning.

Indeed, meaning is often not talking about meaning. Meaning is living life in a way that gives us hope for a better future and purpose.

Meaning is not happiness and success.

Happiness and success can be taken from us at any time. As Frankl tells us, meaning is having the moral character to embrace suffering with courage.

In his book Frankl explains what meaning is NOT:

Meaning is not a panacea handed to you on a silver platter that instantly changes your life.

Meaning is not something your therapist can give you.

Meaning is not ONE THING that everyone finds.

Meaning is not something everyone is going to agree upon. The God of your religion that gives you meaning might very well be at war with the God of someone else’s religion.

Example of a Thesis Regarding Absolute and Relative Meaning

While I love and admire VF's heroism, I reject his argument for absolute meaning in favor of relative meaning. First, absolute meaning is not realistic and may trap us into the either/or fallacy of meaning (my life is absolute meaning or it is nothing). It's better to approach meaning from a realistic point of view, not an ideological one. A realistic point of view says it's okay to not have meaning sometimes. It's okay to suffer the existential vacuum here and there. Life is not a constant rich, meaty steak sandwich of meaning every second of our life. That's unrealistic.

Second, we can build our moral and intellectual character toward achieving Life's 8 Essential Needs in a way that creates relative meaning, which is to say, that our life of values and personal growth is more meaningful than a life of moral dissolution. In this regard, we agree with Frankl, at least to some degree.

Third, we need not be meaning absolutists to hunger for Mystery, Enchantment, and More as evidenced by our creative and artistic pursuits. Being creative is not the same as being an ideological moral absolutist.

Fourth, we can devote our lives to some meaningful pursuits yet still experience despair, self-doubt and the exisential vacuum as part of the natural human condition. The human condition, as I state in my first point, is not always full of meaning. It's often absurd and pointless and it's okay, even natural, at times to feel that way.

Counter-Thesis That Defends Frankl:

The above writer does not embrace Frankl's definition of meaning because, through Frankl's own words, it's a life that only a tiny remnant will choose. In other words, Frankl is teaching us what the great religions have told us for centuries: That the path to hell is wide and that the path to heaven is narrow. Frankl has given us a narrow path based on self-sacrifice, not comfort and convenience.

Secondly, Frankl never proposes an absolute meaning as the writer erroneously states. Rather, Frankl argues that meaning varies from one individual to another based on particular circumstances.

Third, the argument that creativity will lead to meaning ignores the fact that our creative pursuits do not guarantee the development of our humanity.

Looking at the Writing Assignment Through the Dialectical Method (going back and forth between thesis and anti-thesis, support and refutation, to arrive a more informed opinion)

Option Three

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that even though Frankl’s philosophy is informed by his religious faith, one need not be religious to embrace Frankl’s precepts and principles. You can concede that Frankl’s book is “religious” but not in the narrow sense of the word. Rather, it is universally religious. On the other hand, some will argue that the theistic religion that informs Frankl’s philosophy is too narrow to accommodate secular and atheist thinkers. Take a position and explain. You may want to consult Elizabeth Anderson’s “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?”

Man’s Search for Meaning Essay Assignment (Expanded)

Viktor Frankl argues in Man’s Search for Meaning that in the face of suffering (the dominant feature of existence), we must use our free will to choose the appropriate attitude toward that suffering. We can either see suffering as cause to be angry animals, looking at life as little more than a place of senseless futility that justifies an attitude of nihilism so that our life is little more than unleashing our beastly, hedonistic passions and live a life of alienated selfishness. Or in the face of suffering we can elevate our humanity by adopting an attitude that says we must find courage, conviction, and moral righteousness through a Higher Purpose or Meaning.

Viktor Frankl witnessed both attitudes in the concentration camps. He observed people either descended into moral dissolution, becoming dehumanized animals who lived a day-to-day existence without purpose, or they found a purpose that preserved and even elevated their humanity. His mission in Man’s Search for Meaning is to persuade us to become Destiny Seekers, people who becoming morally righteous by finding meaning.

However, there is a camp of thinking that is skeptical of the idea of meaning for four reasons.

The first reason that meaning is so subjective, varying from person to person, that to discuss it as an essential life force therefore is absurd.

Secondly, the skeptic will argue that people don’t have any objective meaning. Rather, they pursue some illusion or other that gives them a sense of purpose—perhaps a false one—that gives them motivation. In other words, people motivate themselves by making up all sorts of incentives, but these incentives could be less about “meaning” and more about chimeras.

A third point of skepticism is that there are people who find meaning in very disturbing ways, most notably by being brainwashed and manipulated such as a person who converts to a religious cult or perhaps to some extremist ideology.

The skeptic’s fourth point of contention is that she will argue that we cannot choose meaning because we are not agents of free will; rather, we are agents beholden to forces we cannot control, namely, determinism, the philosophy that states our biology and environment affect our behavior and that “choices” are just an illusion. We say we “chose” to do something after the fact, but in truth, we were hard-wired to act in such a way.

Addressing the skeptic’s points above, support, refute, or complicate Frankl’s argument that we are responsible to be Destiny Seekers and find our own meaning in order that we make the appropriate response to a life of suffering and that failure to find meaning will doom us to the hell of the “existential vacuum.”

Suggested Structure for Idea That Frankl's Book is "Too Religious":

Introduction: Frame the debate or write a compelling anecdote that transitions to your thesis.

Thesis

Paragraphs Address Each of the Skeptic’s Points

One or two paragraphs address the idea that meaning is too individual and subjective.

One or two paragraphs that address the idea that meaning is an illusion we use to motivate ourselves.

One or two paragraphs that address the idea that “meaning” or a found purpose can be the result of brainwashing and manipulation.

One or two paragraphs that address the idea that we don’t choose meaning; some of us may have a sense of meaning, but only because we are hard-wired to. In contrast, some of us are hardwired to NOT have a sense of meaning and be okay with that.

Two counterargument-refutation paragraphs that address your opponents’ views.

Important Note

If you're refuting the skeptics point by point, the counterargument section is not necessary because your WHOLE essay is a refutation.

Conclusion

Conclusion is a more emotional (pathos) restatement of your thesis.

Skeptic’s First Argument:

Meaning is too subjective, varying from individual to individual, so we cannot speak about meaning. If everything is meaning, then nothing is meaning. Meaning must be distinct from all the motivations people claim to be meaning.

Counterargument

Frankl would agree that meaning must be distinct from greed, ambition, consumerism, and all the other false meanings people claim to be meaning. He would argue that there are common characteristics of real meaning.

Some of those common characteristics are maturity, improved priorities, less egotism, moral integrity, empathy, and acting on social justice. Perhaps most importantly, our individual life experience makes meaning different for all of us.

For example, a young man who was abused in the foster parent system grows up to counsel people who were abused by adults.

A drug addict goes to college to become a counselor for drug addicts.

In the examples above, the meanings are different, but they have common qualities.

Skeptic’s Rebuttal to the Above Counterargument

Even if we concede that all the different “meanings” people discover have commonality in the realm of morality and helping others, we still have the problem of motive.

For example, a mother adopts babies whose mothers are drug addicts. These babies have enormous needs and impose enormous stress on the woman’s two biological children. The biological children condemn their mother as having a martyr’s complex. Her ego hungers for suffering to define herself as a martyr and she enjoys others seeing her in this dramatic role. The children claim that egotism, not empathy and compassion, is the driving force. So the woman’s “meaning” is a false one.

Such false meanings are described in Larissa MacFarquhar's Strangers Drowning, a nonfiction book about "do-gooders."

Frankl Defender’s Counterargument to Skeptic’s Rebuttal

I concede that the mother and people like her may have bad motivations for doing meaningful things. I might even go so far to admit that the majority of people use the wrong motivations to define their meaning and purpose. But these bad examples fail to negate that there are truly good people out there, Viktor Frankl included, who do good deeds that match their good motivations.

If we heed the skeptic’s cynicism, we will be blind to those truly good people who have both good motivations and a higher purpose. These good people are our role models and heroes. The cynic is blind to their deeds and he appears to eager to make us as blind as he is.

Skeptic’s Second Argument:

What we call meaning is simply an illusion. People have all sorts of “meaning,” but they merely create illusions or chimeras to chase and then they call these illusions their “meaning.”

Counterargument

Frankl would concede that there are many people pursuing false meaning, but that fact does not negate that there is real meaning.

Frankl is a moral absolutist who believes in right and wrong and two races of people: decent and indecent. Clearly, if someone’s “meaning” doesn’t have a moral outcome, then Frankl would be the first to admit that that person has not found real meaning at all but is pursuing an illusion.

But like in the first argument, if 95% of people are chasing a false meaning, that doesn’t mean a real meaning does not exist.

It appears that arguments 1 and 2 are very close and in fact may intersect at many levels. I’ll leave it to the students to decide if they should fuse arguments 1 and 2 into one argument or keep them separate.

Skeptic’s Rebuttal

Who is Frankl to be the arbiter to what is real and false meaning? He gives us no ultimate guide in his book. Further, people could pursue a false meaning with a moral outcome.

For example, a man who lives a reckless life as a bachelor, may drink the “let’s get married in the suburbs” Kool-Aid and settle down in some suburban neighborhood.

Clearly, this suburbanite’s existence is morally superior to that of his reckless bachelor days, but he is now simply a sedated, mindless consumer of the middle class, a zombie who’s disappeared into his domestic cave where he watches Netflix and obeys his wife’s shrill commands.

Frankl Defender’s Counterargument to the Skeptic’s Rebuttal

Frankl would concede that this tamed suburban husband leads an empty life. While slightly more moral than his bachelor version of himself, he is still someone who falls short of meaning.

This suburban man needs to find a Higher Purpose.

Skeptic’s Rebuttal

This married man is too extended, barely treading water to make ends meet in a brutal economy. Feeding his wife and children is an almost insurmountable task. The married man does not have the luxury to ponder meaning. When we exert all our energy to make ends meet, we don’t have the time or energy to about things like meaning. We live one day at a time as we try to make ends meet for our family.

I’ll concede that some people, like Viktor Frankl and drug and abuse counselors find some kind of meaning, but Frankl’s book is not universal.

For working stiffs who are barely making it, life is provisional and day to day and all about survival. And it’s NOTHING about meaning and higher purpose.

That’s my problem with Frankl’s book. It’s applicable to some people but not all people. It’s not universal.

A lot of us, through no fault of our own, get in a rut, and there’s no free will that can change that. Life is a treadmill and when the time is up we die.

Sorry, Frankl cheerleaders of the world, I’m a Meaning Skeptic.

Frankl Defender’s Rebuttal to the Above

Frankl would disagree with you. His thesis is that no matter what your circumstances you have the freedom to choose your attitude.

If you’re a working stiff, as you say, barely making it, you have little right to complain in the context of Frankl surviving in the concentration camp.

Therefore, your problem is that you are a whiner. Blame yourself, not Frankl.

Skeptic’s Third Argument

A lot of people find meaning but only through brainwashing and manipulation. What do we say of cult followers who lead extremist lives as they slave for the abusive cult personality? They found “meaning,” but they were brainwashed and manipulated.

Hitler and his followers found “meaning,” but they were evil, psychotic, or both.

Counterargument

Frankl would concede that brainwashing is not meaning. But remember, the meaning Frankl found was not through brainwashing but blood, sweat, and tears.

Let us not use bad examples, to dismiss a legitimate idea. That is a logical fallacy. For every brainwashed person there is a person who found real meaning on his or her own terms.

Skeptic’s Fourth Argument

We don’t choose meaning. We don’t even have free will. We are bound to determinism, the principle that biology and environment govern our actions. Free will is an illusion.

Counterargument

We can concede that biology and environment do indeed hard-wire us to behave in a certain way. But when we find meaning, we transcend our deterministic limitations. Viktor Frankl is the embodiment of this principle.

We can choose our attitude to find meaning in suffering or turn to hedonism and nihilism, which are false balms for the inevitable suffering life throws at us.

Skeptic’s Rebuttal

Frankl had no free will. He was born a good person and his goodness was reinforced by his upbringing. His “choices” were simply the behavior of a man programmed to be good.

Frankl Defender’s Rebuttal

You are wrong, Mr. Skeptic. Free will is a muscle that can be developed. The more you resist temptation and exercise discipline, the stronger your free will becomes. The empirical evidence shows this to be true.

When you choose to eat right, exercise, study, show kindness to others, to name a few examples, you will find rewards that reinforce that good behavior.

Both determinism and free will exist simultaneously.

Skeptic’s Fifth Argument

I know people who don’t have meaning. They’ve never read Viktor Frankl or any religious polemic. They have no religion. They have no “meaning.” However, they lead fulfilled lives because they live in the present and they experience connection with their family, friends, community, and the world at large.

I don’t believe you need meaning, as Frankl defines it, but you do need connection.

Counterargument

I’ll concede that there are people out there who are hard-wired or predetermined to be happy. They are at peace with themselves. They live in the present. They are connected to others.

However, their lives have not been tested. Frankl warns us that everything can be taken from us at any time.

Yes, some of us seem to live a life that appears like “smooth sailing,” but that never lasts forever. Be prepared. Find a higher purpose before it’s too late.

Skeptic’s Sixth Argument

I’ll concede that some meaning exists for some people. However, meaning is not universal. And motivations behind meaning are too complicated. While Frankl is a good man who found meaning, his book fails to be a universal “one size fits all” self-help book.

The book succeeds as a book of inspirational literature in which we can admire the rare man Frankl, a truly exceptional hero.

But his claim that we can all find meaning and choose our attitude toward suffering, is too general and doesn’t fit with all the complexities I’ve described.

Meaning is not either/or. You don’t have meaning or not have it.

Rather, meaning is relative. You have some meaning some of the time, more meaning some of the time, less meaning some of the time, and no meaning some of the time. That’s the human condition for many of us.

Skeptic’s Thesis

While I admire Frankl and concede that many can benefit from heeding the lessons in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, his thesis, that all of us must find meaning as the solution to human suffering, fails to persuade in light of the many good people who simply don’t have the time or energy to find meaning, the unfathomable motivations that drive people’s alleged “meaning,” the deterministic factors, not free will, that determine if we find meaning or not, and some people are simply “connected” and do not need “meaning.”

Frankl Defender’s Thesis

While I concede that Frankl’s book has some flaws that are correctly exposed by his skeptics, the empirical evidence compels us to use our free will to elevate ourselves in the face of suffering and to seek a higher purpose that goes beyond blind consumerism and nihilistic despair.

Logotherapy Is Universal and Not Contained by Religious Faith

One. Why is logotherapy, a variation of psychotherapy, “difficult to hear”?

Unlike psychotherapy, which is retrospective and introspective, focusing on the patient’s past, logotherapy “focuses rather on the future, that is to say, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future.” Logotherapy is “meaning therapy.”

For Frankl, finding meaning is our primary drive, not materialism, power, or sex. We seek purpose first; everything else second.

If we had all our physical needs met either by an inheritance or the government so that we did not have to work and all we did was lounge around, eat, watch TV, engage in social media, and gossip with friends, what would happen to us?

We would die a slow death. We would plummet into despair. We would become zombies, addicts, empty vessels, lost souls. We need a purpose to lift us up from the mire of emptiness and despair.

In John Gatto’s famous essay “Against School,” he writes that students and teachers alike are afflicted boredom. As we read this essay, it becomes clear that boredom is a disease and a psychological cancer that results from engaging in an institution that does not provide meaning but rather wastes our time by warehousing individuals in a glorified baby-sitting service complete with “busy work” that has no meaning whatsoever. A place where we languish and slog toward nothing is equivalent to hell.

In other words, the patient will not play the role of a victim wounded by past events; rather, the patient is held accountable to be responsible to find meaning that will give his or her life purpose out of the mess of suffering.

Frankl criticizes conventional psychotherapy because it puts us in “all the vicious-circle formations and feedback mechanisms which play such a great role in the development of neuroses. Thus, the typical self-centeredness of the neurotic is broken up instead of being continually fostered and reinforced.”

For Frankl, finding meaning is the way to overcome one’s neuroses, not sinking into one’s past wounds.

Too often, revisiting one’s past wounds is an indulgence, an exercise in victimization and narcissism.

Two. Explain why Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is the greatest anti-self-help self-help book ever written.

Self-help books promise easy happiness and “10 easy steps.” In contrast, Frankl argues that we shouldn’t even strive for happiness. Happiness is the unintended byproduct of meaning.

Second, Frankl says we should seek struggle, tension, conflict, and embrace our suffering as the source of our meaning.

Frankl writes, “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.”

Three. What is the existential vacuum and what two forces contribute to it?

The existential vacuum is a widespread phenomenon of the 20th century. This is understandable; it may be due to a twofold loss which man has had to undergo since he became a truly human being. At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animal instincts in which an animal's behavior is embedded and by which it is secured. Such security, like paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. In addition to this, however, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development inasmuch as the traditions which buttressed his behavior are now rapidly diminishing. No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people tell him to do (totalitarianism).

A statistical survey recently revealed that among my European students, 25 percent showed a more or less marked degree of existential vacuum. Among my American students, it was not 25 but 60 percent.

The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. Now we can understand Schopenhauer when he said that mankind was apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom In actual fact, boredom is now causing, and certainly brining to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than distress. And these problems are growing increasingly crucial, for progressive automation will probably lead to an enormous increase in the leisure hours available to the average worker. The pity of it is that many of these will not know what to do with all their newly acquired free time.

Let us consider, for instance, "Sunday Neurosis", that kind of depression which afflicts people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest. Not a few cases of suicide can be traced back to this existential vacuum. Such widespread phenomena as depression, aggression and addiction are not understandable unless we recognize the existential vacuum underlying them. This is also true of the crises of pensioners and aging people.

Moreover, there are various masks and guises under which the existential vacuum appears. Sometimes the frustrated will do meaning is vicariously compensated for by a will to power, including the most primitive form of will to power, the will to money. In other cases, the place of frustrated will to meaning is taken by the will to pleasure. That is why existential frustration often eventuates into sexual compensation. We can observe in such cases that the sexual libido becomes rampant in the existential vacuum.

We see from above the following:

One, humans have lost their instincts and no longer have the animal certainty of their behavior, and they are now prone to second-guessing everything and wondering if they’re “right” in their choices and actions.

Second, there are no longer rituals and traditions that make us feel part of something bigger than us. We therefore feel isolated and out of place.

Not knowing what to do and feeling out of place, we rely on conformism or blind obedience to authority. These actions take away our sense of autonomy, freedom, independence, and sense of higher purpose. We’re merely mindless sheep conforming to society’s standards or obeying orders.

Conformity and obedience may help us “fit in,” but most of us will suffer from the acute disease called boredom.

Boredom is not seen in our society for the disease that it really is. Boredom is a pseudonym for more virulent conditions:

Depression

Ennui, bored not with a specific task or event but with life itself.

Acedia, the sluggishness and lethargy resulting from having no higher purpose

Futility, the sense that our actions don’t amount to anything, that all our actions are useless

Learned helplessness

Hopelessness

Existential vacuum: It's a wasted life and the sick feeling of emptiness that comes from knowing deep down you're living a wasted life.

Frankl writes that boredom causes depression, aggression, and addiction (107).

Four. What “various masks” does the existential vacuum wear?

We read the following:

Moreover, there are various masks and guises under which the existential vacuum appears. Sometimes the frustrated will to meaning is vicariously compensated for by a will to power, including the most primitive form of the will to power, the will to money. In other cases, the place of frustrated will to meaning is taken by the will to pleasure. That is why existential frustration often eventuates in sexual compensation. We can observe in such cases, that the sexual libido becomes rampant in the existential vacuum.

We find that all these masks fail to fill the vacuum in part because of the hedonic treadmill: We adapt to pleasure and power so that they are never enough and we grow numb to the stimulus.

Five. Frankl asserts that the only way to cure ourselves of the existential vacuum is to find the meaning of life. How do we find the meaning of life?

We must now take an excerpt from his book:

The Meaning of Life

I doubt whether a doctor can answer this question in general terms. For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion, “Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?” There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one's opponent. The same holds for human existence. 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 is his specific opportunity to implement it.

As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the question of the meaning of life may actually be reversed. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. Thus, logotherapy sees in responsibleness the very essence of human existence.

The Essence of Existence

This emphasis on responsibleness is reflected in the categorical imperative of logotherapy, which is: “So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!” It seems to me that there is nothing which would stimulate a man's sense of responsibleness more than this maxim, which invites him to imagine first that the present is past and, second, that the past may yet be changed and amended. Such a precept confronts him with life's finiteness as well as the finality of what he makes out of both his life and himself.

Logotherapy tries to make the patient fully aware of his own responsibleness; and therefore it must leave to him the option for what, to what or to whom, he understands himself to be responsible. That is why a logotherapist is the least tempted of all psychotherapists to impose value judgments on the patient, for he will never permit the patient to pass to the doctor the responsibility of judging. It is, therefore, up to the patient to decide whether he should interpret his life task as being responsible to society or to his own conscience. The majority, however, consider themselves accountable before God; they represent those who do not interpret their own lives merely in terms of a task assigned to them but also in terms of the task-master who has assigned it to them.

Logotherapy is neither teaching nor preaching. It is as far removed from logical reasoning as it is from moral exhortation. To put it figuratively, the role played by a logotherapist is rather that of an eye specialist than of a painter. A painter tries to convey to us a picture of the world as he sees it, an ophthalmologist tries to enable us to see the world as it really is. The logotherapist's role consists in widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the whole spectrum of meaning and values becomes conscious and visible to him. Logotherapy does not need to impose any judgments on the patient; for, actually, truth imposes itself and needs no intervention.

By declaring that man is a responsible creature and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be found in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. By the same token, the real aim of human existence cannot be found in what is called self-actualization. Human existence is essentially self-transcendence rather than self-actualization. Self-actualization is not a possible aim at all; for the simple reason that the more a man would strive for it, the more he would miss it. For only to the extent to which man commits himself to the fulfillment of his life’s meaning, to this extent he also actualizes himself. In other words, self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.
The world must not be regarded as a mere expression of one's self. Nor must the world be considered as a mere instrument, or as a means to the end of one’s self-actualization. In both cases, the world view, or the Weltanschauung, turns into a Weltentwertung, i.e., a depreciation of the world.

Thus far we have shown that the meaning of life always changes, but that it never ceases to be. According to logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by doing a deed, (2) by experiencing a value, (3) by suffering. The first, the way of achievement or accomplishment, is quite obvious. The second and third need further elaboration.
The second way of finding a meaning in life is by experiencing something, such as a work of nature or culture; and also by experiencing someone, i.e., by love.

The Meaning of Love

Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By the spiritual act of love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him; which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.

In logotherapy, love is not interpreted as a mere epiphenomenon (a phenomenon that occurs as the result of a primary phenomenon) of sexual drives and instincts in the sense of a so-called sublimation. Love is as primary a phenomenon as sex. Normally, sex is a mode of expression for love. Sex is justified, even sanctified, as soon as, but only as long as, it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex but a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love.

A third way to find a meaning in life is by suffering.

The Meaning of Suffering

Whenever one is confronted with an inescapable, unavoidable situation, whenever one has to face a fate which cannot be changed, e.g., an incurable disease, such as an inoperable cancer; just then one is given a last chance to actualize the highest value, to fulfill the deepest meaning, the meaning of suffering. For what matters above all is the attitude we take toward suffering, the attitude in which we take our suffering upon ourselves.

Let me cite a clear-cut example: Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. Now how could I help him? What should I tell him? Well, I refrained from telling him anything but instead confronted him with the question, “What would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive you?” “Oh,” he said, “for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!” Whereupon I replied, “You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering; but now, you have to pay for it by surviving and mourning her.” He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left my office. Suffering ceases to be suffering in some way at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.

Of course, this was no therapy in the proper sense since, first, his despair was no disease; and second, I could not change his fate, I could not revive his wife. But in that moment I did succeed in changing his attitude toward his unalterable fate inasmuch as from that time on he could at least see a meaning in his suffering. It is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to 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.

It goes without saying that suffering would not have a meaning unless it were absolutely necessary; e.g., a cancer which can be cured by surgery must not be shouldered by the patient as though it were his cross. This would be masochism rather than heroism. But if a doctor can neither heal the disease nor bring relief to the patient by easing his pain, he should enlist the patient’s capacity to fulfill the meaning of his suffering. Traditional psychotherapy has aimed at restoring one's capacity to work and to enjoy life; logotherapy includes these, yet goes further by having the patient regain his capacity to suffer, if need be, thereby finding meaning even in suffering.
In this context Edith Weisskopf-Joelson, professor of psychology at Purdue University, contends, in her article on logotherapy, that “our current mental-hygiene philosophy stresses the idea that people ought to be happy, that unhappiness is a symptom of maladjustment. Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy.” And in another paper she expresses the hope that logotherapy “may help counteract certain unhealthy trends in the present-day culture of the United States, where the incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading” so that “he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy.”

There are situations in which one is cut off from the opportunity to do one's work or to enjoy one's life; but what never can be ruled out is the unavoidability of suffering. In accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has a meaning up to the last moment, and it retains this meaning literally to the end. In other words, life's meaning is an unconditional one for it even includes the potential meaning of suffering.

Let me recall that which was perhaps the deepest experience I had in the concentration camp. The odds of surviving the camp were no more than 1 to 20, as can easily be verified by exact statistics. It did not even seem possible, let alone probable, that the manuscript of my first book which I had hidden in my coat when I arrived at Auschwitz, would ever be rescued. Thus, I had to undergo and to overcome the loss of my spiritual child. And now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a spiritual child of my own! So I found myself confronted with the question whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning.

Not yet did I notice that an answer to this question with which I was wrestling so passionately was already in store for me, and that soon thereafter this answer would be given to me. This was the case when I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had already been sent to the gas chamber immediately after his arrival at the Auschwitz railway station. Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in a pocket of the newly acquired coat one single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, containing the main Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael. How should I have interpreted such a “coincidence” other than as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?

A bit later, I remember, it seemed to me that I would die in the near future. In this critical situation, however, my concern was different from that of most of my comrades. Their question was, “Will we survive the camp? For, if not, all this suffering has no meaning.” The question which beset me was, “Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose meaning depends upon such a happenstance - as whether one escapes or not - ultimately would not be worth living at all.”

Summary of the Above

One. Meaning is not one size fits all.

Two. Meaning is not abstract.

Three. Meaning is concrete. It is a concrete vocation or mission.

Four. Meaning is problem-based. It’s about problem solving. We find a crisis or a problem and we devote our life to overcoming this crisis or problem.

Five. We don’t choose meaning. Life chooses meaning for us because meaning is based on specific circumstances that are occurring in the moment.

Six. Meaning can only be discovered when we embrace the finiteness of life. We must not treat our lives with reckless contempt as if we are never going to die. Death demands that we change our life so that death cannot take away the meaning of our life.

Seven. Logotherapy, the search for meaning, is not about preaching to the patient: It is about helping the patient see his life through a wider lens so that he can be free to make a wiser decision that will point him to his individual meaning (110).

Eight. Meaning cannot be found in isolation, internally, or “within man or his own psyche”; rather, meaning must be found by engaging in the world.

Nine. Meaning is about self-forgetting: “The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”

Ten. We find meaning in 3 ways: our work, our love for others and the connections forged through that love, and the courageous attitude we adopt toward inevitable suffering.

Eleven. When we discover how our suffering has meaning, we embrace our suffering with a changed attitude that allows us to find meaning (113).

Twelve. The belief that we are entitled to be happy makes us less happy and prevents us from finding a life of meaning.

Peer Edit for Typed Essay (First Draft)

First Page

Do you have a salient, distinctive title that is relevant to your topic and thesis?
Do you have your name, instructor’s name, the course, and date (in that order) at the top left?

Format

Are you using 12-point font with Times New Roman?
Are your lines double-spaced?
Is your font color black?
Do you make sure there are no extra spaces between paragraphs (some students erroneously use 4 spaces between paragraphs)
Do you use 1-inch margins?
Do you use block format for quotes of 4 or more lines in which you indent another inch from the left margin?

Introduction

Does your introduction have a compelling hook using an anecdote, a troubling current event, a startling statistic, etc.?
Do you avoid pat phrases or clichés? For example, “In today’s society . . .” or “In today’s modern world . . .” or “Since the Dawn of Man . . .”

Thesis

Do you have a thesis that articulates your main purpose in clear, specific language?
Is your thesis sophisticated in that it makes an assertion that goes beyond the obvious and self-evident?
Is your thesis debatable?
Do you address your opponents with a concession clause? (While opponents of my proposal to raise the minimum wage to $22 an hour make some compelling points, their argument collapses when we consider _____________, _______________, __________________, and ________________. )
Does your thesis have explicit or implicit mapping components that outline the body paragraphs of your essay?

Questions from Your Reader (write on a separate page so you’ll have more room to write)

One. What’s most compelling about the essay so far?

Two. What is most needed for improvement so far?

Three. Something I would like the writer to explain more is . . .

Four. One last comment would be . . .

Five. What is the writer’s thesis?

Six. On a scale of 1-10, how compelling is the thesis and what could make it more compelling?

Seven. On a scale of 1-10, how effective is the title? Could it be improved? How?

Eight. Does the writer have well developed paragraphs with clear topic sentences?

Nine. Does the writer use a diversity of paragraph transitions?

Ten. Does the writer use diverse and appropriate signal phrases?

Establishing Credibility in Your Argument (with your readers and your professors)

Acknowledge weaknesses, exceptions, and complexities in your argument.

Example

Although meaning is not absolute or guaranteed in even people of the highest character, the pursuit of meaning as defined by Viktor Frankl is necessary to combat the potential pitfalls of the human condition evidenced by ____________, ___________, ___________________, and ________________.

Use personal experience when appropriate.

As someone who lived in a car for two years while barely living due to various addictions, I can speak firsthand about how essential Frankl’s brand of logotherapy is for combatting the self-destruction that ensues from living inside the existential vacuum.

As someone who worked twenty years in a hospital ward with special needs babies and toddlers whose mothers were drug addicts, I am convinced that there is a lot of suffering in this world that, contrary to Frankl’s claim, is senseless, absurd, and meaningless.

Mention the qualifications of any sources as a way to boost your own credibility.

According to Harold S. Kushner, best-selling author and noted rabbi, a life serving the public as shown him the truth of Frankl’s spiritual insights, especially in four key points: ____________, _____________, ________________, and _______________.

Acknowledge concession to your opponents’ views to show you’ve entertained both sides of a debatable claim thoroughly.

While Writer X makes a compelling case that there is much suffering in this world that is senseless, our acknowledging this fact actually strengthens my conviction that we are well served to follow Frankl’s path of logotherapy evidenced by ____________, __________, ____________, and _______________.

Show your readers you are considerate enough to define important terms that increase understanding of your essay.

We can use definition by synonym.

One way to define meaning is to equate it with having an “ideal” or a “higher purpose.” While synonym is usually inadequate for a rigorous definition, it is a good place to start.

We can define by example.

A second way to define something is to point to an example (called ostensive definition, from Latin ostendere, “to show”).

A former wrestler almost lost his life to alcohol and depression, but he started a yoga support group for other former wrestlers. Their goals are sobriety, physical conditioning, and giving each other moral support. This is an example of a type of meaning--being needed by others--that saved a wrestler from dropping into the abyss.

Definition by stipulation

The thing defined must conform to certain characteristics or conditions.

For example, my twins’ and I must agree on a shared definition of a “clean room.”

They want to simply throw their toys and books in their giant toy baskets. I want them to put their bedding on their bed and their books on the bookshelves. I’ve added stipulations to the notion of a “clean room.” And when they get older, vacuuming will be an added stipulation to that definition.

Viktor Frankl stipulates that meaning is not the same for everyone. Nor can someone give meaning to someone else. Frankl stipulates that meaning must come from within, that it must be defined by our own individual life circumstance, and that it must adhere to a moral code. For example, Hitler who found “meaning” with his self-aggrandizement and pathological power quest did not find “meaning” as stipulated by Viktor Frankl.

A formal definition contains the term, the class, and distinguishing characteristics.

Learned helplessness is a mental disease in which people convince themselves that they can’t do things that, objectively speaking, they can actually do.

The existential vacuum, as defined by Viktor Frankl, is the anxiety we suffer from trying to compensate for a living a life that is painfully absent of meaning.

For Frankl, meaning is a human drive that connects with us when we flourish and at the same time suffer in order to pursue a higher purpose that challenges our talents, our character, and our fortitude.

Posted at 12:56 PM in Man's Search for Meaning Lessons | Permalink | Comments (0)

Updated for 12-6-16: Man's Search for Meaning: Preparing for Groundhog Day, Concession, Argumentation, Defining Meaning, Relative Vs. Absolute Meaning, Cynicism

Essay Options for Final Paper on Man's Search for Meaning:

Option One

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or refute the argument that Man’s Search for Meaning gives us a cogent, appropriate and insightful analysis for evaluating Nikolai’s moral dissolution in the Chekhov short story “Gooseberries.”

Option Two:

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that the determinism evident in the 1999 Alexander Payne film Election is a compelling refutation of Frankl's notion that we are free to find meaning as a cure for our despair and self-destruction. Recommended Research Link for Alternative Option: http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/chance-and-choice-biology-and-theology-in-alexander-paynes-election/

Option Three

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that even though Frankl’s philosophy is informed by his religious faith, one need not be religious to embrace Frankl’s precepts and principles. You can concede that Frankl’s book is “religious” but not in the narrow sense of the word. Rather, it is universally religious. On the other hand, some will argue that the theistic religion that informs Frankl’s philosophy is too narrow to accommodate secular and atheist thinkers. Take a position and explain. You may want to consult Elizabeth Anderson’s “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?”

Option Four

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that Groundhog Day character Phil Connors’ spiritual malaise and eventual spiritual transformation can be analyzed through the lens of the principles in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

Option Five:

Defend, refute, or complicate the argument that Man’s Search for Meaning is the greatest anti-self-help self-help book ever written.

Consider these distinguishing qualities of traditional self-help books:

They deny suffering as the central feature of human existence
They play into reader’s narcissistic fantasy of being special and at the center of the universe.
They promise easy solutions based on gimmicks intended to look like “insights.”
They promise easy solutions using common sense dressed up in jargon and pretentious language.
They tend to condescend to the reader, treating him like a child. There is an infantile, dumbed-down quality to them.
They make false promises about happiness and self-fulfillment.
They make being a selfish self-centered lout acceptable and “noble.”
They place selfish self-interest and self-indulgence over responsibility to oneself and others.

Option Six:

Develop a thesis that shows how Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning explains the major thematic points in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. You need 5 sources for your final paper.

Option Seven:

Support, refute, or complicate the assertion that the Coen brothers' A Serious Man complements the themes in Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. See Slate and This Ruthless World.

Option Eight:

Support, refute, or complicate the assertion that Being John Malkovich champions the doctrine of determinism, the notion that we do not have free will but are rather puppets to larger forces we cannot control (mania of celebrity, the cult of the personality, irrational enslavement of "love, to give three examples), and that the film's cogent determinism challenges Viktor Frankl's assertion in Man's Search for Meaning that we are free to choose a life of meaning rather than surrender to the existential vacuum.

Sources:

What's It's Like to be John Malkovich

Applying Dualism to Being John Malkovich

Sample Outline

Paragraph 1: Summarize Frankl's thesis about our free will to choose meaning and the appropriate attitude toward life, suffering, and death.

Paragraph 2: Summarize Being John Malkovich.

Paragraph 3: Develop an argumentative thesis with four mapping components.

Paragraphs 4-7: Write your supporting paragraphs.

Paragraph 8: Write a counterargument-rebuttal paragraph.

Paragraph 9: Write your conclusion, a restatement of your thesis.

Your guidelines for your Final Research Paper are as follows:

This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.

You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.

You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.

At least one source must be from an ECC library database.

At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.

At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.

The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.

This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.

You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.

You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.

You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Your paper must be logically organized and focused.

Outline for Option One

Paragraph 1: Summarize the short story.

Paragraph 2: Summarize Frankl's book.

Paragraph 3: Develop your thesis.

Paragraphs 4-10: Supporting paragraphs

Paragraph 11: Restate thesis in dramatic form.

Second Option:

Defend, support, or complicate the argument that the determinism evident in the 1999 Alexander Payne film Election is a compelling refutation of Frankl's notion that we are free to find meaning as a cure for our despair and self-destruction. Recommended Research Link for Alternative Option: http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/chance-and-choice-biology-and-theology-in-alexander-paynes-election/

Sample Thesis That Shows How Election is a Refutation of Man's Search for Meaning

The characters in Alexander Payne's masterpiece Election (1999) refute Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning in compelling ways. For one, the characters lack the self-awareness to make the kind of choices or show the type of "freedom" that Frankl says we must utilize to find meaning. For two, the characters' earnest attempts to find meaning and structure in their lives prove to backfire and send them down a rabbit hole of moral dissolution and self-destruction suggesting that our most zealous efforts for meaning are contaminated by the unsavory impulses of the unconscious. For three, Tracy Flick's "meaning" and structure proves to be no meaning at all but rather unbridled ambition. Fourth, the movie's symbolism argues for a world governed by determinism through the environment and hard-wiring rather than a world populated by people who can make legitimate choices. Fifth, the movie's very title Election shows the ambiguity of choice: We "elect" to do things while at the same time life elects to place people in their place in the world's soulless machine.

For paragraph 1, summarize Frankl's book.

For paragraph2, summarize the movie Election.

For paragraph 3, write a thesis that presents your argument about meaning as you pit the book against the movie.

Paragraphs 4-10 should support your thesis.

Paragraph 11 will be your conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis.

Resource:

You may use the short story, "Critical Thinking," I wrote about the conversation I had with a student on this subject.

Third Option

Defend, support, or complicate the argument that even though Frankl’s philosophy is informed by his religious faith, one need not be religious to embrace Frankl’s precepts and principles. You can concede that Frankl’s book is “religious” but not in the narrow sense of the word. Rather, it is universally religious. On the other hand, some will argue that the theistic religion that informs Frankl’s philosophy is too narrow to accommodate secular and atheist thinkers. Take a position and explain. You may want to consult Elizabeth Anderson’s “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?”