Example of an A Paper for Man's Search for Meaning

Rahma Arafa

Professor McMahon

English 1C

15 April 2014

The Antidote

In the 2010 film The Switch, Wally Mars is famous for saying, "It seems that everywhere around the world, humans are rushing to find something. Maybe that is why we are called the human race."

Indeed, most of us are all yearning and looking for meaning. If we suffer from the existential vacuum and have the deep, sick feeling that we are living a wasted life, then the solution is meaning. We can overcome the existential vacuum with meaning, evidenced by moral values, boundaries, and discipline. Meaning is not something out there that we find. It is in us. Attempts to ignore the value of meaning as the antidote to the existential vacuum occur at our own peril. In fact, we can see empirical, real-life evidence that we can, as Frankl argues, strive for meaning in these three compelling ways.

We find that in spite of our cynical and nihilistic proclamations, we have core values that are essential to our identity and that our identity is tied to a meaningful existence. They produce our identity. For example, as McMahon states, if a person shot another for a million dollars and "got away with it," he would be unhappy because killing violates his core values and as such he violates his identity and "who he is." Who we are, our identity, gives us a sense of meaning. Core values can also teach us self-sacrifice, that we lose our convenience, safety, and material pleasures for the sake of helping others. It is only moral that we help others, because by helping others in a form of self-sacrifice, our character should strengthen; it teaches us compassion and kindness. If we were to assist the rest of the community, or even the world, in any way possible, we would feel better. We would be making a difference, no matter how small, in society and bettering ourselves. This purpose would lead anyone out of the existential vacuum due to the fact that we would not feel that we are wasting our lives. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl was constantly in the mindset of the doctor he was. Being a doctor, someone who assisted others, was Frankl’s identity, which kept him connected with a meaningful existence. With strong core and moral values, Frankl helped others, obtained medicine for typhus patients, inspired others, and hid comrades. By building his character, Frankl was able to make a difference in the lives of other prisoners. Life is simply the sum of all our choices, which is the reason why the heroic and inspiring Frankl survived the Holocaust. As simply put by Frankl, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way” (Frankl 66). Our attitude towards our core values pulls us away from living an empty life of nihilism and misery. Furthermore, by being morally good, we flourish. We have a universal hunger for centrifugal motion, moving outward toward a positive transformation and flourishing. In contrast, we shudder with despair and anxiety at the prospect of living a centripetal existence, one defined by stagnation and selfishness. Flourishing, or living a life of fulfillment by living a virtuous life with core and moral values, is compatible and supports Frankl’s contention that we should not be like the many or the ordinary who live a life of “bitter self-preservation”; rather, we should “remain brave, dignified, and unselfish” (Frankl 46). By disagreeing to helping others, we evolve into selfish, self-centered humans, spiraling into the existential vacuum.

Moreover, by maintaining our core and moral values, we establish boundaries in our lives and learn discipline. When we have boundaries, both morally and physically, we veer towards meaning and away from reckless nihilism. When we do not, we collapse under the weight of moral dissolution and self-degradation. Discipline empowers us so that when we learn discipline we are happier and when we are undisciplined we often face the abyss of despair. Meaning is born in things we control, such as boundaries and discipline. Without boundaries, we simply become animals with no purpose or meaning. For example, if a person lacked a set of boundaries, he would even drink himself to death. Without a limit, we would not know when to stop. Another instance of how a lack of boundaries leads to self-degradation is in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In this book, Agustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teavee all follow their desires, having no boundaries or discipline. By not knowing when enough is enough, these characters collapse under the weight of moral dissolution. Failure to have discipline, or self-control, leads to the existential vacuum. Furthermore, we need boundaries to balance the quest for happiness by searching, not for happiness, but for meaning. According to academic scholar and journalist, Emily Smith:

“the pursuit of meaning is what makes human beings uniquely human. By putting

aside our selfish interests to serve someone or something larger than ourselves –

by devoting our lives to "giving" rather than "taking" -- we are not only expressing

our fundamental humanity, but are also acknowledging that that there is more to the

good life than the pursuit of simple happiness” (There’s More to Life Than Being

Happy).

If we search for happiness, and not meaning, than we soon realize that happiness is an emotion that ultimately fades away, just as all emotions do; positive affect and feelings of pleasure are fleeting. The amount of time people report feeling good or bad correlates with happiness but not at all with meaning. Meaning, on the other hand, is enduring. Having negative things happen to us may decrease our happiness, but it increases the amount of meaning in our lives. However, if we have meaning in life, we are more satisfied. This concept is reiterated by Frankl, “If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering” (Smith). By having discipline, we know that meaning is just as important as happiness. As stated previously, happiness is a fleeting emotion, if it fades, we are left with nothing; we are overcome by despair and the existential vacuum.

Although I argue that meaning, which consists of core and moral values, boundaries, and discipline, is the antidote to the existential vacuum, others disagree; others argue that “meaning” is just a term for finding a motivational tool to pull us out of our sense of emptiness. We all need to be motivated by something, but that something is not meaning; rather, that something is simply a motivational tool and nothing else. We all like to call our motivational tools “meaning” but we only do so to make ourselves feel better. No matter what we find that gives us a sense of purpose and motivation, it is merely a mirage that cannot stand up to the definition of meaning. While others may argue, against Frankl, that the meaning of life is a mirage, I do not agree. Without meaning we develop Noogenic Neurosis. This disorder is characterized by a failure to find meaning in life. Individuals suffering from noogenic neurosis feel that they have nothing to live for. They are unable to find any goal or direction in life. They suffer from a chronic inability to believe in the truth, significance, or usefulness of anything that they are currently engaged in or anything that they might contemplate doing in the future. Noogenic neurosis has been recognized as a common psychological problem in recent times. Some writers have described its clinical symptoms and commented on the fact that it is becoming increasingly more common among people seeking psychological help. For example, Dr. Lee Jung concludes that “meaninglessness inhibits the fullness of life and is, therefore, equivalent to illness” (Das). He estimated that approximately one third of his ill patients suffered from a lack of meaning or purpose in their lives rather than any identifiable psychiatric syndrome. There are many different cases that link both physical and mental illness to a meaningless life and the existential vacuum. Without core values, we have no identity, which can actually lead to “psychological disorders characterized by chronic feelings of emptiness, and various dissociative disorders marked by a disruption in identity” (Das). For Frankl, the root of human motivation necessary to pull ourselves out of a wasted life is a will to meaning. In Man’s Search for Meaning, the prisoners who lost all hope for a future and gave up on life succumbed to the life of a ‘Moslem,’ and eventually died. Without any motivation in life, the empty prisoners withered away. Frankl also noted that the prisoners who created personal meaning from this hellish experience were the ones most likely to survive. Viktor Frankl reached within himself for meaning to transcend the atrocious reality he could not escape; which is the reason why the heroic and inspiring Frankl survived the Holocaust. So it is evident that meaning is, in fact, the antidote for the existential vacuum.