What is the main content of people looking for meaning?

The essence of Man's Search for Meaning: Frank, as an ordinary prisoner, expounds his repeated painful experiences and recognition in the concentration camp. Frank tried to explain the experiences and behaviors of prisoners in concentration camps from a psychological point of view.

Frank believes that prisoners' psychological reaction to life in concentration camps can be divided into three stages: the stage after entering the camp, the stage of daily life in concentration camps, and the stage after being released and freed. The symptoms of the first stage are shock. When Frank entered the camp, he followed his example. When the train arrived at Auschwitz, everyone's blood dropped to freezing point. And then they were disillusioned one by one. Surprisingly, most people gradually develop a tenacious sense of humor and curiosity. Although there are so many shocks, calm curiosity enables reason to transcend the environment and then look at everything around with an objective eye. The prisoners in the concentration camp quickly adapted to the life in the concentration camp. The initial reaction changed after a few days, and the parties changed from the first stage to the second stage-the indifferent stage. At this point, he reached a state of emotional death, witnessed the tragic situation and stopped looking elsewhere. This abnormal objective mental state can be said to be a normal and typical reaction. Weeks of life in a concentration camp have made him accustomed to painful death and dying, and he can no longer feel anything. Whenever typhus patients die, many prisoners will come to grab the coat, wooden shoes, a real rope or leftover mashed potatoes of the deceased. The prisoners are happy to get something. Frank has been watching this coldly behind the scenes, calling for "nurse" to move the body. Malnutrition fascinates people with food, which is probably also the cause of sexual impulse. Even in my dreams, I seem to have no interest in sex. Almost primitive life, just to protect yourself, you have to try your best to live in an environment where prisoners completely ignore other things that are useless for self-protection. This is the reason for the general lack of feelings. In concentration camps, the phenomenon of "cultural hibernation" is widespread, but there are two exceptions in politics and religion. Everywhere in the camp, people talk about politics nonstop. The depth and vitality of religious belief is unimaginable, and the most typical one is impromptu prayer or mass. There is even an "evocation meeting" in the concentration camp. Frank believes that living in a concentration camp, spiritual life is still likely to develop in depth, enabling people to ignore the surrounding terror and sneak into a rich and unobstructed inner life. Only in this way can we explain the puzzling phenomenon: it seems that weak prisoners can withstand the suffering of concentration camps better than strong and stout men. In order to make it easy for readers to understand, Frank explained it with his own personal experience. In those difficult years, Frank always missed his wife and had a spiritual interview with her, even though Frank didn't know whether her wife was alive or dead.

Frank believes that strengthening inner life makes people in the camp escape to the past and beautify the past one by one, which makes people eager to be in it again. The active inner life makes prisoners have an unprecedented experience of the beauty of nature and art, and sometimes even their own terrible experiences will be completely forgotten under the influence of aesthetic feeling. Frank and his friends used to enjoy the beautiful scenery of nature together, and even went to the party place to watch the sunset together. They were all fascinated by it. Some amateur programs are held from time to time in the concentration camp. There are also singing, reciting poems, telling jokes and so on. In the program, there are also some secretly satirizing people and things in the camp. All this is to help people forget their worries-and it really helps. It is precisely because this kind of program can relieve anxiety and break boredom that some prisoners are scrambling to watch it, dragging their tired bodies or risking not getting the rations for the day. However, artistic activities in concentration camps are usually a bit weird. A sense of humor is another spiritual weapon for self-protection. Frank once trained a friend who worked side by side with him to have a sense of humor, and suggested that they should come up with at least one anecdote every day about what might happen after their release. Other difficult friends sometimes imagine some interesting things about the future. In a concentration camp, an extremely trivial matter may also cause great joy. Frank gave several examples to prove this point. Even if there is only time to catch lice before going to bed, prisoners are happy. Poverty and weak happiness in concentration camp life provide negative happiness for everyone.

Frank believes that the life experience in concentration camps shows that people do have freedom of choice, rather than having no choice in the face of the environment. Under no circumstances can we be deprived of the freedom to choose our own attitude and lifestyle. What kind of person the prisoner in the concentration camp becomes is really the result of his inner choice. A future goal that can be expected is an opportunity for people in extreme difficulties. Frank has a deep understanding. When he turned his attention to another topic, Frank seemed to see himself standing on the platform and giving a speech to the whole audience. The theme of the speech is about the psychology of concentration camps. In this way, myself and my suffering have become interesting psychological research topics. That's how Frank got out of trouble. Prisoners who lose confidence in the future are doomed to be destroyed.

Frank elaborated on the third stage of psychological reaction of prisoners in concentration camps-psychology after release. When the concentration camp authorities finally surrendered, the prisoners' mood changed from extreme tension to complete relaxation. When they walked out of the camp, they could not understand the true meaning of freedom, and everyone was not happy. According to the psychological point of view, this reaction after release is caused by the so-called "disintegration of personality". After being released, I have a feeling of "I want to talk", and my desire to talk is irresistible. When my heart is tired enough, I really feel relaxed. One day a few days after his release, Frank knelt on the vast land in the country and remained motionless for a long time. At that time, he repeated a sentence in his mind countless times: I called God from a small prison, and he answered me in the vast sky. Frank said that from that moment on, his new life began to take shape until he became a real person again. Once the people in the camp suddenly relieve their mental stress, their mental health will definitely face a test. Once released, some people think that they can do whatever they want and use their freedom without mercy, which can easily lead to moral malformation. At the same time, some people are prone to resentment and disillusionment when they return to normal life, which may also destroy the personality of the released person. When the release day finally arrived, everything was like a dream. One day, all the experiences in concentration camps will be nothing more than a nightmare to him.

Frank called his theory "meaningful therapy research". Frank believes that people have the desire to seek the meaning of life, that is, the will to seek meaning. It is the original driving force in life, not the "second rationalization" caused by "instinctive driving force". This meaning is unique and unique. When it is discovered in human practice, people's will to seek meaning will be satisfied. A person's will to seek meaning is frustrated, that is, "the frustration of existence." Existing setbacks can lead to neurosis, which Frank calls "mental neurosis". Mental neurosis is not caused by the conflict between "driving force" and "instinct", but by different value conflicts, that is, from moral conflicts. The patient has an "existential disappointment". The task of meaning therapy is to help the patient find the meaning of his life. Nothing can help a person survive in the worst case unless the human body realizes that his life is meaningful. He quoted Nietzsche's famous saying: "If you understand why, you can meet anyone." This kind of tension is an inherent attribute of human life and an indispensable condition for mental health. Spiritual power is at two tense poles, one represents the "meaning" to be realized, and the other represents the "person" who must realize this meaning.

Frank believes that the emptiness of existence is mainly manifested in boredom. From the heart, I just feel that life is meaningless. Frank believes that it is not people who ask him what the meaning of life is, but "he" who is asked. Everyone is asked by life, but he can only answer this question with his own life, and can only answer life with "responsibility". Everyone's life is concrete, realistic and unique, and we can't look for the abstract meaning of life. The patient must be made aware of his responsibility and let him decide what he is responsible for, to whom and to what. He must be responsible for realizing the potential meaning of his life. The meaning of life must be found in the world, not in people or inner spirit. People can't find the real goal of human existence in the so-called "self-realization", and the essence of human existence is "self-transcendence". People can find this meaning in three different ways: (1) creation and work; (2) realizing value; (3) suffering. So as to achieve "self-transcendence." Love is the only way to enter another deepest core of personality. It can make the loved one truly realize those potentials, let him know what kind of person he can be and what kind of person he should be, and let his original potential be brought into play. Frank believes that when a person faces an unchangeable fate, he will get the last chance to realize the highest value and the deepest meaning, that is, the meaning of suffering. The most important thing at this time is: what is his attitude towards suffering? With what attitude to bear his pain? Frank believes that people's main concern is not to get happiness or avoid pain, but to understand the meaning of life. This is why in some cases, people would rather suffer, as long as they are convinced that their suffering is meaningful. Of course, pain must be absolutely necessary, otherwise it is meaningless.

Frank believes that what people require is not to endure the meaninglessness of life, but to endure that they cannot rationally grasp the absolute meaning of life. Frank is here to allow the existence of another level beyond human beings. It is believed that if the patient has a firm religious belief, he should use his religious belief and spiritual strength to exert medical effects. The only truly short part of life is its potential. Once these potentials become a reality, they immediately become the past, and the past will exist forever, so they are preserved from fleeting. The fleeting nature of things constitutes our sense of responsibility, and people must constantly make choices. People have to decide what kind of things, which becomes a milestone of their own existence. Meaning therapy has developed a technique of "contradictory orientation", which has reversed the attitude of patients.

Frank thinks that "pan-determinism" is more wrong and dangerous than "pan-determinism". "pan-determinism" ignores people's ability to take their own position in the face of any situation. People are not completely certain. People are not only alive, but always have to decide what their existence should be like and what it will be like in the next moment. A hopeless mental patient may lose his "usefulness", but he still retains his dignity as a "person". Even if he is insane or mentally ill, he still retains the residual freedom. Psychiatry is meaningless if patients no longer have human dignity. Frank believes that man is not a thing, and "man" is ultimately self-determined. He can be whatever he wants to be-limited by his natural conditions and environment. Just like in the life laboratory and proving ground of concentration camps, some prisoners are like villains and some are like saints. Man has two possibilities, which one to choose depends on himself, not the environment.