Yes To Life, In Spite Of Everything
Viktor Frankyl on finding meaning in life, suffering and death
Just eleven months after being liberated from Auschwitz, which claimed the life of his pregnant wife, brother and parents, the neurologist and psychiatrist Victor Frankl delivered a series of public lectures in Vienna. He later compiled and published these as a book titled “Yes to life, in spite of everything”.
Despite the degradation and dehumanisation that he had endured, Frankl’s lectures set out a life-affirming philosophy. In response to the Eugenics movement and Social Darwinist ideas, Frankl championed every human’s intrinsic worth and defended the the right to life of those who could not contribute to an economy. Frankl also argues that meaning can be found through work, in nature, the appreciation of art or in loving others. On this last point, Frankl quotes Kierkegaard who said the door to happiness always opens outwards.
As this article will focus upon, Frankl also insisted that there is an opportunity for growth and meaning in crisis too; not only is life worth living, but it can still be meaningful in the face of incurable illness or impending death.
Frankl draws on real-world cases to demonstrate his point, three of which we will look at here. Firstly, he recounts the story of a man who finds meaning in the opportunity his illness grants him. After discovering that he has a disease of the spinal cord, with little if any chance of operative success, the man wrote to a friend recounting how he had been touched by a scene in the film Atlantik (a German language version of the 1929 film Atlantic based on the Titanic disaster. It can be watched here). One scene in particular captivated the dying man- a scene in which a paralysed poet leads a small group of men in the rising waters whilst intoning the Lord’s Prayer:
“I came out of this first cinematic experience completely shaken and thought that it must be a gift of fate to approach death so resolutely. Now I have been granted this for my own death! I can once again put to the test my fighting spirit…After reading the letter (telling him of his disease)… we played Bruckner’s ‘Fourth,’ the Romantic Symphony, in the evening. Everything in me was full of flowing, soothing space.”
The man, far from feeling that death erased all meaning, felt that it conferred it; he was given the opportunity to prove himself worthy of the paralysed poet who resolutely faced catastrophe.
Frankl also recounts the story of another man who’s life took on meaning in the face of death. The man- a prolific graphic designer in the advertising industry- took great satisfaction from his job, and then tragedy struck. He lost the use of his limbs due to an inoperable spinal tumour. Quite suddenly, his arms and legs lost function.
Forced to lead a more sedentary life, he immersed himself into literature and music whilst bed-bound in hospital, and engaged in lively conversation with fellow patients over the books he read. He found meaning from stimulating conversation and through an appreciation of the arts. Soon enough, however, the muscles in his hands grew too weak to hold a book, and he suffered terrible headaches from using headphones. As such, he was robbed of the two pleasures that conferred meaning to his life after the onset of his illness.
At this point, one might expect him to become dejected and fall into depression. It would be an understandable response. Instead, the man adjusted once more. As Frankl notes:
“He was able to extract meaning even from this state of affairs, simply in the position he adopted.”
For example, the patient overheard a doctor saying he would need to be administered morphine in his last few hours, which the doctor sensed was approaching. Frankl was the man who would be called to administer this, and if the man’s health took a turn for the worse in the early hours of the morning, it would mean that Frankl would be awoken and called to his bedside. The man, who felt he would almost certainly slip into death that night, asked Frankl to administer it early, to ensure he would not be unnecessarily awoken in the night. This gesture astounded Frankl. It is, he says, “an unparalleled human achievement” which surpasses anything he might have achieved in his professional career as a graphic designer. Whilst the man was not capable of much physically, he was capable of something far more valuable; humanity and charity. Goodness is an end in itself, and gives meaning to the man’s last moments and by extension, every moment that preceded it.
Lastly, Frankl tells his audience the tale of a respected Austrian judge who lost a leg to chronic inflammation. At first the man was despondent, and cried out that he could not live without his limb. Frankl facetiously asked the man whether he wanted to be a long-distance or short-distance runner. The point being, the man could continue to pursue a meaningful life in service of the law without his limb. The man understood immediately and smiled through his tears.He concludes:
“So we can see that illness does not necessarily involve loss of meaning, an impoverishment in meaning of our existence; but depending on the possibilities, it is always something meaningful.”
All these men found meaning in the stance they took to unalterable- and tragic- circumstances. Their meaning came from their response to a situation out of their control. I do not want to espouse a total ethical relativism, or argue that all events are value-neutral. What Frankl is saying is this: Suffering is an intrinsic part of life, and within it, meaning and growth can always be found. To demonstrate that suffering is an essential ingredient in human life, he references patients he had encountered suffering with what sounds like anhedonia. This is a common symptom of depression where individuals feel emotionally numb and exhibit an inability to cry or feel emotion. He also talks about a severe neurological disorder that can affect late-stage syphilis patients called general paresis. Once it takes hold, patients are unusually calm and apathetic to life events. Frankl notes how both anhedonic patients and those who learn they might develop general paresis are often distressed by the inability to experience suffering, leading him to muse:
“How deeply in the consciousness of humankind must lie the knowledge that suffering belongs to life itself”.
A particularly powerful example of someone who found meaning in spite of physical loss is Paul Alexander, also known as “The Man In The Iron Lung’’. At the age of six, Paul was paralysed after contracting Polio, and encased in a strange machine that kept the mucus in his lungs moist and breathed for him through suctioning bellows. When he woke up in the machine, he thought he had died.
Over the years, Paul has shown that he has an iron will; he was the first person to graduate from a Dallas high school without ever attending a class, he earned a scholarship to the southern Methodist university and later became a practicing lawyer after gaining his JD degree from University of Texas, Austin. Alexander spent 8 years writing his memoir, Three minutes for a dog, by using a special pen he moves with his mouth. It would have been easy, perhaps even understandable, if Paul had grown despondent. In fact, he often overheard the nurses saying he would die, or that “He should not be alive”. It angered him, he says, and motivated him to live all the more. When asked what his dream is, he responded: “To not let Polio defeat me, but to defeat Polio”. As Frankl said, though suffering deprived Paul of many things- the ability to play sports and go to church- it actually gave him a new purpose. Now, he uses his story to inspire others into action. He concludes the following interview, filmed last year, by saying:
“Your past, or even disability, does not have to define your future”.
His long and eventful life is a powerful testament to this.
Paul Alexander, like the graphic designer, the Austrian judge and the terminally ill man who finds meaning in his approach to death, shows that there is always meaning to be found, even in the most catastrophic turns of fate. Like the prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp who sang “Whatever our future may hold: We still want to say yes to life”, so too these men adapted to the vicissitudes of fate with dignity, strength and courage. Some saw kindness as an end in itself, and modelled magnanimity in their dying moment. Others proved their tenacity and tested their spirit by facing death with composure. Others found meaning in their work, despite their physical losses.
It may not be easy, and it is okay to grieve when life throws curveballs, but it is important to remember that we can only respond to the questions life asks of us. It is comforting, however, to study these moving examples of men who found meaning in darkness, pain and tragedy. Whatever life is asking you now, take a moment to see the meaning possible within it.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or feelings, reach out to a loved one or professional for help. Whatever you’re going through, you can call the Samaritans at any time, from any phone, for free. Just call 116 123 or email them on jo@samaritans.org.
