Meaning in Suffering

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist in Austria before being taken prisoner by the Nazis and sent to numerous concentration camps including Auschwitz and Dachau. Miraculously, Frankl survived the death camps and went on to write a book on his experiences and observations during that time, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”

In his book, Frankl recounts the many prisoners he encountered in the various camps and noted how some individuals were able to find meaning in their suffering and purpose for their lives, and thus fared much better and lived longer than those who were experiencing the same atrocities but had lost their “meaning.” In fact, Frankl would too often observe when a person’s meaning, their “why” for existing, had expired, that poor inmate would usually be dead in a matter of hours or days.

Obviously, the Holocaust is a very extreme example of suffering as millions experienced a level of cruelty most could hardly even imagine, much less will ever face. That being said, the lesson is still valid: we must find meaning in our suffering. Frankl compared suffering to gas, in that regardless of the concentration of the molecules, gas will eventually expand to fill whatever enclosure it finds itself. The experience of suffering also, if left unchecked, will expand to fill a person’s life regardless of intensity or severity. He notes even relatively mild suffering can still consume a person if they can’t see past the pain to find the meaning behind it.

Finding meaning in and purpose beyond our difficult circumstances keeps the “gas” from expanding and engulfing our life. Suffering at some level will find us all, it’s our job to find meaning in it.

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