Unheard Cry for Meaning

by Viktor E. Frankl

Book Overview

Upon his death in 1997, Viktor E. Frankl was lauded as one of the most influential thinkers of our time. The Unheard Cry for Meaning marked his return to the humanism that made Man's Search for Meaning a bestseller around the world. In these selected essays, written between 1947 and 1977, Dr. Frankl illustrates the vital importance of the human dimension in psychotherapy. Using a wide range of subjects--including sex, morality, modern...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671247360
• ISBN13: 9780671247362
• Release Date: March 1979
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

I'm sure it's good

it's by Victor Frankl how could it not be good? but honestly I haven't read it yet.

How to atain fulfillment of personality

In the dialogue with Pinchas Lapide Frankl formulates that man is becoming himself, is realizing himself, is purely man exactly to the same degree as he does not try to realize himself or his own luck, rather he should be in the process of giving himself away to something else (or somebody else). Frankl`s extension of psychotherapy to transcendence comes from Jewish, Biblical thinking. It wants to set man free from his self-centerdness, which spoils his ways and removes him from God. This kind of thinking is somehow biblically designed and practised in therapy. In the manner of Jesus for example who said: "who finds his life will lose it, and who loses it for my sake will find it". Lapide mentions this relation to the New Testament in his conversation with Frankl. Nothing what is important for man, be it motherhood, a commandment, love, nothing is allowed to serve as an idol, Frankl teaches. Only in the extended view of the transcendence these things attain their fulfillment. Frankl explains Saint-Exupery who had said: "Love means not to stare in the eyes of one another, but to look into the same direction together" in this way: "The real lovers look parallel into the eternity, they pray together. Love is a mutual prayer, a prayer for two." The key for a complete life is the conscience, the "organ" to find meaning. Given that the non-religious man who has also conscience and responsibility is a man who ignores the transcendency of the conscience, he misses yet the question of responsibility for what? And of conscience from who? He takes conscience as the last thing in front of which he has to be responsible, but he ignores that it is only the last but one, because the last is God. Pinchas Lapide respects the manner how Frankl consumed the concentration camp experiences, because he brought them into an interesting context with the question about God: "Since Frankl had to drain the cup of suffering and yet was able to survive it without hatred and with love for mankind he must be a living prove on two feet for the existence of God... then also Dorothee Sölle and the so called "God-is-dead-theology" are wrong." This would mean that concentration camps and their abominations are a chance to see God rather than to deny his existence! Which makes sense since only a living God can help. Frankl perceives the crises of meaning of the many singular people also as a society problem. In the existential vacuum which arises where the human existence does not find any sense and does not realize any values something else starts to pore in: frustration, desperation, hatred, violence. Frankl is concerned: "Will spiritual poverty be the poverty of the 21st century?" I will be not the only one to be affirmative.

Deepening Insight into the Ultimate Search for Man's Meaning

This was a wonderful book. I highly recommend it immediately after you read Man's Search for Meaning. This is a continuation and extension of the Introduction to Logotherapy that comprises the second half of Man's Search for Meaning. This book is more academic and less personal, but still full of insight and humanity. Frankl touches on many different aspects of life and existential vacuums that we all face. Here are some of his remarks that I thought perticularly noteworthy and that will give you a feel for the overall nature of this work. Frankl's Definition of God "God is the partner of your most intimate soliloquies. Whenever you are talking to yourself in utmost sincerity and ultimate solitude-he to whom you are addressing yourself may justifiably be called God." {NB: This is in the context of a non-theistic statement, Frankl notes that a religious person would assert that these are real dialogues between himself and God, while an atheist would be equally correct in insisting that they are only monologues within his own mind. Frankl, himself, I think tends toward the latter position.} Frankl, Viktor. "Determinism and Humanism: Critique of Pan-Determinism" The Unheard Cry for Meaning. pg. 63. Self-Trancendence "Man is - by virtue of the self-trancendent quality of the human reality - basically concerned with reaching out beyond himself, be it toward a meaning to fulfill, or toward another human being to lovingly encounter." Frankl, Viktor. "Determinism and Humanism: Critique of Pan-Determinism" The Unheard Cry for Meaning. pg. 80. On the Meaning of Sex "Human sex is always more than mere sex, and it is more than sex to the extent that it serves as the physical expression of something metasexual, is the physical expression of love. Only to the extent that sex carries out this function is it a rewarding experience." {To the extent that sex fails in this task, ie. using another person as a tool, failing to connect to that person as a subject, not simply an object, it is referred to as 'masturbatory' and 'neurotic' by Frankl.} Frankl, Viktor. "Determinism and Humanism: Critique of Pan-Determinism" The Unheard Cry for Meaning. pg. 80. The Pursuit of Happiness "The more one's search for meaning is frustrated, the more intensively he devotes himself to what ... has been termed the 'pursuit of happiness.' When this pursuit originates in a frustrated search for meaning it is aimed at intoxication and stupifaction. In the final analysis it is self-defeating, for happiness can arise only as a result of living out one's self-transcendence, one's dedication to a cause to be served or a person to be loved." Frankl, Viktor. "The Dehumanization of Sex" The Unheard Cry for Meaning. pg. 83. Hyper-reflection and Existential Emptiness "Paying too much attention to something is what I am used to calling 'hyper-reflection.' The patient is invited to carefully observe and watch himself; what is even more important, he is encouraged to endlessly discu

Thought provoking but slightly too technical

This is a book about finding meaning in life. The book makes a very clear distinction between having a successful life and having a meaningful life. Frankl uses many good examples to illustrate the difference between the two. He cites Harvard graduates, many of whom lead successful lives yet at the same time are overpowered by a sense of futility. Although they have achieved financial and social success, their lives are lacking genuine fulfillment. The second and third chapters of the book are slightly confusing. The second chapter is a critique of pan-determinism. Although many of his arguments seem compelling, unfortunately he does not explain the definition of pan-determinism so a lot of the chapter was unintelligible. The third chapter is a critique of pure encounter, and suffers from the same problems as the second. The book addresses a number of interesting issues. The books asks "How can life have meaning when human existence is such a temporary affair?" The book also points out that in an increasingly affluent society, people have more time and money to spend but nothing meaningful on which to spend it. The part of the book I enjoyed most was this quote from Ludwig von Bertalanffy"The expanding economy of the `affluent society' could not subsist without such manipulation. Only by manipulating humans ever more into Skinnerian rats, robots, buying automata, homeostatically adjusted conformers and opportunists can this great society follow its progress toward ever increasing gross national product."The above quote illustrates how we have been duped into believing that materialism is the path to meaning and happiness in life. However, this is not the truth but merely an illusion fed to us by clever manipulators.The main thing I disliked about the book is its extensive use of philosophical and psychological jargon. From the style of the prose, I don't think the book was targeted at a general audience.The final chapter discusses paradoxical intention and dereflection. Paradoxical intention is a process by which "the patient is encouraged to do, or to wish to happen, the very thing he fears". For example, instead of trying to stave off anxiety, Frankl suggests to his patient that he embraces anxiety and attempts to heighten the sensation, thereby making it subside. Dereflection appears to be another form of paradoxical intention targeted at curing sexual ailments.Ultimately, the book concludes that each person must find his own meaning in life. However, in a slight twist the author also demonstrates that in some cases the harder you strive for something, the more it eludes you. The more you search for happiness, the more it slips from your grasp. I thoroughly recommend this book for anyone who is facing a crisis of meaning. It certainly will not unlock the key to the meaning of life but it certainly will provoke thought and perhaps point you in the right direction.

The Unheard Cry for Meaning

If you were to name the three biggest challenges man faces today, chances are, they would be addiction, depression, and aggression. In The Unheard Cry for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, convincingly argues that they all stem from one source: man's search for meaning.Victor Frankl is someone who understands man's make-up as very few secular scholars could. He was a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry and a survivor of four concentration camps, including Dachau and Auschwitz. In his own words, "I bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions imaginable." In Frankl's experience, the desire to give life meaning enables man to transcend his condition, even in the face of crisis. His book, the Unheard Cry for Meaning, explores that theme while demythologizing sports, sex, literature, and other areas of our so-called "enlightened" society. In a media-crazed world filled with violence, addiction, and depression, Frankl's Unheard Cry for Meaning is an oasis of reason and humanity. As such, it should be read by everyone you know.