Man's Search for Meaning

"By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. I have termed this constitutive characteristic 'the self-transcendence of human existence.' It demotes the fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself - be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence."
- Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist and Auchwitz survivor

This is interesting to me for two reasons. First, it sounds an awful lot like Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Both believed that one could only become an individual if one is called up into something that transcends that person. In Kierkegaard, it is "higher immediacy" or "the religious" which calls the person out of the "ethical" (which is sort of the standard mode of existence). To use a Star Wars analogy, Luke Skywalker was in the "ethical" mode when he was helping his uncle harvest whatever they were harvesting in "Episode IV, A New Hope." He was called into "higher immediacy" or "the religious" when circumstances arose such that he had no other alternative than to help Obi-Wan Kenobi rescue Princess Leia. As the series progressed, one could see Luke passing more and more into "the religious." He was called into a vocation that transcended him personally. Only then did he become a true individual. Heidegger is similar when he calls this self-transcendence "Being."

Using this mode of thinking, most of us are situated in "the ethical." And we are bored. And unfulfilled. And bumping around aimlessly, hoping that something or someone will call us into "the religious" or "higher immediacy." Often, I will watch a movie like Red Dawn, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings and be envious. Envious of that sort of strife, conflict, danger, and hardship? Yes. And so are most of you.

The other reason I am interested in this portion of Frankl's book is due to its existential underlining of the bankruptcy of self-generated identity. It matches Martin Luther's suspicion of any progress that looks within one's own heart and soul for its juice. For Luther, the human being must look outside himself for any hope of peace, love, and joy. It can only do so if there is a benevolent Other that will enable this to happen. Thus, one looks to Christ who is the friend of sinners. One looks to Christ who comforts the sufferer and stands with the guilty. One looks to Christ who loves us even as we stand mired in the "ethical"; bored, unfulfilled, and repetitive. - DOB