Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANINGfound that suffering has no limits, and that he couldsuffer still more, and still more intensely.When we spoke about attempts to give a man incamp mental courage, we said that he had to be shownsomething to look forward to in the future. He had tobe reminded that life still waited for him, that a humanbeing waited for his return. But after liberation? Therewere some men who found that no one awaited them.Woe to him who found that the person whose memoryalone had given him courage in camp did not exist anymore! Woe to him who, when the day of his dreamsfinally came, found it so different from all he hadlonged for! Perhaps he boarded a trolley, traveled outto the home which he had seen for years in his mind,and only in his mind, and pressed the bell, just as hehas longed to do in thousands of dreams, only to findthat the person who should open the door was notthere, and would never be there again.We all said to each other in camp that there could beno earthly happiness which could compensate for allwe had suffered. We were not hoping for happiness - itwas not that which gave us courage and gave meaningto our suffering, our sacrifices and our dying. And yetwe were not prepared for unhappiness. This disillusionment,which awaited not a small number of prisoners,was an experience which these men have foundvery hard to get over and which, for a psychiatrist, isalso very difficult to help them overcome. But thismust not be a discouragement to him; on the contrary,it should provide an added stimulus.But for every one of the liberated prisoners, the daycomes when, looking back on his camp experiences,114