By Mary Lackie

In an age of conformity and totalitarianism, only a lively and alert conscience will enable man to reach his goal, said Dr. Viktor E. Frankl, Viennese psychiatrist during a recent visit to Atlanta.

“In an age of meaninglessness, there is only one way to find the unique meanings in all the situations that confront us. That is conscience. Conscience begins when man no longer fears punishment or is longing for rewards,” the doctor said in an address to faculty members and students at Georgia State College.

Dr. Frankl, 62, was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1942, and confined to Theresienstadt, Dachau, and Auschwitz. During his imprisonment, the manuscript of his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning” was destroyed, but he continued to write on scraps of paper, with the intention of publishing the book if he survived.

The book contains an account of his prison experience and a ‘capsule definition’ of the term ‘logotherapy’, derived from the Greek word, ‘logos’, which Dr. Frankl interprets as ‘meaning’. Logotherapy is an existential approach to analysis and psychotherapy focusing on the meaning of human existence as well as on man’s search for that meaning. Dr. Frankl, founder of the school of logotherapy, believes this search is the primary motivational force in man’s life.

In his address, the doctor recalled from his own experience, “When I set out 23 years ago to write “Man’s Search for Meaning,” I dictated it with a fixed resolution -- to let it become published anonymously. I just did what I felt was needed and needed to be said.”

Dr. Frankl continued, “To you young people here, I would like to say that what is needed is not a striving for success. Let happiness happen, and follow your own consciences.”

He said, “In an age of apparent meaninglessness, meaning must be found. It can’t be invented; it must be discovered. It is a privilege of mine not only to quest for life, but to dare to challenge the meaning of life. Youngsters today should know that this courage to challenge should be matched by patience rather than frustration which leads to despair.”

In the doctor’s view, the pursuit of happiness is self-defeating and he finds the same self defeating quality inherent in the pursuit of pleasure. He said, “The more one strives for happiness, the less able he is to obtain it. Happiness has its special cause, but actually, the reason for becoming happy is found in the will to search for meaning. Thus, happiness becomes a byproduct of the search.”

With or without a sense of meaning to his life, a man may seek status. The doctor observed, “The more a man is seeking status, the sooner he will be dismissed as a ‘status seeker’ whereas, a man who follows his conscience may become a success in the long run.”

Only the person who has been frustrated in his search for meaning can be content with the will to pleasure and to power, he said. Only when a man cannot hear or find a reason to be happy, does he turn to alcoholism or drugs to fabricate happiness. The same experience, in the doctor’s opinion, holds true for the youth who turns to LSD. This person is caught in the existential vacuum, an inner void. He said, “The danger of LSD, as I see it, is that the true meaning out there in the world is being neglected and ignored. There are the underprivileged, the poor, those that only he could help, and he alone.”

Dr. Frankl said, “The world is full of tasks in wait for us. We have only to widen our horizons and we might become aware that while we are enjoying our personal pleasures, we are neglecting our responsibilities. We might become aware of our human unity. All the colors of our skin, the colors of our political values would fade away if we possessed this awareness.”

Dr. Frankl emphasized that values cannot be taught. They must be found. He said, “We can give only our personal example. One can never tell a man what the meaning of his life is, but we can act as a catalyst to assist that man to find meaning. By the catalyst function I mean, to start the wheels turning, to help man in his search. This message can come across even to the simple man in the street, which is where I learned it myself.”

Dr. Frankl predicted that sooner or later, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ will no longer be defined in the moral sense of what one ‘should or should not do.’ He said, “We are about to embark on an ontological definition of values.”

In this ontological definition, ‘good’ will be that which fulfills and completes a man. ‘Bad’ will be that which destroys him as a person. In a time of transient values, meaning remains universal, though it may differ from man to man and from day to day.

Outlining three concepts, the doctor said, “Freedom is a negative concept. What is needed is its implementation -- responsibility. I tell people in this country, ‘You have the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast. It should have been supplemented with a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.’” This statement drew loud applause from the large audience.

In Dr. Frankl’s opinion, man is basically concerned with a condition beyond himself, and a meaning to fulfill himself. As he stated in his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of this personality. No one can be fully aware of another human being unless he loves him.

Suffering has meaning, too, if it changes one for the better. But, as the doctor has written, “What matters above all is the attitude toward suffering.”

The doctor recalled a visit to San Quentin. He said, “I have told the prisoners, ‘it is a privilege for a man to become guilty and then his responsibility is to overcome that guilt.’ Speaking to prisoners, those waiting on death row, I have said, ‘I myself have been faced with the gas chambers and death in Auschwitz, and even in the last moment of a ‘wasted’ life, your life may be flooded with meaning.” It was through the efforts of Dr. Florene Dunstan, chairman of the Spanish Department, Agnes Scott College, and member of the Atlanta Branch of the American Association of University Women, that the noted psychiatrist accepted the invitation to visit Atlanta. His visit was sponsored by the AAUW, and co-sponsored by Georgia State College, the Georgia State Mental Health Association, and the Georgia Association of School Counselors.