March 17, 2026
by Stephen T. Messenger
A Nazi guard ripped out the lining of his coat, seized his manuscript, and threw years of intellectual labor into the fire. In that moment, Viktor Frankl had a choice. He could mentally give up on living or choose to wake every day to recreate his life’s work.
Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is a glimpse into both the best and worst of human behavior. Frankl was a Jewish neurologist and psychologist from Austria prior to World War II. At the age of 37, the Nazis took him and his family to a number of concentration camps where he and his wife were separated.
What followed was a series of injustices that are beyond human comprehension. He was physically tortured, mentally abused, and emotionally isolated. But his story of finding meaning in the chaos revolves around that lost manuscript he wrote and how reconstructing it became a psychological lifeline.
In the end, his story to us was about rising every morning with the intent to fulfill our purpose in life. This links to Stoic concepts and results in three takeaways from Frankl’s experience directly traced to the ancient philosophers. His theory, called logotherapy, focused on finding our “why,” choosing our attitude, and believing that suffering won’t last forever. But to understand this through Frankl’s lens, we must know his story.
Turning Loss into Legacy
Frankl developed a manuscript of his logotherapy theory prior to his deportation. It was literally his life’s work. Before arriving at Auschwitz, he hid the manuscript inside the lining of his coat and tried to keep it through the intake process. But a guard found the papers and confiscated them, destroying everything he worked for and devastating his psyche.
Frankl now had to choose what to live for. He writes about asking himself if it was worth living when his sense of meaning was lost. But instead of spiraling into despair, Frankl reset his mind to survive and reconstruct his manuscript, to help others in the future. This shift was the difference between his death and survival.
He began to reconstruct his ideas by memorizing large sections, writing on scraps of paper, and hiding notes. This microwork allowed him to rebuild his manuscript mentally, and he cemented his belief that he must survive to rewrite his life’s work. This got him through starvation, abuse, forced labor, and sickness. He concluded that people can survive anything as long as their lives have purpose.
After being liberated, Frankl returned to Vienna and rewrote his theory, eventually becoming his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which has sold tens of millions of copies. His theory of surviving with meaning was proven in the depths of a concentration camp and brought him a will to live. Frankl’s manuscript became his purpose, and he came to realize that purposeful living was a universal law, one the Stoics had determined centuries earlier.
Purpose as a Survival Mechanism
Frankl famously observed that those with a purpose, a task, or a loved one to return to were the ones who survived. This was a point of his theory of logotherapy: that we must all have a “why” or a sense of meaning in our lives.
Marcus Aurelius brought this same Stoic concept to bear, speaking about how we all have a duty to perform. In Meditations, Aurelius writes that we shouldn’t linger under the covers in the morning, but get up and do the work of a human being. The sun, birds, ants, and animals do their part. So should we.
Ultimately, we can’t wait for meaning to come to us; we have to find our own meaning. That’s the reason to get out of bed.
Regardless of the Situation, We Choose Our Attitude
Frankl’s philosophy was, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” He would know. Absolutely everything was taken from him but his will to survive.
There will always be this space between what we want and what we control. The environment happens to us. Our response is what we own. Stoic philosopher Epictetus calls this the “Dichotomy of Control.” Born a slave, he taught that we should focus on what we control while accepting what we cannot. In his paraphrased words, it’s not what happens to us, but our reaction that matters.
This is often easy to say and hard to do. Frankl saw the worst of mankind in concentration camps. Yet, he was able to assert that no one could conquer his will to live.
Surviving the Lows to Anticipate the Eventual Highs
Finally, Frankl found that there is meaning even in suffering, so long as there is a reason to suffer. This is not about pretending that everything is fine but acknowledging the reality of our current situation. Frankl didn’t ignore life, but he looked to the future.
Seneca’s Stoic teachings spoke to “Premeditatio Malorum,” or the rehearsal of our nightmares. It’s where we imagine the worst that could happen to us. By expecting the lows, we can’t be broken by them. This creates a psychological floor which prevents us from panicking if they happen.
The lows are a natural part of life. They’re not only meant to be suffered through but are a bridge to get to the highs. Life is a combination of ups and downs, and we must live through both.
Life Has Meaning Which We Must Find
No one could understand the concept of finding purpose more than Viktor Frankl. Everything, literally every possession of his life including his name, was taken from him. Yet he found purpose in creating his manuscript, not for the sake of fame, but for helping others in the future.
His story mirrors another Stoic, Admiral James Stockdale. A fighter pilot shot down in Vietnam, he spent years in a prisoner of war camp, abused and tortured. Stockdale was well equipped with Stoic teachings, and understood that to survive, he had to have purpose, choose his attitude, and weather the lows.
This theory is codified in the “Stockdale Paradox.” Here, we must have faith that, no matter how dire it looks, it will work out in the end, all while confronting the brutal reality that we’re currently facing.
Both Frankl and Stockdale accepted their current situation, while also believing that one day it would end. This allowed them to wake up every day with a reason. Instead of quitting, they survived the lowest of lows, and went on to have a significant impact on the future.
Life has meaning when we have purpose. The key is to rise every day knowing our reason to live, and then go out and make it happen.
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