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Man's Search for Meaning
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The first half of this book is devoted to the years that followed—to Number 119,104’s struggle to survive; a struggle as mental as it was physical. He describes the psychological progression (or regression) of prisoners as the realities of their hopeless circumstance wear away at mind and body. It doesn’t take long before prisoners become numb to the common afflictions of every day life. “The prisoner who had passed into the second stage of his psychological reactions did not avert his eyes any more. By then his feelings were blunted...he stood unmoved while a twelve-year-old boy was carried in who had been forced to stand at attention for hours in the snow or to work outside with bare feet because there were no shoes for him in the camp. His toes had become frostbitten, and the doctor on duty picked off the black gangrenous stumps with tweezers, one by one.” Thus desensitized, prisoners often gave-up the hope of survival. Death soon followed. This observation leads Frankl to conclude that, “The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed.” In an effort to “restore a man’s inner strength,” Frankl is disposed to help men identify future goals for themselves; borrowing Nietzsche’s maxim that, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” “What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life.
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