by Not Hegel
“Man’s Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then immersively imagining that outcome.” – Ref: Wikipedia
When thinking about Frankl’s “Meaning”, I realized that there is an ideological connection. Frankl’s three meanings are meaning in work, meaning in connection with others, and meaning in suffering. The first two make sense immediately, but the meaning through suffering is more challenging.
In my opinion, the expression of persevering in suffering has nothing to do with suffering without witnesses. Instead, it has to do with suffering assiduously displayed to oneself or others, which may include God. It is not necessary for this expression to actually be displayed, but it is believed to be shown. The belief that it has been expressed fulfills meaning in what they are desiring to express. This is an expression of, at its most fundamental level, the identity of a human being. The existential expression of what that person believes a human should be is expressed as intended.
These are from the subjective, ontologically speaking, to the intersubjective. There is no meaning in a vacuum, but it is a subjective relationship to something that exists outside of it, and that makes up its meaning. This satisfaction derived from meaning is a heuristic that drives us to connection. Through ideas about how the being relates to the world, these external relations are formed. This being, grounded in identity, finds meaning in this relationship with a work, a person (or a group), or an expression. Each is a manifestation of something signified in the world and of the being as a signifier; the being is the subjective response to the world intersubjectively.