Meaning of Life - a Logotherapy Approach

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals” Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr’s famous quote relates closely to Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Dr. Frankl’s uses the concept of logotherapy to fix a broken life into a firm pattern of meaning and responsibility. Logotherapy is his modern version of existential analysis which helps patients find the meaning of life. Dr. Frankl had first-hand experience, which led to the discovery of logotherapy. In his adulthood, he was a prisoner in a concentration camp and all the members of his family except for his sister were killed in those camps. His life was full of suffering, and as a result he tries to discover what is right and wrong in order to find the reason for living a meaningful and responsible life. Logotherapy focuses on the future; moreover, its key emphasis is on the meaning to be fulfilled by the patient in the near future. The movie, The Wrestler (2008) attempts to illustrate Viktor Frankl’s concept in the search for meaning. The movie portrays Randy Robinson in his youth years as being one of the best performers, a role which is played by Mickey Rourke. Every night over the course of his wrestling career, 18,500 fans attended to see Randy “The Ram Jam” Robinson perform. Eventually, old age caught up to him and he then began to perform in front of a few hundred fans at local gyms. His fame still remained but his suffering became more evident in many aspects of his life. This was revealed when he lost touch with his daughter, fell in love with a stripper and suffered a heart attack. Randy was told that he could not perform in the ring anymore due to his heart condition. Considering all of this, Randy began to feel alone leading him in trying to spend more time with the stripper, Cassidy with whom he fell in love with. This secondary role is played by Marisa Tomei better known as Pam on a day to day basis. He also tries to cope with his loneliness by attempting to reconnect with his daughter, Stephanie. Every man gets a push at a certain point in life and tries to correct mistakes he might have made. This is what Randy struggles to do while searching for the meaning of life in different ways. Searching for meaning can be illustrated by using the Dr. Frankl’s three principles of logotherapy and the movie, The Wrestler illustrates those concepts.

The first principle of Dr. Frankl’s logotherapy is freedom of will. Freedom of will deals with the demand to exercise personal responsibility and human activity. It states that we are responsible for making choices regarding our future. Responsibilities may not be not fulfilled or misused, and as illustrated Randy failed to fulfil his responsibility toward his daughter over the years. He did not maintain a good relationship