Man's Search For Meaning
by Frankl, Viktor E · 28 highlights
What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.
One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment.
sex is a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love.
In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.
man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning.
To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.
“The neurotic who learns to laugh at himself may be on the way to self-management, perhaps to cure.”
The fear of sleeplessnessfn13 results in a hyper-intention to fall asleep, which, in turn, incapacitates the patient to do so. To overcome this particular fear, I usually advise the patient not to try to sleep but rather to try to do just the opposite, that is, to stay awake as long as possible.