# 读 《Man's Search For Meaning》

By [Lucia](https://paragraph.com/@lucia) · 2022-01-07

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拖了近半年, 趁着休假, 整理了下.

整本书篇幅很短, 分两部分.

第一部分 Experiences in a concertration Camp 讲述了作者本人在集中营的那段经历.

第二部分 Logotherapy in a Nutshell, 作者简单介绍了他创立的心理治疗理论 logotherapy, logo 在希腊语中指 meaning. 该理论也基于他本人在集中营的那段经历.

我一直觉得只要人活着, 某些经历是无法遗忘的, 更何况是被囚禁在集中营. 你以为时间会帮你淡忘, 你选择不再记起, 但它们是你过去的一部分, 这是不争的事实, 看似忘却, 但其实从未离开. 书中也提到那些从集中营走出来的人, 大部分都有着或多或少的后遗症, 而作者作为亲历者之一, 选择将苦难化作了养分, 通过创作去疗愈心理创伤. 一定意义上, 感觉更像是自救, 而整个过程, 却也治愈了其他人.

切合了古语, 自渡者渡人.

那整本书, 作者想要表达的是什么呢?

在书的前言部分, 基本点出了整本书他想要表达的观点.

> Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, or a quest for power, but a quest for meaning.
> 
> Viktor Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning:
> 
> *   in work
>     
> *   in love
>     
> *   in courage during difficult times
>     

作者认为, 人生不是追逐名利与欢愉, 而是追求意义. 而意义有三个可能的来源, 工作, 爱, 困境中的勇气.

作者为什么会认为追求 meaning 很重要?

> 因为它会支撑着一个人走过那些煎熬的日子, 而不是在困境中, 选择通过结束生命, 来结束痛苦.
> 
> 书中多次引用了尼采 Nietzsche 的话: **He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.**
> 
> meaning 就是那个 Why.

但是人是多样的, 对于每个人来说, 人生的意义自然也千差万别.

甚至, 是否应该去追求人生的意义 , 也完全是个人的选择.

值得一提的是, 作者并没有去歌颂苦难, 而是强调在无法避免的苦难中, 赋予人生以意义, 找到支撑人活下去的信念, 改变态度, 转移焦点, 人才能在苦难中更好地生存下去.

同时, 他也强调, 不要把人生的目标放在成功和幸福上, 它们只是 meaningful life 中的 by-product:

> Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. **I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge.** Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.

这倒让我想到 John Roberts 在他那篇很出彩的演讲 I wish you bad luck 里面提到的:

> .....And **one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life**. The best way to lose the values that are central to who you are is frankly **not to think about them at all**.

刻意追求的反而得不到.

大抵真正重要的东西, 莫不如此.

这样想, 人生某种程度上是公平的.

Seeing the message in your misfortunes and benefit from them.

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*Originally published on [Lucia](https://paragraph.com/@lucia/man-s-search-for-meaning)*