Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl #Review

Humans in suffering tend to feel hopeless with a deep sense of failure. MAN's SEARCH FOR MEANING (Frankl, 1984) is a helpful book during such times: it is highly probable that one would find a solution to their depressed feelings, if the book is read actively.

Written by Austrian neurologist-psychiatrist and a Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl, this book is simple yet intense and reflective. Frankl is the founder of Logotherapy, a form of existential psychology. Awarded with several accolades, his books and talks are the most inspiring on finding meaning in life and in suffering.

The book stands out extraordinarily as Frankl, by narrating his life instances in the Auschwitz concentration camp, presents the remarkable idea of how we can choose to see a purpose or meaning in any situation, including the worst conditions. He descriptively illustrates his personal experiences and observations of minute human changes which infuses hope into the reader.

With rich primary and secondary data, Frankl puts forward his ideas in three sections. The qualitative methodology utilized has smoothly fused his thoughts through these three parts, clarifying Nietzsche words, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” This book is a collaboration of Frankl's personal experiences and stories, references to other existential forerunners, quotes from humanistic and psychoanalytic schools, and excellent figurative examples. Many pathological terms have been used in the book, which are well explained by the author.

The first section describes the brutality every prisoner faced at concentration camps, Frankl being one of them for three years. As he realized their “naked existence,” Frankl begins by explaining how a prisoner passes through three major phases in the camp, and also how each phase transformed the prisoners from their previous lives and how they developed various pathologies. The prisoner was first in a state of shock, which was followed by the phase of developing apathy and finally, on being liberated, prisoners felt depersonalized at first and later manifested strong symptoms in differential ways.

Frankl here slowly introduces his first thoughts on these experiences. Though he has toned down the language of brutality, the message comes across loud that it was certainly the worst suffering one could imagine of.

At the end of section one, an active reader realizes the true meaning of life, of love (which is fairly depersonalized in the recent decades) and also how thankless we have become toward the little mercies in life.

An active reader also learns about “Logotherapy” that the author attempts to explain in the second section. The nature, meaning and goals are well detailed. Even the finest differences between psychoanalysis and Logotherapy are clearly specified. Frankl liberally introduces every concept of Logotherapy (such as the existential vacuum, responsibility of survival, existential frustration). He also describes the therapy process and techniques with some great figurative examples and case studies. A novice therapist may find these useful. However, he fails to explain how one can integrate these techniques with the conventional psychotherapeutic process.

Nevertheless, his strong request to re-humanize psychotherapy inspires us into a new direction of thought and practice.

The third aspect of the book is an attraction for readers wishing to apply the principles of Logotherapy on the self (to begin with): the section on tragic optimism elaborates it. The triad of pain, guilt and death is well justified, though further intensive reading is necessary for a practicing therapist.

This section is also useful for a therapist to understand how anticipatory anxieties, depression, obsessive behaviors, aggression, unemployment neurosis (and even Sunday neurosis) can be dealt with effectively through Logotherapy. Frankl takes the effort to explain how meaninglessness in life may not be pathological, but can certainly be pathogenic. However, this section is exhaustive to comprehend with the given information, and hence, would suggest further reading of the ‘Tragic Triad’ for a practitioner.

Having justified the idea of finding meaning in life, this book extends itself to coherently explain where and how one can find their purpose in life—reading this section of the book will most certainly spark a solution to every despaired reader. Frankl positively disregards a specific age group that can benefit from this book because he elucidates how old age and death must not be looked upon as an “end of opportunities and possibilities,” but as a repertoire of all the “potentials actualized, meanings fulfilled and values realized.”

He also explains how “suffering is not necessary to find meaning.” If suffering can be avoided, meaningfulness would lie in attacking the cause of suffering; but if it can't, meaningfulness would lie in changing the way we look at the situation and unlock the actual meaning lying “dormant” in that suffering! This relates very well to the “Serenity Prayer.”

Readers having knowledge in the Indian philosophy may easily connect the ideas of this book to the Bhagavad-Gita (Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, 1978) wherein Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna (and the humankind thereby) about how he could find meaning in his dreadful situation, how his suffering may be looked upon differently and how one can elevate oneself from hopelessness and anguish by realizing the purpose of one's existence on earth.

Clinically as a limitation, the book lacks presentation of validity, procedure and practice of Logotherapy. The therapy doesn't easily allow a quantitative inquiry: it is a philosophical approach to the human inner-world (as Frankl describes it). Despite the shortcomings, the spirit of the idea is noteworthy.

Recent researches have also well supported Frankl's ideas. Thagard (2012) in The Brain and The Meaning of Life, argues how brain science matters for fundamental issues about meaning in life.

Positive correlations have been found between search for meaning with other variables such as positive affect (King et al., 2006), well-being (Mascaro and Rosen, 2005), and self-evaluation (To et al., 2014). Steger et al. (2008) found that people lacked the search for meaning in life through a life-span perspective (Steger et al., 2007).

Ubiquitously, I would strongly recommend this book as the first step into existential psychology and urge the reader to continue reading Frankl's other books.

Quoted Author

Sunfall - Jim Al-Khalili #Review

This is probably JAK's first fictitious novel brought out in a story-telling style. Nearly ten chapters from the beginning would let one grope for the matter the author is trying to convey. However, this would also cover some scary facts about the Earth's magnetic field flip and the ignorant powerful politicians unable to understand the seriousness. (Could not help but remember the HBO's narration of the Russian leader's satire over Chernobyl and presently the underscored warning by the Chinese leaders over Covid-19)

The Earth’s magnetic field flickers and fades, with deadly radiation and particles in the solar wind reaching the Earth’s surface, and life on Earth is endangered as the flip of the POLES is on the anvil. Jim suggests that the North would become South as it happens every few times a million years and the last time it flipped was some 40,000 years back. But the irony is that it might take about 10 years to get the flip complete, during which time we would be exposed to some dangerous change in the life-style on the Earth (Read climate catastrophe and all equipment dependent on GPS).

Given our thin understanding of how the planet’s protective field is generated and maintained, and why it regularly flips its polarity over geological time, the scenario is plausible. Jim’s intimate acquaintance with the scientific community now kicks in to create a series of realistic vignettes of young scientists reacting to the challenge and struggling to come up with an effective response.

In the early chapters, sometimes the physics and technology get too mundane but Shireen’s escape from Tehran with old- school deception of the agents was enjoyable. The slow pace of the initial chapters shifts gear after the devastation in Rio; the motor bike escape of Sarah was enthralling; the crash landing of Indian Airlines etc. His experience with various science bodies (one such is LIFE SCIENTIFIC) is sufficient to prove right his apprehension about the world body giving dumb-response to the dangers lying ahead.

When scientists are ignored and the politicians or beureaucrats play spoil-sport, the blame-game takes a surrealistic turn.

The character Marc Bruckner mentioned with colour blindness defect might be a reference to John Dalton, the atom discoverer who himself was colour blind but managed to write a scientific paper on colour blindness- a.k.a Daltonism. The author describes Marc Bruckner’s theoretical work to create the ODIN project (fictional though) artistic in a beautiful paragraph. Theoretical physics is highly esoteric and the popularity of this work is well preserved and projected in this book. Peter Higgs managed to predict Higgs particle almost 50 years ahead using mathematics alone.

The use of quantum entanglement (QE) to interact with the locked-down AI at the Mag8 in Jordan, from Washington DC requires one to understand the weirdness of quantum entanglement. QE basically equals magic in our daily ‘classical’ world. In Quantum Mechanics, one object can actually be in two or more places at the same time, spin in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions at the same time, walk through solid walls as though invisible, communicate instantaneously with its paired object even separated by galactic distances faster than the speed of light etc. The latter is called quantum entanglement and has been actually proven.

The author has paid tribute to a lot of people, from his sister to some wonderful scientists that he has interviewed in his popular radio show, The Life scientific.  Jim is of Iraqi-Persian ancestry and in his own Life Scientific interview, has spoken about how he never went back to his land of birth and early childhood. Jim has also spoken about the legacy of Arabic science which once had dominated the world; science was never a sole occidental construct but legacy of many civilizations over history of mankind.

The Future of Humanity - Michio Kaku # Review

This book would go to describe the human society thriving beyond our planet, beginning with the concept of interplanetary near future, on to the entire universe and further beyond. Beyond refers to the highly speculative concepts of seeding new Universes when ours ultimately dies. It is the story of human development as Michio Kaku sees it.

The new planets would basically be dead stars or pulsars that have exploded in a supernova killing everything. And about 4500 of them have been discovered so far.

The first chapter deals with the brief history of rocketry, primarily mentioning Robert Goddard and how he was often ridiculed when he talked about entry into space. Only in 1969, did the New York Times offer an apology for doubting his credibility when it published an admission that rocket propulsion can indeed function in a vacuum. This chapter further covers mining the asteroids, Space Exploration society. The author mentions Newtons' vision becoming reality with the launch of Sputnik.

Some background Astronomy for the lay reader and overview of some upcoming missions to the outer solar system has been included. Kaku delves into peripheral topics of artificial intelligence, self-replicating robots, machines with self-awareness and then on to theories of consciousness along with quantum computing basics. Indeed, he suggests these will be vital components of space travel - with an exception mentioning Alan Shepherd taking Golf Stick to the Moon without the knowledge of the authorities.

A Russian scientist, Nikolai Kardashev has created a scale of civilizations: Type I uses all of the energy from the light provided by its star; Type II uses all the energy the sun produces (think fusion); Type III uses all the energy in the entire galaxy. Obviously we're not even a Type I civilization since we don't use all the sunlight the Sun provides. We're about a 0.7 civilization. Kaku boldly suggests a Type IV civilization in which the culture utilizes the energy of the entire universe. From here, he paints a picture of possible human evolution in the context of string theory, dark energy/matter and hyperspace. Ultimately, he suggests, an advanced version of humanity could escape the death of our universe by birthing a new one. (Read Parallel Universe)

The concept of using energy from the Universe gets right fantasy. There are peaks in the Polar regions where the Sun never sets and a 1000 solar panels could create a steady supply of energy, but he cautions the dangers as the Polar regions might come under 'mining'.

With a complete map of the human brain it could be possible to beam personalities at light speed to robotic avatars based on exoplanets via a network of relay stations located on “stationary” comets. A reference is made to the mirror that was left on the Moon and laser beam was used to reflect from that part to allow humans to measure the orbital radius. A few measurements and extrapolations later would allow us to calculate moon's previous orbit or the drift if any.

It is rather confusing to know that the Moon has a different composition than the Earth has, while there are theories that the Moon was an off-shot object of the Earth (Read Thea collision).

Mining the Heavens is simply superb to read. That Asteroid Bennu was explored and the possible mechanism of bringing the Noble ores to the Earth makes interesting reading. The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) has a few stalwarts up its lounge to accomplish that but the time mentioned is over a century.

Ceres is the Goddess of Agriculture and thus we have Cereals.

That Jupiter is our guardian angel, deflecting most asteroids, comets and other space clutter that could kill us, is now established fact. Earth is a 'Goldilocks Planet', not too hot, not cold, with an atmosphere that's no too dense and a magnetic field and an ozone layer that deflects ultra-violet rays from frying us alive. It is expected that many Goldilocks planets are there in our galaxy. Possibly hundreds of thousands, but a lot depends on how we hear from outside world (Read SETI).

Use of Robots to accomplish 3D (Dull Dirty and Dangerous) jobs can be utilized for space exploration. The concept of space elevators is written down owing to the pressure it would create at its center leading to collapse is a nice mention. A lot more simple information make us feel that we are capable of understanding this Universe and would never be able to conquer it.

Read three months back, the time for review just got ripened!

Endurance - A year in space, A lifetime Discovery - Scott Kelly #Review

The veteran of four space flights and the record holder for spending 365 consecutive days in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Not only this, his style of narration mixed with humour, awe and scare is perspiring to digest.

That he considers a stage for an Astronaut as humiliating is a frank disclosure I have never heard of when enema was said to be done to remove the entire stuff of the rectum.  This has to be done as the rocket 'take-off' to 'induction' in the orbit is very risky and requires a crawling time-consuming event. Thus Alan shepherd, he writes, was the first ever Astronaut to leave the Earth in wet pants - as he sat in the rocket to be launched which underwent several delays, to avoid abort, and that lead to excessive time being spent inside the capsule for long. The rocket, the author defines is a barely controlled bomb, on which astronauts sit with a header that communicates with the ground control for manouver.

As all the American shuttles have been grounded, they rely upon the Russian system of launch that is Soyuz. For this Kelly writes that there is a lot of training both in the US and Russia. The Russians are considered as staunch followers of traditions. One such mention is about the compulsory peeing on the back Tyre of the vehicle in which the space-men are taken from the final quarter to the launch site. It was done so because Yuri Gagarin returned successfully after a launch and he did this act before his launch - for women astronauts a container is given to collect and pour.

Up there, 400 km above Earth, things are not easy for him. In micro-gravity one would often feel like always standing upside down because blood never 'seems' coming down. Everything flies until it was fixed to some place (Velcro here is very significantly used). Food and water droplets took all positions. Kelly praises the body's attitude towards this gravity when bone began losing its mass as 'it felt' that it was no longer needed to muster mass. Whenever the 'Carbon-dioxide' absorber slowed down in need of re-filling of the equipment, eyes were found blurred (nystagmus). However eye-blurring was not the same in the case with female astronauts. That is the reason why a female astronaut has been selected to be first to Mars by 2020!

Tread mill that is used in aiding digestion and metabolism was found to be risky. A slightest misuse, it might probably shoot off leading to many a dwindle inside the ISS, fears Kelly.

His happier moment was when President Obama tweeted a few statements in his praise. Buzz Aldrin joined the tweet telling the President that while Kelly was just 249 miles above the Earth, he went to about 23900 miles to reach Moon.  This was a troll Kelly felt later in the ISS. However, he came up with a data that might have been a fitting reply to Buzz - that he had traveled more than 200 million miles when he reached 520 days in space!  The urge to foresee a return troll in a rhetoric flavour for Buzz is the hallmark of Scott Kelly.

This stunning memoir is a must-read, and that's coming from someone who rarely reads nonfiction! Endurance is split between chapters detailing his year on the International Space Station and a broader view of his life journey up to the launch of that mission.  The road to become astronaut is the toughest anyone can think (with a twin Mark Kelly also being a competitor and a pointer towards his frequent quarreling parents which later subsided). At an interview before his selection as astronaut he was asked if he would prefer 'stealing' over 'kicking a dog'. He chose 'stealing' to which a psychoanalyst graded that he was trying to tell what the analyst 'wanted to hear'. His gathering of nerves during a flight landing over a ship at the sea, flying helicopters near the crash site of Columbia (At the disaster site he even found a 'Canon' Printer which was without a single scratch), a surgery for stone removal were some of the challenging events in his life. 

There's enough technical detail in Endurance to satisfy space and tech nerds, but it's described in lay terms that will make every reader glued to the book until finished. This is a thriller.

Phantoms in the Brain - V S Ramachandran #Review

V.S. Ramachandran, Neuroscientist is internationally renowned for opening answers to the puzzling questions of human nature that few scientists have ever dared. His creative insights about the brain is matched by the acute simplicity of in-situ experiments - such as use of low-tech tools like cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors and cardboard.

A phantom is an un-real feeling that exists in the humans after the loss of organs like hand, its fingers or legs. People feel that it is there whereas, actually it does not exist. In 'Phantoms in the Brain - probing the mysteries of the Brain", Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his  work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image (with conciousness having roots in one's culture), why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases include:

#A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial.

#A man who has lost his forearm feels an excruciating pain in the palm of his hands with nails-biting it, gets a lease of life with simple box and mirror experiment. All in just a week and this after the patient has had visited several neurosurgeons and given-up.

#A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience?

#A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.

#Another women who sees her stomach swelling feels that she is pregnant and which continues for nine-months. She even goes to hospital for delivery (with swollen stomach and no baby). This doc arranges a big baby-size toy and sedates the woman during 'delivery' only to disclose to her later that the baby died after delivery. Reconciled, she even returns home with 'birthmarks' over the stomach!

#A piece of your brain the size of a grain of sand would contain one hundred thousand neurons, two million axons and one billion synapses, all "talking to" each other.

# Pain is an opinion on the organism's state of health rather than a mere reflective response to an injury. There is no direct hotline from pain receptors to "pain centers" in the brain.

#The mechanisms of perception are mainly involved in extracting statistical correlations from the world to create a model that is temporarily useful.

#One could argue that the term consciousness doesn't mean anything unless you recognize the emotional significance and semantic associations of what you are looking at.

#Every medical student is taught that patients with epileptic seizures originating in this part of the brain [temporal lobes] can have intense, spiritual experiences during the seizures and sometimes become preoccupied with religion and moral issues even during the seizure-free or interictal periods.

The author often discusses some experiments that he and his collaborators did to shed light on puzzles going along with the condition, sometimes leading to insights that could help the patient or at least provide a basis for the development of treatments. He also adds his own speculations and hunches, which is quite interesting. He is so precise with these write-ups that he outlines where the actual knowledge ends and the speculation starts.

The book is now more than a decade old and I felt I should have read it long back. Nevertheless, I would  hope for a some more survey and edited newer version. (The co-author Sandra Blakeslee is credited in the acknowledgements for “making the book accessible for a wider readership.” The book is written in the first person narrative.)