It may be argued that no event has indelibly marked modern history as much as the tragedy of the Holocaust. As historians struggle to preserve the concentration camps where these atrocities were carried out, the experiences of those who survived have been forever recorded in art, literature, music, and popular culture. With these permanent reminders of what was perpetrated behind the drawn curtain of the Nazi regime, it is necessary to commit oneself to their study; for, as George Santayana famously wrote, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

One cannot be blamed for falling into a melancholy when absorbed in any work related to the Holocaust. Along with the grievous disregard for human life in the Stalinist regime and other communist states, the Holocaust represents one of the worst losses of human life in modern history. Literature on the subject ranges from the harrowing Night, by Elie Wiesel, to the graphic novel Maus and countless other works of fiction and nonfiction.

Viktor Frankl, the eminent psychiatrist, wrote Man’s Search for Meaning soon after he was liberated from a concentration camp. Throughout the work, which initially details his experiences at concentration camps that were not as visible as the infamous Auschwitz, Frankl illustrates both how horrendous the experience of the Holocaust was and his search for meaning in the suffering omnipresent in the camps. His conclusion, which is as powerful as it is provocative, is that humans, because of the powers of their deliberative minds, ultimately exist in order to find and extrapolate a meaning in their lives. This understanding is rooted in a form of existentialism, which does not despair of existence but rather searches for a feeling of validity in life.

This principle is opposed to earlier modern understandings of why humans exist. Sigmund Freud, with his belief that humans were perpetually propelled by insatiable primal instincts, maintained that they had a “will to pleasure,” in which achieving pleasure and avoiding pain is paramount. This, coupled with Freud’s understanding of the life and death drives, renders existence an inevitably and almost unintentionally hedonistic experience. Friedrich Nietzsche, and the psychologist Alfred Adler, argued instead for a “will to power.” In this concept, which is somewhat ambiguous, humans strive to exercise their power over other humans. In contrast to these two principles, Frankl proposed a third concept that goes beyond the principles of Freud and Nietzsche: a “will to meaning.”

Deeply rooted in his experiences surviving the Holocaust, Frankl’s will to meaning seeks to make the best of any negative experience by focusing on the good that may yet come. He connects this idea to the Greek word “logos,” which he understands as meaning reason. Everyone has some form of meaning in their lives, Frankl contends. Even during the Holocaust, he was motivated to survive by the desire to publish a manuscript he had lost to the Nazis, and many others endured simply with the hope of seeing their loved ones again. Developing his sentiments into a coherent system of thought, Frankl then proposes “logotherapy,” psychiatric therapy that strives to help individuals identify some form of meaning in their lives.

Logotherapy holds that there is meaning in existence even in the worst possible situations, like the Holocaust, and that even if humans cannot find sufficient meaning in a given place or time, they are still usually capable of altering their conditions, or at least their perceptions. This is a powerful idea, even in situations that are quite removed from Frankl’s context, the Holocaust. At a time when college students feel increasingly lonely and isolated, the idea that there is meaning in their existence may very well be comforting.

It is true that there is plenty of bad in the world and in existence, as exemplified by the Holocaust and many of the serious issues we face as a nation and society. Yet it is also evident that there is still plenty of good in the world today – the smell of petrichor, the satisfaction of academic recognition, and the gentle caress of a loved one. There will always be positivity, and there will always be negativity. One cannot successfully block out the bad in the world without also precluding oneself from the good. Thus, one must accept that there is both good and bad in existence in order to live a full life. This delicate balance may be best achieved by finding a meaning in life, and with this meaning in hand, life will be fruitful and enjoyable.