Camus vs. Frankl

Despite coming from completely different backgrounds and experiences, both Albert Camus and Victor Frankl develop a similar idea: monotony and pain in the present is best combatted through the memories of a happier, more comforting part of the sufferer's past life.

Camus develops this idea in his novel The Stranger, where the protagonist Meursault deals with his prison sentence by recalling every detail of his apartment.  Each day he remembers more details, and this allows him to pass the time without much of an issue.  He concludes that "a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison".  All it takes is some memory, some nostalgia, and the human mind can overcome its hardship.

Frankl developed his version of this idea through his own experiences in the Holocaust.  He writes that he was able to survive through his wife, his beloved.  By holding imaginary conversations with her and recalling her image in exact, vivid detail Frankl was able to cling to his humanity in the worst of situations.  He argues that his memories of his wife and the strength they gave him allowed him to realize that "The salvation of man is through love and love alone".

While both of these ideas may appear to be more similar than dissimilar on the surface, there are a few key details that show that they are actually opposite interpretations of an idea.  Meursault's memories are only there to combat boredom -- he has no particular emotional connection to his apartment building.  In fact, he doesn't have any particular emotional connection with anything or anyone at that point in the novel.  He doesn't care for Marie, who is the closest thing to a beloved he has.  Camus, in his classic existential manner, believes memories are a way of averting boredom, of staying sane, of enjoying life while it is there.

Frankl's interpretation is more artistic and emotional.  For him, it is about the love that he feels for his wife that keeps him alive.  He does not remember her in order to entertain himself or to fulfill any sort of sexual desire, but to rekindle the flame of humanity within his beaten body.  He describes his wife as "more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise".  Meursault doesn't even bother to describe to the reader any specific part of his room.  However, Frankl does share some similarities with Meursault in that he would also think of his past daily life and of the mundane routine he used to go through as a way of coping.  This to me seems like something Meursault would do if he were placed in a situation more similar to what Frankl had to experience.

It is impossible to determine who is more "correct", primarily because no one is correct in philosophy.  However, it is also hard to truly compare the two because Frankl experienced the Holocaust, which is widely considered to be one of the most horrid experiences in all of human history.  So while it might be easy to say something like Frankl's memories of his wife wasn't necessarily true love so much as a prettier way of avoiding the present through the past, or that true love doesn't actually exist because it's a social construct, I feel that would be somewhat insensitive to blog about with the amount of knowledge I have on the subject.  I feel like I wouldn't want to declare myself as agreeing more with Camus or Frankl without putting more effort into understanding both sides.  Though I also feel it is important to truly consider both of their viewpoints, and to not completely dismiss Camus' ideas simply because Frankl was in the Holocaust.