ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the myriad forms of death denial, from societal techniques of avoidance to medicalization of death and the growing mandate that people die-with-dignity, are positively associated with a societal tendency that seeks to alleviate pain and suffering from human life. Frankl is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps and provides in this his best known work, an autobiographical sketch of life in Auschwitz and death camps. He proceeds to the formulation of a psychologic school of thought, logotherapy, the fundamental thrust of which is that the core motivational force of life is the search for meaning, even in the face of extreme and apparently unendurable circumstances. The strength of the Frankl thesis lies in his recognition of the value of suffering. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death.
