Florence + Frankl: A Study in Interpreting Contemporary Music through a Jewish Framework

The session is built around a close reading of a few excerpts from Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and applying them to lyrics from a single popular song: "Shake It Out” by Florence + the Machine. Although the song draws on Christian imagery and tropes, like demons and a single baptismal moment of deliverance and transformation, it suggests that pursuing a release from suffering and regret is a misguided, even harmful, project. Instead, the song ultimately endorses a relationship to suffering that is more compatible with the Jewish tradition's views on change and redemption, as universalized beyond Judaism by Frankl’s logotherapy. Exploring Frankl’s views on meaning (especially in the context of suffering) illuminates why the song's protagonist repeatedly fails to progress until she chooses to embrace life (along with the suffering it entails). . . . Benjamin Beutel works in people analytics and volunteers as a Repair the World Service Ambassador, but is also a recovering academic who still studies and writes on a variety of subjects, including history, sociology, psychology, and genealogy.