Definition
We realise attitudinal values (Ger. Einstellungswerte) when we face a fate that cannot be changed - incurable illness, irreversible loss, death - and take a dignified, responsible attitude towards it.
The last of the human freedoms
Frankl wrote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
Only unavoidable suffering
Logotherapy does not glorify suffering. If suffering can be removed - by treating an illness or changing a situation - it should be. Unnecessary suffering is masochism, not heroism. Meaning through attitude concerns only suffering that cannot be avoided.
Example: the grieving doctor
Frankl described a conversation with an elderly doctor who could not come to terms with his wife's death. He asked him: “What would have happened if you had died first?” “That would have been terrible for her,” the doctor replied. “You have spared her this suffering - at the price that now you have to mourn her.” The suffering did not disappear, but it gained meaning - it became a sacrifice.
Sources
V. E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning; Homo patiens.