Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust

Everyone and anyone should read this book. Victors story is incredible and his teachings are timeless. Highly recommend. Need to read twice to really understand the content.

This is definitely a classic. Dr Frankls experience in auschwitz and other camps was appalling. Reading an account of what he went through should be traumatic but the way he has written this book turns his experience into a celebration. By using techniques to keep his humanity alive in the only place it really matters, his mind, he was able to navigate the tribulations of camp life. After reading this, you will be prepared for the mostly trivial trials of modern life and even those which we think we cannot face with dignity and celebration.

Was bought for my old man. He was very happy

This was a surprisingly readable book on the holocaust by an inmate of several of the camps. It describes the psychology of survival in the camps. Viktor Frankl became an important psychotherapist in which he implements ideas he developed while in the concentration camp. The book is divided into two parts: part 1 describing what happened to him from 1st impressions until release; the 2nd part describes his implementation of his psychotherapy with different individuals. The book is moving example of what existentialist thought can actually be for in real life, what good it can do, how it can help people. He tells the story of his experience and how you can maintain your inner freedom and your human identity in the face of a situation that is designed to completely destroy and demolish all human dignity. It’s almost impossible to do, and he doesn’t say “This is the recipe for how I did it” — he just explores the ways in which fragments of purpose and of meaning in human life kept him going. He also writes about his experience after the end of the war, when he started to write about psychology and existentialist psychology, which he was one of the founders of. That was equally difficult, finding meaning in a world after all meaning has been destroyed, and all human dignity has been dismantled. In dealing with patients who present with various kinds of depression or a sense of meaninglessness, Frankl concludes that it’s all about looking at the ways in which people construct meaning and purpose in their lives. Again, this reverses the usual way of understanding human existence. We are not just sets of symptoms and conditions. We are thrown into a situation — which might be an absolutely unendurable, impossible situation — but we always have the freedom to make of it what we will, according to our own choices, to impose our own meaning on it. It’s not just a matter of enduring or retreating into an inner realm in which you’re free. In fact, it’s not really about the inner realm at all, because the way you find meaning is not within, but through a purpose in the world, something that’s outside you, something that is greater than you. It could be by creating something, and it could be — and very often is — connections to other human beings, whether it’s comrades, friends, family or the people you come up against in life. And if all else fails — as it tended to in the concentration camps — and all the usual sources of meaning fall apart, there is always the chance of finding a meaning in the suffering itself. This is something that’s very hard to talk about in the abstract, but that was the conclusion that he came to. It’s interesting how optimistic Viktor Frankl’s philosophy is. Existentialism is often characterised as a rather morbid philosophy, dwelling on. That view of existentialism as “Life is terrible and we just have to resign ourselves to it” is a real misrepresentation. Sartre would have said, “No, we can change the circumstances of our lives.” He believed we could do it through revolution, through Marxism, through politics — and potentially through ethics as well, though that is something he never finished working out completely. With Viktor Frankl there’s a sense that we need this philosophy to help us to live. Existentialist philosophy doesn’t bring despair and angst into our lives, it gives us a way of making sense, it’s a way of discovering our own inner freedom. There’s a lot more that’s positive in existentialism than it’s ever given credit for, because it really is about how you live your life, and how you exist, given what you’re presented with. angst and anguish and the difficulty of making choices. It’s a nice foil to that caricature of existentialism. It avoids the pitfalls of Colin Wilson's evangelical approach.

One of the most remarkable books i have ever read

Viktor Frankl was, as he put it, "a professor in two fields, but a survivor of four camps - concentration camps, that is". Already a renowned psychotherapist, Frankl's experiences at Auschwitz and other concentration camps provided him profound and striking insights into human psychology. He sets them out in this brief and elegant book. Firstly, when put in a situation of extreme adversity or deprivation human personalities do not blur into one "uniform expression of the unstilled urge", as Sigmund Freud had supposed they would but, on the contrary, true personalities are accentuated. Secondly, despair and depression are not at all correlated with the experience of adversity, but if anything inversely so: in our modern, plentiful and comfortable times, neuroses are legion. By contrast, on the whole they weren't in Nazi death camps. Frankl was uniquely placed and qualified to comment on this; Freud was not: "Thank heaven," Frankl remarks dryly, "Freud was spared knowing the concentration camps from the inside". This seems right: I dare say you don't see much neuroticism in modern day Somalia either (though I do quite like the idea of obsessive-compulsive Mogadishan parents pushing their kids into extra cello lessons.) Frankl uses his anecdotal observations to propose what was in its day a revolutionary psychology: it isn't our primal physical urges which determine our behaviour, with intellectual constructions being mere epiphenomenal by-products (Freud would have it that love, for example, was a spin-off of the deeper primal sexual urge), but the other way round: it is the intellectual content - the *meaning* of our lives that shapes and drives our behaviour and, crucially, our happiness. The more profound and compelling you find the meaning in your own life, the less neurotic you're likely to be. This leaves open the question of what "meaning" might be, and what might make a profound and compelling one. This question Frankl doesn't answer, rightly I think, other in rather an airy fashion. Anecdotally, meanings are more likely to count as profound and compelling the more gravely connected with the "tragic triad" of pain, guilt and death they are (no shortage, therefore, at Auschwitz). But beyond those axes, the implication will be that we, the users, determine our own meaning. This may perhaps be a little self-fulfilling, and neurosis may be a product of existential frustration (in other words the confounding of one's own quest for meaning through preoccupation with things you don't truly value): Frankl cites a senior American diplomat who sought treatment from depression arising from discontent with his working life. Frankl's advice was not undergo psychotherapy, but to change his job to something he cared more about! But all the same this seems to me a plausible explanation for modern melancholy: who, these days, isn't continually and forcibly preoccupied with things he or she doesn't truly value? That seems to perfectly capture the "asset rich, time poor" existence. This is a short book, but it's a gem: the message of plurality and self-determination are ones which should strike harmonious chords in the ears of those, like this reviewer, who are nudging into middle age and wondering if it is quite all what it cracked up to be. Olly Buxton

This book is an important account of how people reacted to extreme suffering—starvation, filth, humiliation, and despair—in Nazi concentration camps. The parts about logotherapy feel more like philosophy than science, and don’t seem useful in today’s discussions. The argument that personal freedom is the basis of life’s meaning is especially weak and frustrating

A compelling account on how positive attitude works in even the most awful of circumstances. A bit heavy on the intellectual side at times, particularly the second section (which is intentional).

What a spectacular gift Frankl has given society in this book. A truly heartbreaking account of time in various SS camps, the journey the author took is just as jaw-dropping as the place he found himself at the end. Man's Search For Meaning is an excellent perspective-checker, an excellent first-hand account of how horrible people can be to each other, a tribute to the human ability to make sense of the suffering and pain one endures, and a poignant insight into the psychology that kept some prisoners alive in Auschwitz while others perished. I was continually struck with the way Frankl beautifully weaves discussion of psychology and the ways in which people respond to shocking circumstances into the description of the realities facing the prisoners in the Nazi death camps. The book is an ongoing push-pull between feeling utterly sick reading the occurrences in the camp and inspired by the positions taken by some prisoners, as well as the beauty that sporadically managed to shine into the camp. Hope is one of the most powerful forces available to humanity, and it energised the prisoners as no bread or water could. The new addition of a discussion of Logotherapy is very helpful for application into one's own life today, and much of Frankl's explanation of it seems logical and with merit. It's a testament to the quality of the writer that both halves of the book are equally enthralling to read and ingest. I feel I may need to put this into a rotation to allow the concepts to sink deeper. I wish more people wrote with grace and beauty like Frankl; He shows beauty in the midst of terror and maintains an objective perspective like nobody else I've read. A story of Frankl speaking to the other prisoners and encouraging them to find hope and see the positives of their imprisonment is one of the finest things I've read.

This book is a great compact size, and the book itself is inspiring. The cover is eye-catching and elegant.

Great read, highly recommended! I learned so much about the Holocaust and from the point of view of the writer, It felt as if I was there! A must read. The book is of good quality.

Es un pilar. Creo que el primero que va a sistematizar el tema de la actitud. Es un gran ejemplo de cómo aproximarse a la espiritualidad sin caer en el esoterismo, manteniendo una actitud científica.

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl is divided into two parts. In the first part, the author shares his personal experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp and the horrific things he witnessed. Despite the seemingly impossible obstacles, he observed how people coped with their suffering, and theorized that finding meaning in one's suffering can provide strength to endure. For Frankl, the thought of reuniting with his wife gave him the courage to continue on. The first part of the book provides insight into how people faced with dire circumstances try to find a way to persevere even when hope seems lost. The second part of the book focuses on logotherapy, a concept developed by Frankl, which posits that the search for meaning and purpose is the biggest motivator in life. It emphasizes that humans have the freedom to find meaning in their experiences and that life has meaning under all circumstances. "Man's Search for Meaning" is a short, powerful book that is both heartbreaking and thought-provoking. I have read it twice, and the idea that finding a sense of purpose is crucial for moving forward has left a lasting impression on me.