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

Viktor E. Frankl is an incredibly impactful and thought-provoking read. This book delves deep into the human psyche, exploring themes of suffering, purpose, and resilience through the lens of Frankl's harrowing experiences as a Holocaust survivor. Pros: - Inspiring and Thought-Provoking: Frankl's insights into finding meaning in the midst of suffering are deeply moving and encourage readers to reflect on their own lives. - Accessible and Engaging: Despite the heavy subject matter, the book is written in a way that is easy to understand and highly engaging. - Timeless Wisdom: The lessons and philosophies presented are timeless, providing valuable guidance for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of life and their place in it. Cons: - Intense Subject Matter: The descriptions of Frankl’s experiences in concentration camps are harrowing and may be difficult for some readers. - Philosophical Depth: Some sections delve deeply into existential philosophy, which may be challenging for readers not accustomed to such material. Overall: Man's Search For Meaning is a must-read for anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, or personal development. Frankl's profound reflections on the human condition and his testament to the power of finding meaning even in the most tragic circumstances offer invaluable lessons in resilience and hope. Highly recommended for those ready to explore the depths of human purpose and perseverance.

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.

Tough, tough book to read. It gets to you, you have to be inhumane not to be disturbed or unsettled. Read it slowly, chew it finely, regurgitate and re-chew it, do this as many time as you need to. This is not a one time read book. It is not a quick pop in one or one to add to the bragging list of the number of books we read in a year. It is a life changing book, a deep one that goes to the core of man’s existence. Viktor’s experience and his ability to interrogate and leverage such experience to produce this masterpiece is divine. It is a stunning piece of work that produces unparalleled hope for the open minded person. This book is jarring and grating to the soul as it recounts the harrowing experience of man kind in the hands of fellow human, it however also reveal the resilience of the human spirit and it’s ability to withstand and overcome the most intolerable circumstance. This book is a gem birthed from the most deplorable situation that human can be subjected to, polished to perfection in the suffering and glittering as a light to guide us as we go through our own dark night. Admonishing us to rise above our own sufferings whatever it may be and find the grace to ascend spiritually. A book of hope for a soft and weaken age that sees no value in suffering and inconvenience. The second part of the book gets heavier, more academic, chewy and requiring more intellectual jaw muscle to digest. This is where Viktor starts to unravel the theory of Logotherapy and the intention of the book, the Auschwitz story, while no less significant and gripping is the bait to entice us to hear the harder lecture about the meaning of life and hopefully by the time we reach this stage in the book, we are well rooted in our seats and less likely hop off. Finding meaning in suffering whilst it might not inspire envy builds strength. Also understanding that human experience might not be the ultimate cosmos and there other realm by which our suffering make sense and this will possibly be the answer to those that ask why does God allow suffering. The second part on logotherapy is a thoroughly delicious intellectual read, some of the thoughts on the meaning of life is crunchy, sumptuous, thought provoking, beautiful and enlightening. A satisfying intellectual work out. This book and section on Logotherapy does us an immense favour, breaking open the hard surface of ignorance regarding our suffering to stretch us out of the indulgent mindset of soften civilian to a transcendent one that accurately translate and value his suffering not trading it cheaply by complaining, becoming despondent or seeking sympathy. It guides us to treasure that which constricts but reveals meaning in our life. It forces growth and maturity in otherwise hopeless situation and like roots we shoot out of the deserts of our lives.

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

Much has been written about this book and deservedly so: it's examination of life and death in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and how Frankl and others survived is extraordinary - and let us fervently pray that it remains extra - ordinary. But one of the things Frankl's book does is remind us how much our circumstances and society determine how we behave. We all would like to think that if we had been born in the early 20th century in Germany we would have been one of the brave people who resisted Nazism and tried to smuggle the Jews to freedom. The events of the last two years have unfortunately shown us that the vast majority of the population would happily go along with demonising a sub set of the population, particularly when encouraged to do so by those in power and those with loud media voices. A tiny, tiny percentage of the German population actively resisted the Nazis. We, you and I, would be no different today. But Viktor Frankl, a German Jew, was in the part of the population that was demonised and destroyed. Frankl survived and his book is, in part, an exploration of why some men lived when others, faced with similar hardships, died. According to Frankl, the key factor in determining someone's endurance in the face of unimaginable suffering is the ability to find some meaning in that suffering. While a devout Jew himself, Frankl was also a psychiatrist, and in examining the factors enabling survival, Frankl deliberately separated meaning from religious faith: any meaning to be found in the situations the concentration camp inmates fouind themselves in was helpful. Frankl went on to found a school of psychiatry, called logotherapy, which argues that the search for a meaning to one's life is the central human motivating force. He may well be right, once we take Maslow's hierarchy of needs into account and the ordinary necessities for living are accounted for. But by divorcing meaning from its usual historical anchor, religious faith, Frankl also described the peculiar situation we find in the modern world, where the desperate search for meaning in a consumer world has led to people passionately embracing a whole variety of causes, from veganism to climate change, and equally passionately imposing these values on their fellows. So the peculiar paradox of the 21st century is that its great dilemma is to escape from the fervent beliefs of people searching for meaning in places which simply do not have the moral or intellectual gravity to sustain the importance they attach to them. Hence the increasingly hysterical attempts to force norms on other people, so that the cognitive dissonance of realising that what you have dedicated yourself to simply does not carry the import that you have given it. Today, we suffer for other people's meanings. And Frankl unwittingly ushered this in.

A powerful and meaningful book. Not always an easy read emotionally, but very impactful. The ideas stay with you long after finishing and it’s the kind of book that makes you reflect rather than rush through.

Honest, frank and occasionally uncomfortable, this is not the last word on the holocaust biographies, coupled as it is with Frankl's seemingly blatant marketing for his logotherapy philosophy. His recollections may or may not be somewhat befuddled, but the writing of those recollections certainly is. Only a couple of specific examples of life in Auschwitz are documented here to any real degree, most notably his arrival and eventual release. The rest of the autobiography of the period repeats incidents of typhus, varying diets through demand and the occasional comment regarding conversations with other prisoners that we are supposed to be convinced have some significance in his survival, though why is not quite clear. The book leaps from incident to incident and re-visits topics more than half a dozen times where a single, more detailed, visit would have sufficed. This is not jarring as much as repetitive and as such, not really required. The latter part of the book concerns itself with apparent evidence of the validity of logotherapy and how this works to provide an approach to finding meaning in a life that may not appear to have any, hence the holocaust accounts, where the meaning of survival could easily be questioned by the prisoners suffering.

A truly remarkable text that is a classic for a reason. Something to note about this particular edition is that the text is really quite small. Penguin publish other works by the same incredible man and these have a more typical text size. The brevity of this copy is due to the tiny text. The contents of the book have been well reviewed for decades and it remains in high demand for a reason. An incredible personal account of psychological impact of the horrors of Auschwitz, and a fantastic guide to coping with unfathomable challenges. There are plenty reviews of the subject but if you’re going through a tough time and need to believe that you can continue even if the hardship also continues, then turn to this. It’s a book that has changed lives for a reason and it’s written in a fantastically digestible way. The content is worth 5 stars, but this particular edition has an impractical text so I just took off a star for that. Reviewing the actual product, as there are plenty of editions of this text to choose from and this one is a little harder to read than most other books. The cover art is lovely, and the paper is tick and high quality, perfect for annotating… although the writing is so small that if you’re using this for studies and want to educate through annotation then perhaps choose an edition with fewer lines per page so there’s more room to annotate and you can highlight one line at a time.

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

Muy buen libro, lo recomiendo

THIS BOOK REVIEW IS ONLY BASED ON MY FEELINGS DURING READING THE BOOK. IT DOES NOT INTENT TO HURT ANYONE’S FEELINGS, AND DOES NOT MEANT TO COMPARE WITH ANY OTHER REVIEWER’S FEELINGS. Well writing a review for this kind of extraordinary book is a big audacity for me. however here I’m, trying to give some brief review of the book. The book is basically divided into three parts, the first one describes the way the Jews prisoners were treated in the Nazi Concentration Camps and how their lifestyle was. In the second part, the author described the basics of Logotherapy, a way of treatment of the Psychotherapeutic Patients. And finally, in the third part, he described what he actually meant by Man’s Search for meaning. Being a Jew, the author was transferred to the Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps during the Nazi occupation in Austria. Here, in the first part of the book, the author described his days in those concentration camps, where is were no chance of seeing the morning sun in the next day. And this happened every day. He described the way the SS guards used to treat the prisoners, the corruption prevailed in the camps, the malnutrition, the lifestyle of the camp Jews etc. The way he described the tortures the prisoners suffered, would surely bring tears to your eyes. During his description, he also pointed out the psychological condition of the other comrades in those camps. When most of the prisoners lost all hope of his life, some of them still kept the faith, that good days were coming. In the second part, the author basically described the Logotherapy Techniques. And the most interesting part of the book is the third part. Here the author describes “Man’s search for meaning”. We, the human beings on this planet are living for a purpose. Until & unless we can’t find the purpose of our life, there is no reason for us to be here alive. Most of the prisoners in the camps lost all of their hopes and then died because they lost their purpose, as per the author. It is a must-read book for all I think. The book also consists of few life-changing quotes which I liked in the book and would like to share: 1. For success, like happiness, can’t be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. 2. There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose. 3. Suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great of little. Therefore the ‘size’ of human suffering is absolutely relative. 4. No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same. 5. The human being is completely and unavoidably influenced by his surroundings. 6. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life can’t be completed 7. Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it. 8. There is no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer. 9. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any ” how”. 10. The body has fewer inhibitions than the mind. 11. No one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them.

« Man’s Search for Meaning » résulte des expériences vécues par Viktor E. Frankl dans les camps de concentration de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. La quête de sens, d’une mission à accomplir, est d’après Viktor, le facteur qui a déterminé la survie, ou la mort des prisonniers. L’homme qui n’a rien pour vivre, rien pour le porter à travers son existence, non seulement, se traîne à travers les journées, mais se dirige lentement vers sa mort. Viktor parle de « vide existentiel » — lorsqu’une personne souffre d’un manque terrible de sens à sa vie. Et l’homme qui n’a alors rien pour le guider dans la vie, navigue le monde à la peur. Ainsi, vient le conformisme : l’individu préfère suivre la masse (car ne sachant pas ce qu’il veut), ou le totalitarisme : l’individu suit ce qu’on lui ordonne de faire (car ne sachant pas ce qu’il veut). Ces personnes alors en proie à leur vide existentiel n’ont pour seul réconfort que les plaisirs, la gratification immédiate. Dans les camps de concentration, ceux ayant abandonné, sortaient de leur poche une cigarette durement protégée pour commencer à la fumée. Les autres autour savaient que les cendres tombant des lèvres de ces hommes, représentaient leurs dernières lueurs de vie. Seulement, les cigarettes étaient le seul plaisir immédiat dans la vie infernale des camps. Dans la vie de tous les jours, notamment en ce qui concerne les jeunes, les choix se font plus nombreux. C’est ainsi, que Viktor explique la débauche de la jeunesse — créée par un vide existentiel — qui pour alors se conforter dans leur existence creuse, se jette sur drogues, alcools, et activités sexuelles. Le livre va même plus loin : agressions et suicides. Ceux n’ayant pas un sens à leur vie, ne peuvent vivre pour le futur. Alors, ils sont naturellement en proie aux émotions de l’instant, et qu’importent les effets sur le lendemain, car celui-ci n’a pas de sens. Bien sûr, le but de ce livre n’est pas d’extrapoler sur le manque de sens de la vie de certains, et les problèmes que cela engendre. Mais bien, d’offrir aux gens, l’opportunité de créer du sens de leur souffrance. D’arriver à trouver un sens à leur existence — car il y en a bien un. Viktor parle de retourner la question. Ne pas chercher ce que l’on veut de la vie, mais plutôt, chercher ce que la vie veut de nous. Chacun est unique et irremplaçable. Chacun à sa pierre à apporter à l’édifice. Chacun est venu ici pour une raison. Chacun est mis au défi chaque jour par la vie. Ainsi, aussi unique et irremplaçable que nous sommes. Nous avons chacun, une ou des uniques choses, que nous seuls pouvons accomplir. Des choses merveilleuses qui sans nous, ne verraient pas le jour. Et comme chacun est unique, il n’existe pas de réponse globale au « sens de la vie ». Mais plutôt, un sens à la vie de chacun — en fonction du moment et de la situation. Ainsi, la destinée n’est que les choses auxquels, un, doit faire face, avec courage et surtout dignité. Viktor veut donc qu’on prenne la responsabilité de notre vie, et de nos actes. Il veut aussi que l’on comprenne que la vie n’est pas à vivre sans effort. Mais plutôt sous tension, dans la réalisation d’une quête librement choisie. La souffrance est quelque chose qui fait pleinement partie de la vie. Ainsi lorsqu’elle ne peut être évitée, l’homme peut toujours exercer son bien le plus puissant : son attitude face à l’évènement. Si tu ne peux pas contrôler ce qui arrive, tu peux toujours contrôler comment tu y réagis, comment tu y fais face. La souffrance peut ainsi être transformée. Tu peux trouver un sens à ta souffrance. Que ce soit une préparation pour des évènements à venir, ou quelque chose de nécessaire à ton évolution. La souffrance doit être remise en perspective — pour en comprendre l’objectif. En bref, ce qui t’arrive à une raison d’être, et si tu arrives à la trouver, tu te hisseras au-dessus de la souffrance. Néanmoins, Viktor insiste bien que la souffrance n’est pas nécessaire à la quête de sens. Mais, bien que la quête de sens soit possible en dépit. Ainsi, quand la souffrance est inutile et évitable, il faut l’éviter. Dans le cas contraire, cela serait du pur masochisme et non, comme l’auteur le dit, de l’héroïsme. Pour finir, Viktor dit que l’homme n’est ni guidé par (et vers) la puissance, l’argent, ou le plaisir. Mais bien, par (et vers) un sens, une signification, à ses actes et à sa vie. « Celui qui a un "pourquoi" qui lui tient lieu de but, peut vivre n'importe quel "comment". » - Nietzsche Et ce livre a la volonté de te montrer comment tu peux trouver ton pourquoi. Pour que tu puisses endurer n’importe quel comment. Pour que ta vie semble riche de sens, et destinée à accomplir quelque chose de plus grand que toi-même. Le sens est la plus grande force de motivation. Sans elle, nous sommes vides et mourants. Avec elle, nous fleurissons. « Man’s Search for Meaning » est bel-et-bien une lecture indispensable à notre époque, où trop souvent nous pensons à tort, que tout est perdu, quand tout encore est à faire.

Incredible!