Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

A revealing, heartfelt, and informative read. This book turns psychology norms inside out with a candid exploration of what makes us tick. In a world too often motivated by material things, this book expresses our (often forgotten or denied) need for the immaterial.

I followed Viktor Frankl diligently in his journey from the gas ovens of Auschwitz into the hospitals of Vienna after he beats the 1 in 20 odds of his surviving a German concentration camp. He writes that the single most important self-determinant in his survival was his deep inherent conviction under the worst of all possible conditions that life has meaning: even here under constant risk of typhus, wearing the recycled prison garb of those who had been sacrificed to the ovens, starving, freezing, beaten, demonized and dehumanized. If one can still find meaning here and survive because of it, then under better conditions meaning should be possible to find. Frankl believes that there are three sources of meaning: 1) ones work 2) other people whom you love 3) rising with dignity and integrity from a hopelessly tragic diminishment. He found that in the camps the survivors had a positive attitude, which reinforced their search for meaning and gave them hope in a hopeless situation. In Vienna hospitals he debunked theories of Freud and Adler with "logotherapy" which helps others to find the meaning in their lives and heal from thoughts of suicide, psychoses and neurotic behavior. "Logos" is Greek for "meaning" and if you can find it in your own life, then essentially it seems you are as invincible as Frankl, who not only survived Auschwitz but also lived into his 90s, is the living proof of his own thesis. Ultimately, when asked what was the meaning of his life, he wrote that the meaning of his life was to help other people find the meaning in their lives. He is an existentialist but he has a positive outlook on life unlike, for example, Camus or Sartre or the usual champions of this dark philosophy, which sprang out of the widespread, bombed-out wreckage of WWII. He writes that the Nazis proved what man was capable of and Hiroshima proved how high the stakes are. So the search for meaning is important therapy not only as it heals individuals but also because it has a healing and uplifting effect upon humanity as a whole and may well be one approach to saving the human race from its own self-destruction. Frankl had a visa and train ticket out of Vienna before the Nazis rose into power but decided to stay there to help his aging parents who had no such respite. Like Frankl, his pregnant wife and parents were taken to the camps and on the first day after he came home to Vienna he learned that all three had been lost there. He wrote "The Search for Meaning" in only nine days and described how his positive attitude and search for meaning enabled him to survive. He describes how this process of autobiography helped him to begin his own healing, a term which he describes as "autobibliotherapy." By virtue of writing down ones findings in the search for meaning, one serves to find meaning in ones own life and to help others find it in their lives. He prescribes no formulas and believes that every individual must find his or her own meaning in life despite diminishments and suffering and death which accompany every life. With incredible, calm clarity he writes that for everyone "suffering and death are necessary to complete life." He believes that suffering clarifies the meaning of life and, while he doesnt believe we need to bring it upon ourselves, the average life generally provides sufficient circumstances for us to know that suffering is an inevitable aspect of life. So why not learn from it? As Nietzsche wrote: "Suffering is the origin of consciousness." He is not advising us to bring it upon ourselves as a form of sadomasochism but to rise above it with heroic integrity and see it as an opportunity to learn from it. He believes that such life lessons ultimately hold the keys for understanding and overcoming the diminishments of life itself. He writes that man always has a choice of action in reacting to the circumstances no matter how dire they may be. So it seems that readers, when they read great books, are searching for meaning and this search has healing powers for them. Further, it seems that when writers search for meaning in creating their work, they have an opportunity to experience the same healing benefits of autobibliotherapy. So keep reading and writing the good stuff for all the good it can do to you and by all means, read this brief, brilliant book by an Auschwitz survivor as it has life altering implications for you: this book will change your outlook on life and may well, thereby, save it through mastery of the art of living.

I recently completed a masters in counseling and guidance and have been reading to find a set of books that will best address some of the disorders in the DSM-IV. Following is a list I have put together from my reading so far, and these are books that I would HIGHLY recommend. I would like to say up front that the DSM-IV is full of very normal behaviors that for some reason have become magnified or exaggerated in an individual to the point of causing a negative impact in their daily lives. Take OCD for example, it is quite normal and even preferable (from a safety perspective) to check and be sure that one has turned off all the burners on the stove after cooking, or to be sure the back door is locked before going to bed. But to continue checking time and again would be problematic and can lead to problems in an individuals life. Something is diagnosed as a disorder when it moves from being a "normal" activity to being something that causes dysfunction in daily living. So, one may read the DSM-IV and see themselves reflected in many of the disorders. The question is always: is this behavior negatively impacting my life? If so then that is when it crosses the line of normal and needs to be treated.

Depression; I believe there are two sources for depression: one source is our own minds, we think ourselves into the depression - at least in this case we know where it is coming from and we should be able to step behind our thoughts and help ourselves move in a better direction. The other source seemingly comes from nowhere; one minute we are okay and the next we are thrown into the depths
* Book = "Transforming Depression: Healing the Soul Through Creativity"- David H. Rosen"
o I would recommend reading this at least through chapter 4, going further than that delves into some deep Jungian psychology which will not likely appeal to everyone. I certainly enjoy Jungian psychology and believe that Jungs work will become more and more important and critical to our understanding as we move forward in this field of psychology. Jungs psychology is really on the borderland between spirit/soul and the science of psychology and it is Jungs work that brought me into this field. However it is quite complex/deep/different and may lose some readers. For a very good intro to Jungs work, I would recommend "The Essential Jung" by Anthony Storr, but this is not light reading as is composed of excerpts from Jungs collected works.
* Book = "Mans Search for Meaning" - Viktor Frankl
o I would recommend this book for two primary reasons: one is it pushes very strongly the message that meaning is essential in our lives - as shown through Victor Frankls imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps. Frankl comments on how he observed the individuals who gave up the fight and died, and the individuals who persevered - and most importantly what it was that he believes made the difference. The other reason I recommend this book is that it helps the individuals whose thoughts may have led them to depression to realize that things could be worse. Of course there are devastations we may face that can truly be to us, just as bad as a Nazi concentration camps, but for the most part, we often push ourselves into depression for reasons that are somewhat superficial compared to other realities.

Depersonalization Disorder - essentially feeling like you are not really there
* Book = "Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self" - Daphne Simeon and Jeffrey Abugel
o Excellent book which will help folks understand this disorder. This is for me a very interesting disorder, I think this is one disorder where the connection between our ego consciousness and perhaps what we are at a much deeper level is challenged. Normally we are locked into full belief in our reality - we believe we are very much a part of it and that we "are" the body in which we reside. This disorder forces us to question if we are the body we think we are. It would appear that whatever piece of our mind is keeping us in full belief is breaking down a bit, leaving us a bit outside of the "normal" feeling of being the body. Folks with this disorder can actually worry that they do not have control of their body and that this body may do something they do not want it to do. Driving a car for example can be quite traumatic if you think your body may be acting without your input.

Bipolar disorder - the book I am recommending is focused on Bipolar II disorder - essentially swinging from manic (very happy and carefree) to severe depression. This book was actually required reading during the Masters program
* Book = "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness" by Kay Redfield Jamison
o Excellent book written by a psychologist who suffers from this disorder. This book helps to understand the importance of medication for this disorder, as well as the path of destruction that can easily be paved during carefree, manic episodes.

ADHD (attention deficit disorder)
* Book = "Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates And What You Can Do About It" - Gabor Mate
o This is not just a great book for folks with ADHD, but for everyone - as many of the lessons here translate to all of us. This is an extremely excellent book on ADHD and living in general.
OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)
* Book = "Tormenting Thoughts and Secret Rituals: The Hidden Epidemic of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder" - Ian Osborn
o Excellent book on OCD - this book will help individuals with OCD as well as those who know someone with the disorder - to understand what is happening in the mind of a person with this disorder. This book will also help OCD folks realize that they are not alone and that many of the rituals or compulsions are shared by other folks with OCD.

That is all for now, but I am still reading

This 2008 edition of Frankls 1945 book is a must read for every human being who wants to lift their spirit in moments of despair.

The book is structured in three different parts. The first one (Experiences in a Concentration Camp) and the Postscript (The case for a Tragic Optimism) fit beautifully together, and are the basis of Frankls philosophy and psychotherapy system called Logotherapy. They are narrated in a very conversational way because they are, after all, a memoir. They differ greatly in style and tone from the second part (Logotherapy in a Nutshell), which is a summary of Frankls therapy system, partially based on Frankls experiences and observations as Auschwitz inmate, and partially on techniques and views of the world that he had started elaborating before he was sent to the camp. This part is drier in style, way more technical and not as approachable for the reader, unless the reader is really into therapy or a therapist. Harold Kushners preface to this 2008 edition is a good summary of the book main points, while Frankls preface to the 1992 edition summarizes well how the book and Logotherapy came to be.

The book has many pearls of wisdom, and is very uplifting despite the brutality of what we read. In all honesty, I already expected that when I picked up the book. Some prisoners stories are utterly poetic despite their tragedy. Im glad that those peoples historical memoirs had been so beautifully preserved. On the other hand, this is a survivors first-person narration of the events, so that allows for invaluable insights into the reality of the extermination camps and into the inmates mental/emotional state and fortune.

Since we live in 2021 and were pretty aware of the Nazis atrocities, most of the things that Frankl tells about his experience are somewhat lessened by the impact on the reader of dozens of documentaries and movies on WW2. It might have been chilling reading the book in the postwar era, when all the details were still unfolding and the wold came to realize what had really happened. What we didnt know before reading the book is that a new therapeutic model, Logotherapy, was greatly influenced by the Jews suffering in Auschwitz, and that there is hope even in the biggest moments of despair.

For the rest, Franks take on life is admirable and full of wisdom, whether you are into Logotherapy or not. I especially liked his comments on love, the youth and unemployment, as they are still, more than half a century later, valid.

LOGOTHERAPY, SOME CORE PRINCIPLES AND POINTS I LIKE
> The great task for any person is to find meaning in his/her life. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: Work (doing something significant), Love (caring for another person), and Courage in difficult times.
> Suffering is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it.
> You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.
> Logotherapy aims to curing the soul by leading it to find meaning in life.
> What matters is to make the best of any given situation.
> Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.
> The aim of life is not to be happy as the seeking of happiness can increase someones unhappiness.
> Suffering is unavoidable, is part of life, and we need to accept it and re-frame it.
> Tragic optimism, i.e., one remains optimistic in spite of the “tragic triad, or those aspects of human existence which may be circumscribed by: (1) pain; (2) guilt; and (3) death and that we should say yes to life in spite of all that.
> To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.
> Success cannot be pursued but it is an end result that 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.

There are hundreds of pearls of wisdom that I cannot reproduce here because it would take too long, but those are the ones that made me read the book in the first place.

SOME CRITIQUE
Frankl poignantly mentions that despite all the inmates being subject to the harsh situations (food and sleep deprivation, hard-work labor, extreme cold, beatings, etc.) some died and some survived, and he ways that, many of those who died did so because they gave up on life and lose hope in getting alive out of the camps and resuming their lives after the war.

I love most of what Frankl says and his attitude towards life. However, we cannot say that Frankl survived just because he had a specific mindset, hopes of getting alive, finding his family and publishing the basics of Logotherapy included in this edition, which he had already started writing before being taken to the camp. First of all, he was an intellectual and a psychiatrist, i.e. a person with a strong mind, mentally s stable with enough intellectual harnesses to re-frame anything in his head to give it meaning. He certainly was an optimistic, like its in his nature. Not everyone was so well equipped mentally and emotionally. Whats more, there must have been other people who, like him, had hopes of surviving, seeing their families and doing something with their lives in the outside world, but they never made it because, I can only hypothesize, their physique and immune system, as well as their mental state werent Frankls.

Following WW2 my cousin suffered from what we now know as PTSD with the help of this book and expressing himself in his art he spent his life. He said “this was the most important book he ever read!”, WONDERFUL, so HELPFUL and AMAZING!

I had the good fortune of knowing my great-grandfather, may he rest in peace, for the first ten years of my life. Being a Holocaust survivor, my great-grandfather always had a story or piece of wisdom to share with my family when we visited. He gave my father Mans Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl as a gift and it remains one of my fathers favorite books to this day. Although I was too young to read the book at the time, I know now that it rings truth in a new perspective on the Holocaust. My ancestors survived the horrors that the Nazis inflicted upon them, and they lived to tell me the tale. In an engaging and fascinating way, Frankl sheds some light as to how exactly people made it out of the concentration camps alive, with a will to live and with hope for the future.

In the first part of the book, Frankl describes his personal experiences as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps. He traces the mental state of an average prisoner in the camps, beginning upon arrival, and through liberation. Frankl writes that after the initial shock of reaching the infamous camp, a prisoner would be overcome by a "delusion of reprieve", an irrational feeling of hope that his situation would somehow be changed for the better. However, after being separated from loved ones in the dreaded selections, and watching them walk towards the gas chambers to their deaths, the reality and horrification of it all dawned upon the prisoner. Frankl describes the next emotional stage as "relative apathy", which was a complete weakening of the prisoners senses and feelings, leaving a body merely going through the motions of everyday camp routine rather than a person. According to Frankl, apathy was essential for the preservation of a prisoners life, because it channeled every emotion he had towards the goal of making it through the day alive. The third and final stage that a prisoner experienced was the complete inability to grasp the meaning of freedom. Following this the prisoner would have to re-learn what emotions such as joy and pleasure meant. Throughout this development, there still remains the question: what were the thoughts that gave a prisoner the drive to live, completely necessary for the conservation of his life? Frankl provides answers to this question in the second section of the book.

Throughout the book, Frankl often quotes Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how." In the second section, Frankl elaborates on how this phrase sums up, in a nutshell, the mentality with which he survived the war. Having a purpose in life, writes Frankl, is the key to withstanding almost any suffering. Frankl named his theory "logotherapy", since logos is Greek for meaning. A method employed in psychology, "logotherapy" causes a patient to pinpoint and become familiar with the meaning of his life, which according to Frankl is the patients will to strive, succeed, and to live. Frankl goes on to suggest three ways in which one can strive for meaning. The first one, understandably, is to accomplish something. Additionally, meaning can be found by loving another. Finally, man can find meaning by suffering. When one is faced with suffering, and there is nothing he can do to change his predicament, the only remaining option is for him to change his perspective, to change the way in which he views the situation. An example that Frankl gives is of a story of a grieving widower who had lost his wife. The man came to Frankl to ask for advice. Frankl asked the man, "What would have happened...if you had died first and your wife would have had to survive without you?" Through this question, the suffering the man was enduring gained a new purpose, he was mourning, but his wife would not have to mourn him. This story illustrates the usage of "logotherapy", and how by using it, one can utilize his suffering and find meaning through it.

The Holocaust and World War II is a time in world history that has been studied and pondered by many scholars. There are volumes upon volumes written about this dark time in history. Mans Search for Meaning is unique because Frankl focuses on the psychology of it all. He brings proofs to back up his claim that mans search for meaning is, in and of itself, a will to live. Through starvation, sickness, torture and brutality, surrounded by death and despair, man can endure it all, he can even gain something from it, so long as he has a reason to keep going. Each individual has a different source of meaning, yet no matter what the cause, the meaning alone is what gives that man the drive to wake up each morning and endure whatever life sends his way. Even when faced with death itself, man can survive if he has a reason to.

This book was written specifically about the Holocaust and the concentration camps. Nonetheless, there is a life-changing lesson that one can learn from reading the book, no matter what his life circumstances may be. Life is full of challenges, but those challenges eventually cause a person to question who he is and what he stands for, thereby forcing him to determine the meaning in his life. No matter where a person comes from, and no matter where he is headed, he must have a purpose in his life in order to move forward, and to be able to look back at the end of his life and feel proud of all that he accomplished. In a brilliant and insightful way, Victor Frankl has ultimately handed his readers the key to success and happiness, and the answer to many questions; he has affirmed that above all, meaning is what makes life worth living.

Really enjoyed reading this very insightful book. One cannot even comprehend in the slightest what the prisoners of Aushwitz endured on a daily basis yet Mr Frankl rose above and against all odds to shine his light even in the very darkest of dark times in history….. his ideas and theories make perfect sense and a true inspiration to try a new approach to the days ahead- thank you Mr Frankl wherever you might be

I liked that Frankyl gave an honest and factual account of the concentration camps. It helps the reader to have more empathy for the people who were treated totally devoid of human feelings.

On Viktor E.. Frankl’s “Man’s Search For Meaning”

You simply can’t find fault with a philosophy that puts at its center the belief that love and a search for a meaningful ilife is a worthy goal. Seeking a good life for yourself and others is universally thought of as the right thing to do. Every religion, social/cultural belief system and philosophy whether eastern or western in origin, at onetime or another supports this belief. Socrates, as Plato tells us in The Republic talked about how to obtain a good and just life. Aristotle had his prescription for achieving happiness. Kant wrote about the “good life” as the result of having a purpose, loving what you are doing, and being good to others. And even the existentialist Sartre while declaring that life was meaningless tells us that one should try to enjoy it as much as one can.

So why aren’t people running out and buying books by Kant or about Socrates? Why the popularity of a one time neurosurgeon turned self help advocate Viktor Frankl?

The short answer is that Frankl combines a compelling narrative of his Holocaust experience with a convincing prescription for finding a meaningful life. My guess is that most readers will assume that if Frankl has found a way to find good in the world after being a Nazi prisoner he is worth listening too.

So what is “Man’s Search For Meaning” all about?
It is divided into two parts. In Part one “Frankl focuses on the events of his interment during the Holocaust in several concentration camps in 1942-45. He briefly references the fact that before the war he was a successful psychotherapist and neurosurgeon in Vienna. After the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938 he realized his freedom would soon end but he remained in Vienna to care for his ailing father. Curiously he was allowed to continue his medical practice for another four years. This is not to say he was a collaborator, just that he was useful until as a Jewish doctor he was not. He was arrested and transported to Auschwitz, where he was held for a few days and then transferred to several other work camps. His experience after incarceration in 1942 was of course traumatic. He lost his father, his wife of only 4 months his mother and additional family members.

Frankl’s narrative is not just about victimhood and the intolerable circumstances he endured. Rather in an almost clinical and emotionally detached manner he tells the reader that he was able to survive incarceration because of his belief in and use of his psychological theories. He will agree that good luck was also involved in contributing to his survival. But Frankl says survival was due to his use of a unique theory called Logotheropy, This is a process of self analysis which he developed years before the advent of the Holocaust. This focus on one’s personal attitude toward life, he believes, was the primary reason he lived through what was an intolerable hell for so many others.

Part 2 of “Man’s Search For Meaning” titled “Logotherapy
In A Nutshell” is ironically titled since what Frankl is saying is neither weighty nor very substantial. Logotherapy is focused on assisting the depressed person in seeking those things in their life that will give them a sense of achievement and satisfaction. Frankl believes that there are three things that can make for meaning in life. 1. Creating something or doing a deed for someone. 2. Experiencing something or encountering someone. 3. Finding value in triumphing over suffering

Frankl is unequivocal in his belief that any person can overcome the worst of life’s experiences if they look for what its good in themselves and others and take charge of their personal situation. He firmly believes that regardless of the circumstance, human beings have choices and they are responsible for their own destiny. Even if a situation results in significant suffering an individual can reap emotional and long term psychological benefits by triumphing over suffering.

In 1984, many years after he wrote the first pages of “Mans Search For Meaning” published in 1959, Frankl viewed the world as victimized by a “mass phenomenon of feeling meaningless resulting from frustrations of our existential needs”. He saw the younger generation as affected by a “mass neurotic syndrome composed of depression, aggression and addiction” p141. While forcefully supporting Logotherapy as a cure for individual and social ills he does acknowledges that “there are some types of depression which are traceable back to psychodynamic or biochemical conditions.” p.141. In those situations he acknowledges that psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy are indicated. p141 Frankl goes on to say that a feeling of meaninglessness may not always be caused by anything pathological, meaning a biologically caused illness; it may simply be “proof of one’s humanness”. He says that feelings of meaningless, may cause a pathological reactions. Therefore on the chance that feeling emptiness or meaninglessness may result in deeper depression or even suicide, the use of Logotherapy is called for.

The problem with Frankl’s view is that Logotherapy is focused on the clients replacing symptoms of concern with goals and visions of a better life without addressing the causes of concern. Frankl’s message of self-reliance, is up lifting. Clearly it is a lot less stressful to think that each person can ultimately solve their own problems by thinking good thoughts. It is far more difficult to do the harder work of facing uncomfortable truths about one’s self and the conditions that may have led to feelings of inadequacy and depression

Frankl has an obvious dislike for approaches, other than his own. In several places in his book he clearly disparages Freud and psychotherapy which seeks the underlying causes of problems through long term talk therapy and medication. More concerning however is the fact that even though he does acknowledge that mental health can be caused by chemical imbalances, which can be effectively treated, he seems to brush these facts aside favoring Logotherapy as a cure for most of life’s problems. Additionally he seems unreceptive to the idea that mental health can have origins in heredity.

Viktor Frankl gets negative criticism from medical professionals and historians based on several factors. 1. His presentation of his Holocaust experiences, is at odds with the majority of survivor testimony. 2. His use of Holocaust experience is a proof of the validity of his pre-existing psychological theory. 3. His selective use of evidence is not scientifically validated. 4. His criticism of existing therapies based on the work of Freud and Adler. 5. His claims of the effectiveness of Logotherapy for curing mental health issues that go beyond issues of neurosis, or temporary depression.

Frankl’s Logotherapy, as well as “the power of positive thinking” as promoted by Norman Vincent Peale or some of the many other self help approaches to personal happiness, do have limited value. It has also been shown through much witness testimony that self help in combination with religious belief can be very effective in helping people find a better and positive out look on life even during and after the worst of life’s experiences. But these self help approaches have limitations. Anything more serious than neurosis would need to be treated differently.

“Mans Search For Meaning”is a record of Victor Frankl’s personal search for meaning. It maybe useful as an example of the benefits it had for him and some of his followers, but it has limitations and should be viewed as only one of various approaches to achieving mental heath and personal well being.



Frankl, almost as an aside suggests that people with religious faith have a greater chance of finding meaning in life. By not placing

does not believe that therapy seeking to find underling causes for mental health issues is most effective in dealing with what he sees as

Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, deserves a place on a shelf with other “self help”books that offer good common sense advise.

are appealing is they offer a life affirming and less challenging means of seeking and obtaining mental health than other methods.

As a Holocaust survivor Frankl has an immediate sympathy from the reader. But Frankl presents more than just a survival story. He presents himself as someone who survived the Holocaust by using his unique knowledge of psychotherapy. Furthermore he offers that knowledge as a method others can also apply to the challenges they face in finding meaning in life.

his belief in a theory that holds that even under the worst of circumstances a person can control some aspects of their destiny. Frankl offers a compelling and triumphant personal story coupled with a too good to be true path to finding meaning in life.

fully formed before he was sent to the first of four concentration camps. He used examples of events from his experience as a prisoner as proof of the truthfulness and effectiveness of his theories..

The second simple reason
The Holocaust can be understood as the embodiment of humanities worst acts. It stands as an example of how a seemingly sophisticated cultured society can devolve into caios. It proves that when all the constraints of moral values and the rule of law are abandoned, evil can overcome good. The Holocaust though focused primarily on eradicating Jews represents what can happen to anyone and any society when evil rules.

As a Holocaust survivor Frankl has an immediate sympathy from the reader. He presents himself as someone who survived the Holocaust by using his knowledge of psychotherapy and his belief in a theory that holds that even under the worst of circumstances a person can control some aspects of their destiny. Frankl offers a compelling and triumphant personal story coupled with a too good to be true path to finding meaning in life.

and have some of related his personal Holocaust experience which can be seen as a threat to human kind to the universal existential question about the meaning of life, and he provides an answer

particular circumstances related to use of the Holocaust as the example of how life can seem to have no meaning

“Man’s Search For Meaning” was first published in 1959. It has since been republished in numerous editions and the book cover proclaims “Over 16 Million Copies Sold”. It has been included in numerous book club selections and has been adopted as text material for college classes in the social sciences, but it is not widely taught in college level psychology programs.

“Man’s Search for Meaning” deserving of all the praise and acclaim it has received since it was first written in 1959? The discerning reader might be well advised to ask the question “Is the praise for it deserved?”

Frankl’s book is divided in two parts. Part one is a memoir in which he develops information about his Holocaust experiences but frames them as an affirmation of his approach to psychotherapy. Part two is an amplification of his theory which he calls Logotherapy. Logo from the Greek word logus which he translates as “meaning”.

The book is written as a personal narrative. It has no chapters, and freely moves between events and time frames. Sometimes this is confusing particularly when you think he is talking about an incident at one location later to discover that it happened at a different location. For readers acquainted with Holocaust inspired literature and scholarship there are many frustrating aspects to the narrative. Frankl does not provide adequate background information about his professional and personal life before the Holocaust. Go to Wikipedia for that. Though his father mother and young wife were all killed by the Nazis, Frankl gives an almost emotionless description of places and events that makes what he saw and experienced a case study rather than lived events. By contrast read Wiesenthal’s “Night” or Primo Levi’s books. Frankl’s Holocaust experiences are unique in that he was not subjected to the extreme examples of torture and deprivation described in much other Holocaust literature. Frankl list the characteristics of the different types of camp guards and capos ranging from sadists to those who just benignly looked on. But Frankl always looks “on the bright side of life” consistent with his view that in all conditions individuals have a choice as to how they will look at life. Therefore he plays up the fact that a guard saved him a scrap of bead and another one sought out his skill as a psychotherapist. He is saying that even in the depths of hell a person can choose to find good people. And further, concentration camp prisoners have the choice to find beauty in the shapes of clouds or at sunset. At Auschwitz they would have had to ignore the smoke and smell from the crematorium.

In this situation, and in others by emphasizing a point that follows his predefined view of life Frankl makes the mistake that an exception makes the rule.

Read the criticism by Lawrence Langer the Holocaust literary critic for a more pointed critique of Frankl’s Holocaust experiences.
This book is not history written by an historian, nor is it scholarship, since it offers no citations of the many “facts” offered in support of Frankl’s opinions. Rather Victor Frankl presents the reader with a sympathetic story that supports his professional psychotherapeutic theroy called Logotherapy.

Part 2 of Man’s Search for Meaning is a further explanation of and defense of Logotherapy.

What then is the reason for Frankl’s fame? The core idea of Logotherapy is to first believe that goal for all human beings is to seek meaning in their lives. All problems we have come from misplaced assumptions about what is important to us. We need to rethink what and how we analyze our lives and focus on three things, 1. Experiencing something emotionally like finding and giving love, 2. Making something creative or doing a good deed. 3. Adjusting our attitude toward unavoidable suffering and find strength from transcending suffering. Frankl believes that Logotherapy is “Deeper than logic”. Through Logotherapy a person will achieve meaning in their lives rather than accept the meaninglessness of life.

Additionally in order to bolster thethe book is sprinkled with negative references to his competitors in psychology and psychiatry, Freud and Adler
Before World War Two Frankl was a practicing physician in Vienna with a focus on understanding suicide among young women. Frankl was trained as a Freudian with it’s emphasis on seeking the root cause of mental illness by understanding past circumstances that resulted in the patients present condition.
2.It is important to note that his approach to psychotherapy had been developed prior to the Holocausrtand a second part in which he develops in more detail his

This is basically two separate books under one title, and it applies to both. Mr. Frankl believed that life is primarily not a quest for pleasure, or for power, but a quest for meaning. The opening section details the authors experiences as a prisoner in four different Nazi concentration camps over a three year period. He accurately describes the brutal realities of the totalitarian plan and its total disregard for human life. As a psychiatrist, hes able to explain the mental effects of this abuse as well as the physical damage incurred. Along with other accounts from holocaust survivors, this should be required reading within Americas public schools in order to bring back real history to the education system.

The latter portion of the book is somewhat shorter and appears more directed to those within the psychiatric field. Mr. Frankl notes case studies of his therapeutic doctrine of "logotherapy", which is an alternate to psychoanalysis. Through this therapy, he directs patients to solve lifes "human" problems by taking their own responsibility for challenging the pain, guilt, and death in their life. This was his treatment of "tragic optimism" to fight the "tragic triad". The clear point offered in both parts of the book is that a positive attitude, along with true meaning will see us through the dark realities of the world.