This is an very intense book about life and the human spirit. Someone at the Enlightened Wealth Institute recommended it to me. Really makes you appreciate growing up in a safe environment and being grateful for everything you have.

Dr. Frankl went through the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. While many gave into despair and gave up their will to live, Frankl fought on to create some meaning from these horrible experiences. He believed that anything in life can be dealt with as long as we are able to find meaning in it.

This book saved my life when I had lost everything I ever worked for. All my life I fought to be a champion. I got close to my dreams with national shows and sponsorship requests at 18, but I got severely injured.

Doctors said I would need painkillers and Prozac for the rest of my life. They said I would never train again. I proved them wrong.

After 2 grueling years, I got back to my peak and surpassed it at 20. Yet, in the finals of a grappling tournament, I got a severe injury that was supposed to have crippled me forever. I felt constant severe pain throughout my body.

All the best doctors and therapists said I had no hope. I was doomed to lose the body that I worked all my life for. All my dreams, businesses, relationships, and meaning came from martial arts, fitness, and health. I sacrificed everything for my dreams, and now, everyone said my dream was dead. At times, I thought I should just die with my dreams.

This book made me realize I always, always, had a choice. No matter what happens in our external circumstances, we can always decide our character.

No one can take that away from us but ourselves.

Now, 2 years and 30 doctors later, I found the most amazing doctors and masters who could heal me. They both showed me a new life and a new way that I never even dreamed possible. I learned about qi qong, tai chi, and bio-mechanics to cultivate the yin in my yang soul.

I am healing, becoming stronger, bigger, and better than ever.

The wound is the seed of our adult life; it is out of that wound that our adult life grows. In the shaman traditions, it was believed that a healer only got his powers from being wounded in battle. It was through that wound that the spirit of healing could enter. It was by healing oneself that one could heal others. You can look at your suffering and pain as disabilities, or as an ability to be a miracle, an inspiration, and a champion.

The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life

This is an excellent book that continues to impact and influence a new generation of readers. Frankl's account of his time in Nazi death camps where he experienced the death of his pregnant wife, parents, and brother as well as other horrors placed Frankl in a position of real authority to share wise counsel in this area. His experiences and observations, ultimately leading to an incredible understanding of human nature.

Though he experienced unimaginable tragedy and adversity, he nontheless realized great truth. After reading and even re-reading his story, it is hard to imagine he authored these famous words, "The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one's freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance."

This message is a profound reminder to all of us who, in our more routine lives, may, from time to time, forget that regardless of what is going on around us, we can maintain control of what is going on within us.

This is a "TOP TEN" classic and should become a part of your self-growth library.

Highly Recommended!

As many stories introduce themselves, there are many times a main character who plays a strong influence in the books' effect on the person reading it. The reader will often be able to connect to the main character through similarities that they share. It could also be the willpower or determined personality that lure the reader closer to the main character. In the case of Man's Search for Meaning, this was exactly what happened to me. I was hooked by the first page. The author really allowed me to think about for who and what I am living for. If I were to put myself in his optimistic shoes, I would realize that there is no way I could have gone through what he did with the positive attitude that he had. Not only were his personality traits shining through the cover of the book into my mind, but alson adding to the books' real meaning.
My favorite personality trait would be Viktor's inspirational glow on life. His powerful quotes fill the magical pages with truth and acceptance to his new life in the camps. He teaches us that we need to sit back and just think about the true meaning in our lives. He is sure that he will get out of the camps alive and be able to share his story with the world. He overall just believed in what he said and was confident that everything would turn out okay.
Throughout Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor's personality traits shined out to me like a lightning bug in a dark night sky. In the camps he had a way of helping other prisoners get their hopes up and many others to find their meaning in life. It was his personality that pulled him through all his hardships.

Man's Search for Meaning One of the most important books I will ever read. Life transforming. Unable to put it down. And, at the end of the day, spiritually uplifting.

Let me share part of the first paragraph of Harold S Kushner's introduction:

"Typically, if a book has one passage, one idea with the power to change a person's life, that alone justifies reading it, rereading it, and finding room for it on one's shelves. This book has several such passages."

There's nothing more to add to that, really. You can read the other reviews to get an indication of why I say that passage is accurate, but it most assuredly is. Maybe I should've bought the hardback...

There are few men that can absolutely compare to Viktor Frankl when it comes to groundbreaking thoughts on the human experience. His ideas on the existential vacuum and its effects are simply amazing. He paints a picture of his time in a concentration camp that is simply spell binding to say the least. If this weren't enough he goes on to show how that singualar moment in his life has impacted his work. Absolutely a tour de force do yourself a favor and read this book when you can. The Kindle edition is formatted a bit awkwardly but not unreadable.

Beautiful. Disturbing. Transcendent. If you read only one book on your own "search for meaning" -- though let's hope for at least two or three -- this is the one.

For Frankl, if life has a meaning, it has to be found in suffering. And he knows what suffering is.

A brilliant student who writes essays on Schopenhauer, Psychology and Philosophy when he is still in high school, reduced to a beggar child in WWI and excluded from Alfred Adler's circle, without any reason at the age of 19.
At 23 he already enjoys international recognition for his free work with suicidal youth in Vienna.
In 1938, already a respected psychiatrist, he is invited to live in the US, but prefers to stay close to his old parents, only to be deported, 4 years later to a Jewish ghetto in Prague, where his wife is forced to abort their child and where his father dies from exhaustion 6 months later. Sister Stella manages to escape to AUS. In 1944 the whole family is separated and send to different concentration camps. Only when freed by US troops in April 45, he comes to know that all were killed, including his brother and sister in law. He is kept alive to take care, as a doctor, of other sick prisoners. "Man's search for meaning" was written in 9 days in 1946, and sold 9 million books until his death in 1997, and is considered one of the ten most influential books among lifetime readers in America today.

"Man's search for meaning" makes an analysis of the psyche of a concentration camp prisoner.
What becomes of man when everything is taken from him? To Frankl what one becomes is the result of an individual choice, the choice of weather to behave with dignity and according to moral values or renounce to his freedom of choice, dignity and self respect and behave and become like a scum and an animal.
Suffering is part of life as much as death. The meaning and purpose of life lies in making use of suffering to exercise our freedom of choice, to chose how to take and accept suffering and in this way grow as a human being. Unavoidable, unescapable suffering is in fact a blessing. We must be worth our suffering. Man is free to chose to transform suffering into growth, guilt into change and life's transitoriness into action.
Just as life has a meaning, even under the most miserable of conditions, so does a human being have value independently of its usefulness to society.

The meaning of life in general is less important than the specific meaning of one's life at a specific moment, because that meaning may change every moment. We have to decide every moment what we want to be.
Logotherapy, the psychoanalytical method he devised, concentrates on the responsibility one has for his own life. Responsibility to one's conscience or to society. It identifies the what and the who, one's responsible for. And no one can be responsible for someone else's acts.
Man is free to chose to transform suffering into growth, guilt into change and life's transitoriness into action.

No 2 persons can be compared, No 2 lives are the same.
Sometimes we have to take action, sometimes, we have to accept things the way they are. We all have to suffer, no one can suffer for us. We are alone in the Universe for this task. We have to face suffering bravely and don't cry more than is necessary. Those who see us in our suffering (family, friends or God) expect us to do it with pride and not miserably.
The meaning of life lies outside man. Lies in the people s/he loves and the causes s/he serves.
We cannot know someone completely but through love. Only love sees the potentialities and is able to help realize them.
Sex is only an expression of that love.

A person that has fulfilled the meaning of his life, actualised his potentialities and suffered with dignity, is a person that looks back on his life with pride and does not envy youth.

While I have never really warmed up to the second part of Frankl's book, the "Experiences in a Concentration Camp" section has to be one of the finest examinations of meaning under terrible circumstances ever written. Frankl is insightful, unpretentious, incisive, elegant, brilliant. The first section is an existential masterpiece.

I guess my difficulty with logotherapy is that meaning as experienced and conveyed by Frankl feels like it gets reduced down when put forth as a psychiatric theory.

But part one is just brilliant beyond any attempt to review it.

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl I had this book in my home library for a number of years, but had misplaced it somehow. Wanted to keep a copy to read again and to share. It is a "book for the ages." Frankl not only survived the horrible conditions of the Nazi prison work camps,but gives whoever will read his words great hope for the overcoming of whatever evils may beset us as human beings.

Beautifully written. Easy to comprehend. A very meaningful book. The Doctor presents a good mix of his psychological thesis balanced with very moving and sometimes heart chilling personal accounts and testimonials. Written to inspire the best in anyone, it will definitely open the readers mind to all types of new ways of thinking about and looking at the world and especially at mankind. It contains the formula for a great personal philosophy. I would recommend this book to anyone, but particularly those who have been affected by trauma and or suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I have yet to come across a book as inspirational. It is one of my favorites and I have given it as a gift to many whom I love. 5 Stars!

Viktor E. Frankl teaches us that light can be found in each individual struggle to find meaning within - even through the worst pain, suffering and dehumanization; even in the darkest corners of history...

The book is split into two parts: Experiences In A Concentration Camp and Logotherapy In a Nutshell.

Part one is an account of his experiences in the concentration camps (Auschwitz and several others). Frankl gives us a picture of the sequence of three psychological reactions the prisoners experience to the process of imprisonment and freedom. Despite the horrifying circumstances, we begin to see an optimism budding in the sea of bleakness: a unique sense of meaning in some of the prisoners which helps them to cope with the day to day horrors of camp existence - a meaning which holds their spirits up even though their bodies are broken. This part of the book is unbelievably sad, yet the message it carries about the human condition is truly empowering.

In part 2, we are given a brief overview of Frankl's theory of logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy which helps patients find meaning in their lives - no matter what their circumstances.

The wisdom contained herein is so rich that after having only finished it last night, I know that I will be re-reading it for the rest of my life.

An incredibly powerful, moving account of Frankl's concentration camp experience. His reflections are profound and will bless you deeply. The second half of the book includes an in-depth pyscological exploration that some will not find as digestible; but this is a rich part of the book and well worth the time. Highly recommended.

In short, it's difficult to complain about life when getting a lesson on it from an Auschwitz survivor. It really puts things into perspective for anyone who feels lost or depressed or worthless or small. It gives depth to "if you can't change your situation, change your attitude."

Frankl hits on surprisingly modern points about depression years before Prozac Nation and the transferring of therapy and medications to the mainstream--the normalization of not feeling normal. And he manages to provide a power-packed message in a tiny book; I found myself taking notes on logotherapy and Frankl's observations. And now I find myself trying to figure out how to apply his theory to my everyday frustrations. It's a good challenge.

Feeling curious about the world, frustrated by your life, or lost? Take a weekend and read this book.

My only gripes are the translation, which was crap in the version I read (but I'm an editor, so I get cranky about things like that) and that Frankl does paint himself as the all-answering, all-curing type who can walk into a room and fix any poor fool who's been suffering for years within minutes. I appreciate a degree of modesty. But I guess he's earned the right to feel righteous.

I've read this more times than I can count. The autobiographical part of the book is stirring. The details of Logotherapy wear a bit thin after many reads, just because of familiarity.

I don't really relate to the idea of suffering as a life accomplishment - not because I devalue the trials of those who have no other choice, but just because I'm disconnected enough from it that I have trouble relating. I do continue to find the idea that a purpose is imposed on you rather than vice versa intriguing, although again, I'm not sure that I agree.

It's a great book and everyone should at least make a lap of the biography to understand what the Holocaust looked like from an insider, particularly people like myself who have been affected by the death of loved ones.

If you've never read it, it will be the best $7 you've ever spent.

Viktor Frankl has written an powerfull book about his years as a prisoner inside a nazi concentration camp. He worked as a psychologist and wrote on the subject of lifes meaning. The book is a powerfull testament to the will of humans to survive in dire circumstances. The book begins with the train full of prisoners rolling into the camp. At once they are stripped of all their belongings. Beginning with their clothes, and then glasses, jewlery and all other personal belongings. This is the first step in the process of dehumanizing them. So the struggle for these prisoners he writes is very much about struggling to keep the idea of yourself as a subject alive. To keep alive ones feeling of self worth was essential for survival. it was also important he writes to have the feeling that one had a spiritual center where one could retain some freedom even though one was imprisoned. Otherwise he or she will regress to feeling very small and in the end becoming a formless member of the herd, like an animal. Once this was achieved, when the personality and subjectivity had been broken and erased the person could be willed to do almost anything. The spirit only survives he writes, as long as the idea of hope does. That is why in the suffering one has to parodoxically have to try to find some meaning. If one dosent then the organism is in great danger of being annihilated. Only those who where able to somehow retain a sense of hope, that maybe somewhere someone was waiting for them, that someone who loved them was thinking about them, that god,even though it seemed impossible, saw their suffering.

Title says it all. The second half of the book has some really great tips & tricks for life. You shouldn't skip the first half of the book since it ties into and validates the teachings in the second half of the book.

Sometimes the writing is a bit awkward and verbose (he does speak in technical terms at times), but go slow and really try to understand what he's saying. The book is a really quick read, but again take your time!

For a while I really didn't understand this quote from the author: "Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time." But, after taking some time to think about it (like the time you need to read the book), it truly hit home what this quote means.

I'd recommend this book to anyone!

Viktor Frankl, famed psychotherapist and a holocaust survivor, said: The spiritual dimension cannot be ignored, for it is what makes us human. Spirituality is at the core of who we are; it defines for us what is meaningful in life.
Among all living things, only we humans can envision our futures and play out mental scenarios of how we will make our visions a reality.

Viktor Frankl, survivor of the Holocaust, emphasized that the meaning of life is not what happens to us. It is what we do with that which happens to us.
Viktor Frankl while interned in sub-human conditions in a Nazi concentration camp found meaning through meditating. He would overcome these horrendous and barbaric conditions by holding a mental image of him speaking to a group of International Psychiatrists at a special dinner event.

His wife had been transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died. On April 27, 1945, Frankl was liberated. Among his immediate relatives, the only survivor was his sister, who had escaped by emigrating to Australia. It was due to his and others' suffering in these camps that he came to his hallmark conclusion that even in the most absurd, painful and dehumanized situation, life has potential meaning and that therefore even suffering is meaningful. Meaning cannot be invented but must be discovered.

Viktor Frankl wrote "Man's Search for Meaning" after surviving the worst conditions a human can experience during his imprisonment at Auschwitz.
Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning - the classic best seller now considered to be one of the most important contributions to psychiatry since the writing of Freud. Frankl gives a moving account of his life amid the horrors of the Nazi death camps, chronicling the harrowing experience that led to his discovery of his theory of logotherapy.

Viktor Frankl, to be sure, leaves a profound legacy. He wrote many books on existentialism and Logotherapy. Throughout his life and his work, he reminds us that we all have important work to do, that whatever we do is important, and that there is meaning everywhere, all the time.

Human freedom, therefore, is the freedom of responsibility. Freedom without responsibility is something arbitrary, senseless and either leaves us directionless, or can lead to irresponsible, that is, lawless, immoral and violent, self-destructive ways of living. Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn. Because boundaries between groups overlap we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men are angels and those others are devils.

As far as happiness is concerned Frankl, said: Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.

If you want to get better acquainted to the work of Viktor Frankl " Man's Search for Meaning" is a good place to start.

Raymond Le Blanc. Auhtor.Achieving Objectives Made Easy! Practical goal setting tools & proven time management techniques

Suffering, Meaning & a Worthwhile Life....

"A psychiatrist who personally has faced such extremity [as the Nazi death camps] is a psychiatrist worth listening to. He, if anyone, should be able to view our human condition with compassion. Dr. Frankl's words have a profoundly honest ring, for they rest on experiences to deep for deception."

So wrote Gordon Allport, Harvard Professor of Psychology and at mid-20th century, one of the great American psychologists. What does Frankl say? More vitally, what talk has he walked?

"Man's Search for Meaning" is not a boastful or an easy book. But it is forcefully honest & gripping -- ongoing struggles, failures and flashes of success, brilliant success really. Not so much in preserving sanity. For who of us has the right to dare call insane anyone in a concentration camp who became overwhelmed or gave up? Frankl's struggles, and the struggles of those around him, were how to keep humanely living in the face of what seems unfaceable.

As Frankl says, "...we had nothing to lose except our so ridiculously naked lives." If there's a meaning, a reason, a "why?" sturdy enough to bear that load, it must confront outrageous & unavoidable suffering.

I'm a psychotherapist; I work with many who suffer: children severely abused & neglected, adults still caught up in their abuse, soldiers back from Iraq along with their spouses & children. A label is easy & obvious: PTSD. Healing is not.

Frankl, writing well before we called this a "stress disorder" (Concentration camps = STRESS? Can you feel how wrong it is to stop at the mechanics of stress?), shows us a deeper, more accurate, more transcendent reality & truth. Struggling to find a worthy life in the face of suffering is not a "disorder". In that struggle we can become profoundly sickened, and our risk of sickening is never far away. But equally possible & present is a humbling choice: we can honestly face our suffering and struggle to find (create, build, open ourselves up to, ....) our own meaning. "Our own", in that it is individual to us, but it is never "just ourselves".

Through brutally-learned understandings & terribly-lived examples, Frankl shows us ways. I fear quoting a few lines. It feels like sound-biting & trivializing, not only misleading but obscene. Frankl isn't about one-liners, though he writes many memorable lines & stories. But lines pale when removed from their stories, their struggles to grasp onto meaning.

"Man's Search for Meaning" is short and easy-to-read, especially the first section, about the camps. Read it. Likely someday you'll be glad you did.

This book was recommended to me by my mother while I was in college. I read it during college at a time I was having trouble with anxiety. This book and The Road Less Traveled by M Scott Peck helped me deal with my ego based psychological problems at the time. These two books were very influential in helping me to finish college and move on with my life. Now I read books by Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle which help me but these books were powerful stepping stones during that period in my life. Recommended for anyone who wants to read and be motivated by the power of the human spirit.

This book gives you a very powerful insight in the lives of millions that had the opportunity to be prisoners in the concentration camps. As strange as it sounds, that was an opportunity to develop their love for life, and that love for life was what kept them alive, Victor Frankl is a being full of light that not only thought about his own life but the value of other's lives, specially in such an ultimate experience where survival was critical. You will love it and is such a small book that gives you so much that is incredible that so much light could be put in to such a small book.

This is one of the most important books that I have ever read. It, along with certain books by Elie Wiesel, also a survivor, have helped me maintain a hold on life and have kept me from going under in times of despair. For me, its message is priceless. I don't know if my review can really do it justice, because it has struck such a personal chord with me that it would be difficult to objectively describe.
Just read it, you may never see life quite the same again.

MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING is an incredibly deep and optimistic exploration of the best that man has to offer in the worst of times. This should especially be read by anyone under the age of 30. We live in a different world today, but today's generation can benefit from the philosophical gold of yesterday's generation. Some books transcend their time. This is one.

I've been meaning to read this book for years and finally got around to it. WOW WOW WOW! That just about sums it up. The amount of thought provoking passages increased with each page. I was in tears several times. I've gone back and reread many sections that touched me. I think I'll read the entire book again very soon. There are already so many great in depth reviews here, so it's not necessary to go into detail. Just read it if you haven't yet! It'll make you count your blessings and give thanks.

My daughter needed this book for a High School project. My review of this is neutral, but I see no reason to not buy it, if you need it for homework, ha ha

One thing really struck me, and was the most painful thing to read. Throughout all the terrible physical and mental suffering--and the stories were as riveting as they were disturbing--what kept the prisoners going was that future day of liberation. Life could and would be better, they would reunite with their loved ones, their talents and abilities would be exercised again. In a phrase, there would be meaning to their suffering. But when many people returned to their former lives they found that things were not as they'd imagined--families were dead, jobs were gone, homes were unoccupied, people didn't care.

"When, on his return, a man found that in many places he was met only with a shrug of the shoulders and with hackneyed phrases, he tended to become bittter and to ask himself why he had gone through all that he had. When he heard the same phrases nearly everywhere--"We did not know about it," and "We, too, have suffered," then he asked himself, have they really nothing better to say to me?"

. . . A man who for years had though he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that suffering has no limits and that he could suffer still more, and still more intensely."

Doesn't that just tear at your heart?

It made me realize that while the Holocaust was particularly horrific, there are people throughout the world who suffer the same torture and suffering. Listen to the news and you'll hear about Darfur, Sierra Leone, Rwanda. Those are group atrocities you actually hear about. And yet most suffering is anonymous. What about the individual's capacity for fear, suffering, loss . . . or hope?

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."

So I have looked deeper into my soul to put words to that nebulous abstract that guides my days: my life's meaning. If faced in a similar circumstance, would I be one of those who turned to bitterness, hopelessness, or apathy? Or would I find that inner courage to actually live, to look forward to another day, to show a kindness and try my best--because my life has meaning?

And . . . Do I do that now?

Dr. Frankl is an author-psychiatrist who takes care of patient's problems by using logotherapy. In "Man's Search For Meaning," he tells readers about his experiences in Auschwitz concentration camp, and how he discovered logotherapy by going through this horrible experience. In case you are wondering, the object and challenge and challenge of logotherapy is to put together ties of meaning and responsibility in people's lives, and actually make themselves feel important.
Dr. Viktor E. Frankl was a long time prisoner in various concentration camps. There he was stripped of his feeling of existence. His mother, father, brother, and wife were sent to gas chambers and killed. Everyone in his family, except his sister, unfortunately died in these concentration camps. He went many days without eating or sleeping, in brutally freezing temperatures. Knowing that every single day he was on the brink of extermination, how did he still find life worth living? That is what this book really sums up in one word, logotherapy.
All of Frankl's stories in this book ring true to anyone that suffered the tortures of these concentration camps. He views the human spirit with compassion and truth. It really makes his experiences worth listening to. Even though I, certainly, have never been in a concentration camp I felt that Frankl's words and feelings were shown greatly in his writing. It is definitely not a cakewalk to talk about your past when it has such a difficult history. This really shows that you do not have to be quiet about dark emotions. Do not feel burdened to be silent when you know you were the one who experienced such tragedies.
I have never liked reading about the concentration camps in Europe, because those thoughts are not comforting to someone who does not want to face the reality of it. This was very detailed and specific on all the accounts in the camps. Although, it also was very clear on logotherapy, so needless to say it was very dry. The message that the book made obvious to me was that we cannot forget the past, but cannot dwell on it either. The grass is always greener on the other side, and we always must move on no matter where life takes us.

This is a terrific book about the meaning of Life. However, it is tough reading! You'll find yourself re-reading many passages just to understand the subtleness of the author. It will have a profound effect on anyone searching for some meaning to their lives. Warning: it is sometimes depressing, but enlightening.

This book offers a very insightful look into the human mind through circumstances so dire its almost difficult to contemplate. Fortunately, most of us will never likely come within reach of such dreadful circumstances; however, by means of this book we are able to ascertain meaning by vicariously viewing the experiences of Dr. Frankl and learning from his own thoughts and perceptions about the matter.

This book rates high in its ability to help the reader search for meaning, define purpose, and gain an incredible sense of relativity. I give four stars only as a result of its propensity to read like a psychology text book. I admit, however, that may speak more to my weaknesses and lack of pursuit on such subjects than the quality of the writing. As such, this is certainly not meant as a major detriment as the substance presented is excellent.

All the best.

X

This book offers a very insightful look into the human mind through the experiences of circumstances so dire its almost difficult to contemplate. Fortunately, most of us will never likely come within reach of such dreadful circumstances; however, by means of this book we are able to ascertain meaning by vicariously viewing the experiences of Dr. Frankl and learning from his own thoughts and perceptions about the matter.

This book rates high in its ability to help the reader search for meaning, define purpose, and gain an incredible sense of relativity. I give four stars only as a result of it propensity to read like a psychology text book. I admit, however, that may speak more to my weaknesses and lack of pursuit on such subjects than the quality of the writing. As such, this is certainly not meant as a major detriment as the substance presented is excellent.

All the best.

X

i am glad that I read this book. It made me think about life in general.
I am glad that this is out there for people like me who did not live through that era. Great reference book for applications of Psychology.

One of the best books I've read in my life. Recommend to everyone. Life will not be the same after you finish.

This small volume is a priceless addition to any collection of humanitarian ideas. Its subtext makes several interrelated existential points about human suffering and human meaning; points that only those who have known extreme suffering could make with the kind of conviction and eloquence that Dr. Frankel has made here: That while pain and suffering may be relative, even "chosen," the infliction of gratuitous cruelty -- insults, indignities and debasement are absolutes, and is an unforgivable but universal currency applied by all totalitarian systems.

Social and political tyrannies, whether soft or hard, are just opposite sides of the same coin of cultural and existential emptiness. They begin first by destroying the most precious of freedoms, the freedom of thought: effectively creating a "concentration camp of the mind" through social stratification, willful (or benign) neglect, obscene discrepancies in wealth and wellbeing, and by twisted race-based ideologies and other forms of "groupthink" consensus-based political and social orthodoxies. Then come the politics of exclusion, followed by social death - ghettoes and segregation; and then the final stop: unjust physical imprisonment and eventually removal to concentration camps. It is a gradient that leads progressively to walls of hopelessness and despair and that at each step of the way is every bit as cruel in their cumulative emotional and psychological effects as the electrified fences that enclosed the prisoners of Auschwitz.

The existential challenge for the suffer has been put best by Professor Cornel West of Princeton University, who as a self-described "Chekhovian Christian" sees the challenge as follows: "... Being a Chekhovian Christian is refusing to be imprisoned and walled-in by intentionally inflicted misery. It is to wake up each day with a new strategy for survival."

That is exactly what Dr. Frankel did in repeatedly facing-down certain death at the hands of the Nazi war-machine. This book and the Logo-therapy that it gave rise to are fitting living tributes to all of those who died in the European holocaust.

This book is a classic as both an compelling human story and a model of self-help, self-actualization. It is a tough story of surviving an unbelievable trial but if you want to learn about building self accountability and strength, this classic book on your library shelf.

Psychologist Viktor Frankl's autobiography examining his struggle to survive four concentration camps.

It is an inspirational story that defines mankind's potential for greatness whatever the circumstances. I read a few pages at night to reinforce my spirit.

The first 100 pages describe Frankl's experiences within the concentration camps. The remainder of the book explains Logotheraphy, Frankl's psychotherapy to treat despair and indifference.

Within the camps Frankl saw what a difference a purpose had on a camp prisoner's state of mind, starting with his own. He noted that those who expected things from the world were vulnerable to disappointment, and that when expectations were totally dashed people lost the will to live. Frankl's answer to us all, 'It doesn't really matter what we expect from life but rather what life expects from us'! Thus he exhorts us to find a worthy pursuit, whatever the circumstances; if circumstances destroy hope of success then find a better goal and don't be victim of your expectations.

After the war Frankl practiced Logotherapy. Logotherapy is an alternative psychotherapy to Freudian psychoanalysis. Whereas Freudian psychoanalysis typically tried to solve discontent by tackling unresolved relationships from the past, Logotherapy helps discontents find a way of living under current circumstances to create a sense of meaning. Many successes are described in the book. The aim of Logotherapy is to identify an inspiring goal. Frankl says people risk creating objectives that ring hollow; I want money, I want power. He stresses that the full realization of our potential can only be achieved when we direct our objectives away from ourselves, when we transcend ourselves. This self-transcendence, he says, has self-fulfillment as a side-effect. So I like to paraphrase his philosophy as 'What now is my answer to my life and who is my answer for?'

Psychologist Viktor Frankl's autobiography examining his struggle to survive four concentration camps.

Why choose to immerse yourself in a story of suffering? I found it to be utterly inspirational. The severe circumstances define mankind's potential to achieve greatness whatever those circumstances are. I read a few pages at night to reinforce my soul while I slept.

The first 100 pages describe Frankl's experiences within the concentration camps. The remainder of the book explains Logotheraphy, Frankl's psychotherapy to treat despair and indifference.

Within the camps Frankl saw what a difference a purpose had on a camp prisoner's state of mind, starting with his own. He noted that those who expected things from the world were vulnerable to disappointment, and that when expectations were totally dashed people lost the will to live. Frankl's answer to us all, 'It doesn't really matter what we expect from life but rather what life expects from us'! Thus he exhorts us to find a worthy pursuit, whatever the circumstances; if circumstances destroy hope of success then find a better goal and don't be victim of your expectations.

After the war Frankl practiced Logotherapy. Logotherapy is an alternative psychotherapy to Freudian psychoanalysis. Whereas Freudian psychoanalysis typically tried to solve discontent by tackling unresolved relationships from the past, Logotherapy helps discontents find a way of living under current circumstances to create a sense of meaning. Many successes are described in the book. The aim of Logotherapy is to identify an inspiring goal. Frankl says people risk creating objectives that ring hollow; I want money, I want power. He stresses that the full realization of our potential can only be achieved when we direct our objectives away from ourselves, when we transcend ourselves. This self-transcendence, he says, has self-fulfillment as a side-effect. So I like to paraphrase his philosophy as 'What now is my answer to my life and who is my answer for?'

Psychologist Viktor Frankl's autobiography examining his struggle to survive four concentration camps.

Why choose to immerse yourself in a story of suffering? I found it to be utterly inspirational. The severe circumstances define mankind's potential to achieve greatness whatever those circumstances are. I read a few pages at night to reinforce my soul while I slept.

The first 100 pages describe Frankl's experiences within the concentration camps. The remainder of the book explains Logotheraphy, Frankl's psychotherapy to treat despair and indifference.

Within the camps Frankl saw what a difference a purpose had on a camp prisoner's state of mind, starting with his own. He noted that those who expected things from the world were vulnerable to disappointment, and that when expectations were totally dashed people lost the will to live. Frankl's answer to us all, 'It doesn't really matter what we expect from life but rather what life expects from us'! Thus he exhorts us to find a worthy pursuit, whatever the circumstances; if circumstances destroy hope of success then find a better goal and don't be victim of your expectations.

After the war Frankl practiced Logotherapy. Logotherapy is a different approach to psychotherapy over Freud's technique of retrograde introspection. Many successes are described in the book. The aim of Logotherapy is to identify an inspiring goal. Frankl says people risk creating objectives that ring hollow; I want money, I want power. He stresses that the full realization of our potential can only be achieved when we direct our objectives away from ourselves, when we transcend ourselves. This self-transcendence, he says, has self-fulfillment as a side-effect. So I like to paraphrase his philosophy as 'What now is my answer to my life and who is my answer for?'

Psychologist Viktor Frankl's autobiography that examines his struggle to survive a concentration camp.
Why digest a story of human suffering? Because it is inspiring! The tortures contrast the achievements, the pain distinguishes the human potential for greatness and beauty. I read a few pages at night to feed my soul before I slept.
The first 100 pages contains Frankl's concentration camp account, the remainder of the book explains Logotheraphy, Frankl's psychotherapy to treat despair and indifference.
Within the concentration camp Frankl saw what a difference a purpose had on a prisoner's state of mind, starting with his own. He noted that those who expected things from the world were vulnerable to disappointment, and that when expectations were totally dashed people lost the will to live. Frankl's answer to his fellow man, 'It doesn't really matter what we expect from life but rather what life expects from us'! Thus he exhorts us to find our own purpose to match our circumstances and not depend on expectations.
Logotherapy is considered by Frankl as a different approach to psychotherapy over Freud's model of tensions channelled through the interplay of Id, Ego and Superego. However I feel that Frankl's approach merely explains Freud's Ego/Superego dynamic, with Frankl's approach being more actionable, Freud's more clinical.
Frankl mentions people risk creating objectives that ring hollow; I want money, I want power. He stresses that the full realization of our potential can only be achieved when we direct our objectives away from ourselves, and that this self-transcendence has self-fulfillment as a side-effect.
Given this last I have paraphrased his philosophy as this question 'What now is my answer to the world and for whose ultimate benefit?'

A Nazi camp survivor, Frankl should know about searching for meaning. First part contains his account of time in the concentration camps. Second part serves as an introduction to logotherapy, imparting a sense of hope in psychotherapy patients by helping them find the meaning in their life or hardship. Frankl states that meaning is an innate need for all people, not just a reaction formation or ego issue. It makes sense to me, and as a survivor, Frankl has the "credentials" to back it up!

I found the authors experiences in the death camps very interesting and well written. I appreciate my life more every time I read such survival story's. I cannot begin to comprehend how anyone survived these camps considering their exposure to the elements with virtually no food to provide the energy for work or the body warmth/immunity to ward off illness and disease. God Bless Mr. Frankl and all others who survived.
The more psychoanalytical add ons at the end of the book were more in depth than my literary interests or needs at this sector of my life.

This book was exactly what I expected and was oddly similar (but obviously not as cruel) as basic training. I liked his story, he's a very brilliant man. "Man's Search for Meaning" basically cronicles this psychologists' (Viktor E. Frankl) experiences at Auschwitz extermination camp in World War II. Frankl gives the reader an inside look at his day-to-day life, what he thought about while away, and essentially how he was lucky enough to survive.

So many times we only learn from theory but Frankl learns about life from his experience as a prisoner. He finds how to find purpose in the middle of his suffering. He finds beauty similar to Dostoevsky, which makes him stay alive.

For all its complexities and mysteries, life boils down to one aspect that should ALWAYS allow a human being to keep his dignity if nothing else: We have the ability to react to any situation any way we want. That is, even in the awfulness of the Nazi extermination camps, a person can still keep his dignity if merely by being able to control how he reacts to a situation.

Also, Frankl continously refers back to a qoute by Nietzsche that says, " He who has a WHY to live for can bear any HOW." In a concentration camp, Jews often found that the will to live no longer existed within them. They had lost all hope and it was their despair that often led to physical illnesses that led to their death. As a response, people like Frankl tried to reinforce to their friends that they did in fact have something to live for. That "something" could be their family back home, their kids, their other loved ones, their careers that they may be able to once again resume after the war, etc. Now, one may question how this relates to his main idea of people reserving the right to react to any situation however they choose to. Well, Frankl argues that once a human has hope, that is the WHY to live for, then he can bear just about any HOW. That is, no matter how long the SS made the Jews stand out in the bitter cold, often with no shoes, and no matter how often they whipped them and kicked them and punched them, it was always the victim's right to react to those situations as he wanted to. Whether it was by giving up and perishing or by replying with even more fervent prayer and hope that they will once again be reunited with their loved ones; therefore, survival, Frankl argues, is up to the individual.

The first section of the book is divided into three periods of a "prisoner's" life; the period of shock, the period of being a prisoner, and the period after liberation. Frankl provides specific examples for each period and then ties them back into his main idea. The second part of the book explains Frankl's notion of Logotherapy. I found this second section to be not as important as the first section, because I'm not really interested in psychology.

If I had been asked to only rate the first part of the book, I would have rated it 5 stars; however, the second part of the book isn't as interesting. I would recommend that you read this book either before or shortly after reading "Kaddish for an Unborn Child" by Imre Kertesz. You will find differing philosophies on what happens to the human mind during such tragic and degrading conditions as were the Nazi extermination camps.

I have to say this is probably the most beautiful book I have ever read and ever will read. The magnificent way Dr. Frankl took such horrific experiences and turned them into such beauty is astounding and inspirational to me. It helps one who is suffering to see the greater good in everything, and how every bad experience can conjure some positive outcomes in all of us. Everyone should read this book at least once in their lives. Viktor Frankl is my hero.

This is an incredible account of a man who lived through the Holocaust, and had the ability to seperate himself from the brutality of the circumstances to provide a dispassionate view of himself, and what he went through. It is just an incredible piece of literature!

...and usually only respect the advice of those who have walked their talk, then you need to read this book. Dr. Frankl endured the horrors of three Nazi concentration camps and then thankfully lived to document his experience and, more to the point, the effects of the camps' conditions on himself, his colleagues, and his oppressors.

The book's first part contains Dr. Frankl's observances of human nature in the concentration camps, while the second part discusses his technique of logotherapy. Logotherapy, in contrast to Freudian techniques, doesn't immerse itself in childhood conflicts and sexual frustration. Logotherapy instead asserts that humans ultimately desire to know and live the meaning of their lives above all else.

He cites his staying alive in the camps for his wife, who at one point resided in an adjacent barracks yards away, as an example of how meaning in his own life inspired his survival. He also discusses being kept alive by his drive to further develop his ideas and theories about the human quest for meaning, which he actually began forming before entering the camps. These two examples cover the main ways he says humans find meaning -- in relationships and in their life's work.

Other issues he discusses are suffering with dignity and the function of an inner spiritual life as a respite from harsh and humiliating conditions. In the interest of keeping this review short I won't expand on these subjects -- just read the book!

This is a small book with a big subject - life and meaning - written in 1946 and first published in 1959. Only recently it has been published in English. It still rings true, written by a Nazi concentration camp inmate, Dr. Viktor Frankl. He originally wanted to be an anonymous author; however, his friends persuaded him to publish under his own name to give the book credibility. Readers could therefore also understand this is a psychiatrist's objective view of suffering, which is part of life, and why life and hope prevail in the darkest moments.

Part One, Experiences in a Concentration Camp is key to all he learned on the meaning of life. The horrible losses and inhumanity are seared into your mind, but when Dr. Frankl looks at the horror with educated eyes, he recognizes courage, objectivity and responsibility as vital for survival. This is a story of a man who was sent to the concentration camp with a belief that if he had to suffer and die, it would be significant: he would not suffer nor die for nothing.

Dr. Frankl reviews the fight for survival and his decisions that somehow help him survive. He notes that prisoners go through three phases, 1)shock: the period following his admission 2)apathy: the period where they they become well entrenched in camp routine, and 3)the sense of loss, where they lose everything but hope. He digs down deep in his own soul to helps others to go on and have meaning in their life - not to give up and find the basic motivation to go on. He teaches despairing men "that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but what life expected from us." Dr. Frankl repeats, "if we have the "why" we will always find the "how" to go on."

This book shows each individual he is important and every decision he makes is impactful. Therefore, make the right decisions and be triumphant. Right decisions cause the least pain and give the most love for fellow man. It is what gives us hope and value as part of humanity.

Part Two, Logo-Therapy in a Nutshell, was not as interesting to me. It describes Frankl's philosophy of logo-therapy and reminded me of of mid-eastern religions as well as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It is a way (Frankl calls it "neo-dynamics") to have a goal in mind and achieve it no matter what obstacles and stress you are facing. The things that make life important and with meaning are different for each of us. All of us can have a meaning of life, but the "big picture meaning" is hard to understand. It takes us a lifetime of good and bad events and decisions to shape us.

Part Three, is a postscript on "Tragic Optimism" and states that despite the "tragic triad" (as it is called in Logo-Therapy) 1)pain, 2)guilt, and 3)death - how is it possible to say yes to life in spite of all that? Logo-therapy teaches there are three main avenues on which one arrives at meaning in life. The first is creating a work or by doing a deed. The second is by experiencing something or encountering someone, and the third is turning a personal tragedy into a triumph. He mentions using bad situations as a growth experience.

Overall a deep book but a good book on looking at life. It shows that each one of us can determine personal meaning and why it is important.

I am not much on bibliotherapy, but I have lost more copies of this book than any other giving it to psychotherapy clients to read. This is an incredibly readable, heartfelt treatise on meaning-oriented, existential therapy. The greatest component to it is that it is not written in an erudite nor an obtuse manner. Instead, it is written so that everyone can grasp it. Written from a first-person perspective, with the first part of the book focused on Frankl's personal and interpersonal struggles, trials, tribulations, and explorations while in a concentration camp, this book clearly and simply develops Frankl's logotherapy perspective on therapy. As I have done before with countless clients, I highly recommend this book for anyone in search of meaning in life.

I ordered this book for myself after one of the other women on the tour suggested it. I've only read a few chapters. It's not a book you can't put down. I haven't had any free time to go back and read more of it.