Product Description

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped (or didn't) with the experience. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1113 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell" describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Therefore, Frankl's logotherapy is much more compatible with western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is", Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." --Christine Buttery

Review
"This is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It changed my life and became a part of all that I live and all that I teach. It truly is a must-read book. - Susan Jeffers, author of Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway and Embracing Uncertainty. A poignant testimony married to a profound confirmation. In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl declares that evil and ennui cannot finally extinguish us. This deeply sensitive book stands as one of the primary building blocks of human consciousness. It is a hymn to the phoenix rising in each of us who choose life before flight. - Brian Keenan, author of An Evil Cradling. Viktor Frankl, who turned his experiences as a prisoner in Auschwitz into the basis for a new school of psychotherapy, is one of the moral heroes of the 20th century. His insights into human freedom, dignity and the search for meaning are deeply humanising, and have the power to transform lives. His works are essential reading for those who seek to understand the human condition. - Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks. An enduring work of survival literature - New York Times. If you read but one book this year, Dr Frankl's book should be that one. - Los Angeles Times. Perhaps the most significant thinking since Freud and Adler. Unconditional faith in an unconditional meaning is Dr Frankl's message to the reader. - The American Journal of Psychiatry. Influential and eloquent - Jewish Chronicle"

Brian Keenan, author of An Evil Cradling
'A poignant testimony...a hymn to the phoenix rising in each of us who choose life before flight.'

Customer Reviews

This Book Changed My Life...
One of the greatest books of the 20th century. Some time in the future, when humans finally turn off the TV and start asking themselves why the hell they're here in the firstplace, this book might be of great assistence. Best read annually.

A medical reviewer from Bristol
We used this excellent little book in a discussion group among friends at work.Very readable and moving account of a Holocaust survivor and his philosophy of life as to how he survived. Full of graphic but thought provoking stories from the Nazi extermination camps of the Second World War. Incredible testimony to how 'life will out', how even in the worst that man can do, somehow there can yet be hope, and meaning can be found. I wish I had met the author, he sounds a truly remarkable, gracious and humble man.

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how"
In my opinion, "Man's search for meaning" (1946) is a very interesting book, that will leave you with some practical knowledge easy to apply in your daily life. In a nutshell, and if you aren't feeling like reading a more or less long review, the main idea of this book is that "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how".

The above quoted phrase is from Nietzsche, but don't jump to conclusions: Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) certainly does not share his philosophical ideas. Frankl merely chose one of Nietzsche's phrases as a way to crystallize his own ideas: that is, that the most important force in a person's life is his will to meaning. In a way, this book shows how Frankl reached that conclusion.

The first part of "Man's search for meaning" deals with the author's experiences in a concentration camp, and the lessons he draw from that torturous experience. Frankl said that those that survived had one thing in common, a purpose, and that "everything can be taken from man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way no matter the circumstance".

In the second part of this book, Frankl explains logotheraphy, the theory of psychotherapy he developed. According to the author, logotherapy focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as on a person's search for such meaning, and the consequent purpose. Frankl says that "The meaning of life always changes, but... it never ceases to be", and that we really find ourselves when we find it, or at least our own personal version of it. Furthermore, he also says that "the meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected," and that logos, or "meaning", is not only merely something emerging from existence itself but rather something confronting said existence. The author also points out that logotherapy gives great importance to responsibility, due to the fact that "each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."

It is pertinent to highlight the fact that logotheraphy differs strongly from other two well-known schools of psychoteraphy, Freudian psychoanalysis (that centers on the will to pleasure), and Adlerian psychology (that focuses on the will to power). From my point of view, Frankl perspective makes for a much better explanation...

All in all, I highly recommend this book. I like the central place that Frankl gives to responsibility, and the idea that man "does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment". In my opinion, "Man's search for meaning" is interesting, but specially and most importantly, it makes sense...