Viktor E. Frankl

This author's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, he argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. This book has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.

Man's Search for Meaning

El Hombre En Busca del Sentido

Belmontes 

“Vive como si ya estuvieras viviendo por segunda vez y como si la primera vez ya hubieras obrado tan desacertadamente como ahora estás a punto de obrar”

Mans Search for Meaning

Sudhanva Paturkar

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

“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist recounts his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp that led to the development of his existentialist approach to psychotherapy.

Laura Mei

If one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude.

In accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has a meaning up to the last moment, and it retains this meaning literally to the end. In other words, life's meaning is an unconditional one, for it even includes the potential meaning of unavoidable suffering.

Not only our experiences, but all we have done, whatever great thoughts we have had, and all we have suffered, all this is not lost, though it is past; we have brought it into being. Having been is also a kind of being and perhaps the surest kind.

We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and right conduct. Life ultimately means taking responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment.

windy

Is it not conceivable that there is still another dinmension, a world beyond man's wvorld; a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human suffering would find an answer?

jenna de nobrega 

to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering

Viennese psychiatrist tells his grim experiences in a German concentration camp which led him to logotherapy, an existential method of psychiatry.

Edward Steel

Vojtech

The privilege of actually smoking cigarettes was reserved for the Capo, who had his assured quota of weekly coupons; or possibly for a prisoner who worked as a foreman in a warehouse or workshop and received a few cigarettes in exchange for doing dangerous jobs. The only exceptions to this were those who had lost the will to live and wanted to 'enjoy' their last days. Thus, when we saw a comrade smoking his own cigarettes, we knew he had given up faith in his strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned.

men's search for meaning

michaela bakajsova

clara

Ryan Haber

Fantastic. "Man's Search for Meaning" is not a guide to life and it doesn't reveal the meaning of life. 

The book does make a sound defense of why life must have *meaning* and therefore cannot be a primarily material concern. This can be taken as a complement or correction of Maslow's approach. To simplify Maslow's understanding: food, clothing, shelter, and the like are primary, with things like meaning and social acceptance serving as icing on the cake. Against this, Frankl gives his experience in the Nazi camps: meaning and mission make things like shelter either happen or not matter.

In my own experience, material considerations can buffer us against suffering to some extent. In the end, though, with our defenses breached, we will be swept away by the tide of suffering like sandcastles, unless we understand and embrace the purpose of our life.

The longer I wait to write a review, the more the book has impacted me. I feel like my subconscious is still working through the stories and concepts in this book.

The two main parts of the book — the anecdotes and analyses from the concentration camps, and the development of logotherapy partially as a result of the former — served different purposes for me.

I've read several books that try to elucidate the horrors and sorrows of Auschwitz. They're emotive and have a story arch. This works to draw readers in and allow them to settle into the setting. But I enjoyed how analytical Man's Search for Meaning was. It used examples to support the main arguments which were about how the inmates feel. Frankl effectively addressed some of the hardest questions to answer (emotionally and scientifically): "How can one person become so brutal to another person especially when they originated from the same status and community?", "Why do inmates choose to commit suicide?", "How do people become numb over time?", "What role does love play in staying hopeful?", "Why does humor arise amidst suffering?". I thoroughly enjoyed the analytical lens.

Logotherapy is compared to psychoanalysis, but it is an addition. Logotherapy looks to the future while psychoanalysis looks to the past. In looking to the future, a person tries to find meaning. Meaning can manifest in three ways: 1) through doing work or a deed, 2) through an experience or loving someone, 3) through accepting and finding purpose in suffering. The best example that Frankl uses for concreteness is that if you find that your meaning of life is loving someone (the second bucket), but the beloved passes away, then you would find yourself in the third bucket. You will think that your suffering has spared your beloved and you will come to accept and grow in your grief.

A related concept he brings up is "paradoxical intention" where fearing something will bring upon that very thing being feared, while excessively desiring something will circumvent that something to happen. I relate to the hyper intention part a lot. Frankl suggests that a remedy would be to acknowledge the hyper intention, draw out the fear parallel to the desire, and will that fear to happen. I will try to implement this in my life.

I have a lot of respect for Frankl to have seen through all the pain to know that he must use his experience to develop knowledge for psychotherapy.

Xin Ma

The longer I wait to write a review, the more the book has impacted me. I feel like my subconscious is still working through the stories and concepts in this book.

The two main parts of the book — the anecdotes and analyses from the concentration camps, and the development of logotherapy partially as a result of the former — served different purposes for me.

First part:
I've read several books that try to elucidate the horrors and sorrows of Auschwitz. They're emotive and have a story arch. This works to draw readers in and allow them to settle into the setting. But I enjoyed how analytical Man's Search for Meaning was. It used examples to support the main arguments which were about how the inmates feel. Frankl effectively addressed some of the hardest questions to answer (emotionally and scientifically): "How can one person become so brutal to another person especially when they originated from the same status and community?", "Why do inmates choose to commit suicide?", "How do people become numb over time?", "What role does love play in staying hopeful?", "Why does humor arise amidst suffering?". I thoroughly enjoyed the analytical lens.

Second part:
Logotherapy is compared to psychoanalysis, but it is an addition. Logotherapy looks to the future while psychoanalysis looks to the past. In looking to the future, a person tries to find meaning. Meaning can manifest in three ways: 1) through doing work or a deed, 2) through an experience or loving someone, 3) through accepting and finding purpose in suffering. The best example that Frankl uses for concreteness is that if you find that your meaning of life is loving someone (the second bucket), but the beloved passes away, then you would find yourself in the third bucket. You will think that your suffering has spared your beloved and you will come to accept and grow in your grief.
A related concept he brings up is "paradoxical intention" where fearing something will bring upon that very thing being feared, while excessively desiring something will circumvent that something to happen. I relate to the hyper intention part a lot. Frankl suggests that a remedy would be to acknowledge the hyper intention, draw out the fear parallel to the desire, and will that fear to happen. I will try to implement this in my life.

I have a lot of respect for Frankl to have seen through all the pain to know that he must use his experience to develop knowledge for psychotherapy.

Understood that he who has a why can endure any how, or something like that. The message is awesome and the narrative first half of the book nicely intertwines psychology and storytelling. I was lost for most of the second half. 

Jonah Foss

Jamshid

Exceptionally great book. Even though I'm not an experienced in life, I learned the meaning couldn't be found. We shouldn't expect nothing from life, but we should respond to what life gives us.

Brian

A semanas de cumplir 26 años y sin sentido me encontraba. Este libro me dio esperanzas y un guiño a una nueva forma de ver la vida. Gracias.

Jonathan Tysick

It's been a while since a book impacted my thoughts, emotions, imagination and conversations the way this one did. Frankl argues that humanity's ultimate search is not for pleasure or power, but for meaning. He psychologically analyzes his own experience of the holocaust to demonstrate this (part 1), as well as sketching out themes of his logotherapy (part 2). 

As a Christian, I was very inspired by this book and Frankl's method of therapy. "For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue. And it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself." Highly recommended!

Yeung Man Lung

One of my best book ever. Humanity and civilisation.

Cheri Fuller

Emma

One of the most profound books I have ever read - undoubtedly one I will return to many times.

Viktor E Frankl

16 MILLION COPIES SOLD 'A book to read, to cherish, to debate, and one that will ultimately keep the memories of the victims alive' John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 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 concentration camp prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. 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.

The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust

Man's Search For Meaning

Ed Kay

Obviously any account of the horrors of the holocaust is so tragic and moving as to demand nothing short of 5* which I certainly give the first half of this book. This account is all the more humbling and astonishing due to the matter-of-fact narration. It's almost impossible to imagine living in conditions like this, let alone surviving it. Perhaps our minds just don't want to imagine it, and resist. I suppose every survivor story is a mixture of luck and tenacity and Frankl's is no different. There is certainly a lot to learn from these account, if nothing more than giving one gratitude for how easy and wonderful our lives are, in comparison to how bad they could be.

This edition had two further parts which went into greater detail about Frankl's resulting psychotherapeutic methods called 'logotherapy'. I was not particularly interested in any of this and it was quite a demanding read, and it's only because of this that the whole book gets marked down to an average of 3*.

Faith Ho 

This is a powerful book. 

So many parts of this book that made me stop and think; to look at my life beyond day to day routine. I picked this book up at a time of existential malaise (yes, very emo) and while I still believe that finding "the meaning of life" (mine, or in general) is a discovery rather than a definitive end point or answer, this book definitely shaped and reframed much of my perspective on that matter. 

I've jotted down many lines from this that I am excited to revisit but one stands out: "it did not really matter what we expected from life, but what life expected from us." 

Pause. Segue. 

In these times, when cynicism seems to overpower hope and the fight for the better, the fact that the author had gone through such a traumatic experience yet reaffirmed his commitment to living and finding meaning gives me hope. 

The first section is his direct reflection on his experiences in the concentration camp, which is full of perspective and ideas. The second section is on his psychology practice, logotherapy (psychology which aids the patient by finding their meaning), which was personally very interesting to read, though it could be rather technical at times. The third is on "tragic optimism", which I think most clearly reaffirms human agency and the value in struggle (it often seems nowadays that everything we do is explained by sociology, biology or psychology - this is very powerful. Though free will is another complex concept that can be debated endlessly). Ultimately, this book is perhaps less of a search than a rallying cry that there is meaning that can be found in every life, at every moment.

Bouke van der Bijl

This is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the Holocaust. It is the authors recount of his life in concentration camps, and what effect it had on his psyche. It uses this experience to show that even in the most dire of circumstances, one can find meaning.

An inspiring book about a holocaust survivor's experiences in a concentration camp, sharing how to persevere even in the most dire circumstances. One of my favourite quotes from the book is, “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude”. A powerful reminder that we cannot always control what happens to or around us, but we can control how we feel and respond.

Matthew Royal

Interesting insights on how the magnitude of suffering and joy are independent of the size of the event.

Frankl has a few gems, but his thesis that suffering brings meaning to life and that life is meaningless without suffering is clearly a defensive reaction to living through Auschwitz. His observation that a belief in the meaninglessness of life combined with a focus on sexual pleasure (hedonism) leads to pansexuality is interesting. He advocates that the pleasure is an outgrowth of love, which to me seems like a too easy way of cutting that knot. I feel that Epicurus would have a lot of useful things to say here.

His general remarks on meaning in life were a bit too thin, though he explicitly prefaces his story with an apology that he cannot draw deeper insights from his own experience, and leaves it to others to complete the job.

His philosophy of logotherapy appears to me to be an overfitting activity. Combating depression or other suffering by grasping your situation firmly and shaking it like a snowglobe until meaning falls out. Now that a bad event is found to be meaningful, the pain will fall away. He only presents successes, but the principles are vague: like North Korean Juche or the Matrix, our experts can do it and tell you you're doing it wrong, but no one can be told what it is.

didn't like the way it was written, but it's good that it was written.

frankl often firstly states his hypothesis and then gives several loose anecdotes that vaguely adumbrate his point. there's a lot of purposeful framing of the events, post-decisional rationalization and cherry-picking to support his arguments. it's natural and understandable in any memoir, especially so if you have a philosophy of life you firmly believe in. i don't fault him for that. personally the way everything seemed perfectly framed, confident, something like moral superiority over other schools of psychotherapy and philosophies...was to a degree to which i couldn't gloss over. 

i first read it when i was in primary school. it's still a very worthwhile read. very succinct too. it's probably because of my exposure to concepts like cognitive dissonance and other theories in social psychology that i'm bothered by several of his points.

morgan

didn't like the way it was written, but it's good that it was written.

frankl often firstly states his hypothesis and then gives several loose anecdotes that vaguely adumbrate his point. there's a lot of purposeful framing of the events, post-decisional rationalization and cherry-picking to support his arguments. it's natural and understandable in any memoir, especially so if you have a philosophy of life you firmly believe in. i don't fault him for that. personally the way everything seemed perfectly framed, confident, something like moral superiority over other schools of psychotherapy and philosophies...was to a degree to which i couldn't gloss over. 

i first read it when i was in primary school. it's still a very worthwhile read. very succinct too. it's probably because of my exposure to concepts like cognitive dissonance and other theories in social psychology that i'm bothered by several of his points.

Jimmy Cerone

Very interesting and so distinct from the other books like this I've read that I'm having trouble placing it. This one will keep me thinking for a long time yet.

Obada Mu

Brilliant, I liked this book. It is a research explains how a prisoner can adapt new environment in both sides the psychological and the Physical one especially in tough times. 
This book talks about those poor people in terrible situations who were ruled by the most dangerous soldiers. The author shows how and when the prisoner could change and when he would reach his maximum to be in a dead status so he would stop feel anything more.
All these were during the Nazi period. Period was like hell on those poor prisoners also on the world in general.

I recommend this book to everyone.

poprika

Perfect reminder ! 
The o ny negative thing is ending was a bit long and felt self-centered

Mehrere Jahre musste der österreichische Psychologe Viktor E. Frankl in deutschen Konzentrationslagern verbringen. Doch trotz all des Leids, das er dort sah und erlebte, kam er zu dem Schluss, dass es selbst an Orten der größten Unmenschlichkeit möglich ist, einen Sinn im Leben zu sehen. Seine Erinnerungen, die er in diesem Buch festhielt und die über Jahrzehnte Millionen von Menschen bewegten, sollen weder Mitleid erregen noch Anklage erheben. Sie sollen Kraft zum Leben geben.

Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager

... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen

genial. Da una mirada única de lo que fue haber pasado por la experiencia de un campo de concentración; y aún así, encontrándole un sentido a todo. 

Me hizo pensar en amor fati: "Der Mensch muss sich auch dem Leid gegenüber zu dem Bewußtsein durchdringen, daß er mit diesem leidvollen Schicksal sozusagen im ganzen Kosmos einmalig und einzigartig dasteht. Niemand kann es ihm abnehmen, niemand kann an seiner Stelle dieses Leid durchleiden. Darin aber, wie er selbst, der von diesem Schicksal Betroffene, dieses Leid trägt, darin liegt auch die einmalige Möglichkeit zu einer einzigartigen Leistung."

benja

genial. Da una mirada única de lo que fue haber pasado por la experiencia de un campo de concentración; y aún así, encontrándole un sentido a todo. 

Me hizo pensar en amor fati: "Der Mensch muss sich auch dem Leid gegenüber zu dem Bewußtsein durchdringen, daß er mit diesem leidvollen Schicksal sozusagen im ganzen Kosmos einmalig und einzigartig dasteht. Niemand kann es ihm abnehmen, niemand kann an seiner Stelle dieses Leid durchleiden. Darin aber, wie er selbst, der von diesem Schicksal Betroffene, dieses Leid trägt, darin liegt auch die einmalige Möglichkeit zu einer einzigartigen Leistung."

Arturo Hernández

“Frankl saw three posible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in Kobe (caring for another person) and in courage in difficult times (we give each 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”

“Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it”

“The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory”

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how”

Reinier Terblanche

A must-read. This book opened my eyes to the evil of the Nazi concentration camps from the perspective of the author - who lived through Auschwitz and survived to share his experiences and reflections in the form of this profound book. 

In the midst of such suffering and evil, the author makes a case for "meaning" as the most essential drive of the human soul. His argument is that a man who has purpose, and understands the reason for his existence, can live through and overcome even the most terrible suffering. 

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” - Nietzche

That's the first half of the book.

The second half of the book is a brief overview of Logotherapy. Which is a therapeutic method based on the conviction that life has a call on every man and woman. A call to which we are responsible.

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist recounts his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp that led to the development of his existentialist approach to psychotherapy. Reissue.

Azalea Wolong 

Really changed my perspective on life. I appreciate life more.

Siya S

"All that we have left is our naked existence" 

This is a compelling story about a man who entered the deadliest concentration camp in the history of mankind and walked out with the revelation on so many things in life. I don't think I could have stuck through until the end, had I chose to read it myself. Thanks to the audiobook version, I find this a lot easier to digest and go through in many parts of the story.

At the heart of the story is his theory on logotherapy, which is an art of finding something meaningful in life that is worth living for. It's as if it's just part of the packages, but we as a human cannot avoid devastating events that emerge to destroy us at any stage in life. For Frankl, it seems the only thing we could do is at least learn how to cope with it. Suffering, like everything in life, comes and goes. Finding the meaning in life at least grants you the purpose to navigate this world knowing why both good and bad things happen to you throughout the course of the long journey. 

I wish I have read this book when I was much much younger.

Every once in a while I read a book that fundamentally shapes my world view and leaves a lasting mark. This is one of them.

Man's Search for Meaning

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