Man's Search For Meaning

by Viktor Frankl

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Frankl, Viktor E. (1985). Man's Search for Meaning. A Washington Square Press publication of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Shuster, Inc. New York: Washington Square Press.

tthrall | Apr 24, 2013 |

One of my touchstone books that read every few years. Frankl found spiritual lessons in the depths of Nazi death camps that resonant for me wherever life takes me. (

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SallyWienerGrotta | Apr 11, 2013 |

Hard to argue with the guy's conclusions, after understanding how he came to them. (

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DanAllosso | Apr 5, 2013 |

Hands down one of the most inspiring and beautiful books I've ever read. Viktor Frankl writes with the greatest dignity about his experiences during the Holocaust and about finding meaning. It's heartbreaking and deeply moving. (

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queenozymandia | Apr 4, 2013 |

If this is your first taste of the craptastic reality of WWII concentration camps and the fantastic power of psychotherapy, then it should blow you away. (I bet this will be a 5 star read for any newbie student of the human condition.)

But if your mental moccasins have already tread those pathways, then you might only be nodding your head in agreement a lot. (So probably a 3-5 star read for a more worldly sort.)

For me, the best content was in the section where Frankl discussed Logotherapy. I especially liked that he wanted people to push outside the me-centered universe of one's neuroses to get to an externally based reference frame that could look forward to the future.

IMO, the future is all about US. You AND me. In my view of reality, there is space for us to juggle both our own needs and the needs of others. Hmm. Maybe I should open a juggling school... (

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KatLowe | Apr 3, 2013 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Viktor Frankl	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Kushner, Harold S.	Foreword	main author	some editions	confirmed
Winslade, William J.	Afterword	main author	some editions	confirmed
Lasch, Ilse	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Series (with order)

Canonical title

Man's Search For Meaning

Original title

From Death-Camp to Existentialism

Alternative titles

האדם מחפש משמעות

Original publication date

1946

1959 (English)

People/Characters

Viktor Frankl

Important places

Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to the English one.

Auschwitz, Klein-Polen, Polen

Important events

Related movies

Awards and honors

HarperCollins 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century

Epigraph

Dedication

To the memory of my mother

First words

This book does not claim to be an account of facts and events but of personal experiences, experiences which millions of prisoners have suffered time and again.

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Pocket Books

Blurbers

Allport, Gordon

Kreyche, Gerald

Publisher series

▾References

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Wikipedia in English (6)

Beacon Press

Logotherapy

Man's Search for Meaning

Paradoxical intention

Viktor Frankl

Will to power

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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 080701429X, Mass Market Paperback)

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. Frankl's logotherapy, therefore, 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."

(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:15:52 -0500)

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▾Library descriptions

In this work, a Viennese psychiatrist tells his grim experiences in a German concentration camp which led him to logotherapy, an existential method of psychiatry. This work has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 the author, a psychiatrist labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the stories of his many patients, he argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. His theory, known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (meaning), holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.… (more)

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