Self help books don't usually fall under the BookSexy umbrella. Occasionally, though, I recognize that a little guidance can be helpful. Which is why Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (so much more than a self-help book) has had a place on my nightstand for the last 10 years.

Frankl was sent, with his wife and parents, to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in 1942. He was liberated from Türkheim (near Dachau) in 1945. A psychiatrist before the war, he survived his time in the camps attempting to treat fellow prisoners and mentally re-writing the manuscript that was taken from him on his imprisonment, incorporating his camp experiences into it. The result has since been dubbed the “Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy”: Logotherapy.

Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning. There are some authors who contend that meaning and values are "nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations." But as for myself, I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my "defense mechanisms," now would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my "reaction formations." Man, however, is able to live and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values!

What does this mean? Frankl had discovered that those prisoners who had meaning in their life were more likely to survive their time in the concentration camps. The key lay in finding something in the future to live for - be it their next meal, a reunion with family, a task to be completed or, in his case, a manuscript to publish. Without this will to meaning, the prisoner often gave up and death was almost inevitable. (Of course, the difficulty often lay in pin-pointing what gave meaning to each individual).

Full review at:
http://booksexy.wordpress.com/2009/11... ( )

Knowing that our district is paying big bucks for this is disappointing...it does not correct spelling erros and the Dictionary and Encyclopedia are decidedly American in their leanings. I used the word colour and it said ' There is no exact match to colour.' It gave a list of closely spelled words of which color was one...This I discovered is because the Dictionary is 'The American Heritage Children's Dictionary' and the encyclopedia is Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. If I were in America I would favour(not favor) this data base more, but I'm not and I don't!  

Viktor Frankl was more than an Austrian born Holocaust survivor—he was a natural born philosopher equipped to both experience an event, and to stand outside of it, pulling meaning from within.

Logotherapy, which is a sort of existentialist analysis, places the driving force of all human nature in finding meaning and purpose in life. Logotherapy concludes that:

• Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
• Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
• We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.

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I was required to read this for a philosophy 102 course, and did not expect to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. Frankl does an excellent job of weaving his philosophical points seamlessly into the story he tells, and the result is poignant and thought-provoking. I sold my copy back to my school bookstore at the end of the semester, and have been regretting it ever since. ( )