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Mans Search for Meaning [Unknown Binding]

4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,003 customer reviews)


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Book Description

2006
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 ...


Product Details

  • Unknown Binding
  • Publisher: BeaconPres,2006 (2006)
  • ASIN: B003FB0268
  • Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,003 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #581,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Viktor E. Frankl is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School and Distinguished Professor of Logotherapy at the U.S. International University. He is the founder of what has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology) -- the school of logotherapy.
Born in 1905, Dr. Frankl received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna. During World War II he spent three years at Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps.

Dr. Frankl first published in 1924 in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and has since published twenty-six books, which have been translated into nineteen languages, including Japanese and Chinese. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Duquesne and Southern Methodist Universities. Honorary Degrees have been conferred upon him by Loyola University in Chicago, Edgecliff College, Rockford College and Mount Mary College, as well as by universities in Brazil and Venezuela. He has been a guest lecturer at universities throughout the world and has made fifty-one lecture tours throughout the United States alone. He is President of the Austrian Medical Society of Psychotherapy.



Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
527 of 542 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant account.... November 25, 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The first section of this book (which makes up over half of the text) consist of Victor Frankl's account of his experiences in the concentration camp. This section seems unique among the Holocaust accounts that I've seen and read because Dr. Frankl approaches the topic from a psychological perspective. He discusses the ways in which the different prisoners react to their (note: men and women were seperated at the camps, so Frankl is mainly disscussing his experiences with the men in Auschwitz) imprissonment. He writes about the psychological effects of being completely dehumanized; of losing even your name, and becoming simply a number. Also he disscusses the effects of not being able to contact loved ones, or even know is they are still living. Another issue that Dr. Frankl talks about in this book is the idea that none of the prisoners of the concentration camp had an idea as to when there imprissonment would end (if ever). Thus, they were faced with the thought of living the rest of their lives as workers at the camps. Dr. Frankl discusses how people can find meaning to life in these conditions. He also describes how finding meaning in life, or a reason to live, was extraordinarilly important to surviving the camp.

One of the most interesting, and disturbing, issues in the book was the idea of the Capo. These were were people put in charge of their fellow prisoners, in order to keep them in line. Dr. Frankl describes these people as, often, being more harsh than the actual guards. This seems to be a disturbing lesson in the abuse of power. This also goes along with Dr. Frankl's discussion of how the camps brought out the true personality of the people within it (after all the social trapping had been stripped away): The cretins, the saints, and all of those in between.

The second half of the book is made up of two sections "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," and "The Case for Tragic Optimsism." These two sections basically describe Dr. Frankl's theory on as to how to conduct therapy (Logotherapy). The idea behind this therapy is that man is driven by his search for a meaning in life. This differs from the psychoanalysis perspective (driven, at this time, by the ideas of Sigmund Freud) in that the psychoanalytic school believed that humans were driven by their unconscious desires. For Frankl, the need for meaning seems to outway the unconscious. In fact, he goes into detail about the negative effects that the abscence of meaning, or what he calls the "existential Vacuum," has on people. To illustrate many ideas, he often uses his experiences in the concentration camps, as well as various cases for treatment (which help to solidify his view of life, and therapy).

I would recomend this book to almost anybody. I feel that it's interesting, and worthwhile. I would especially recomend this to people interested in psychology, as well as those who wish to learn something about the experiences within the concentration camps.

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222 of 229 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars How to be Worthy of One's Suffering September 1, 2006
Format:Paperback
Frankl, who survived the concentration camps, writes that suffering is inevitable and that avoiding suffering is futile. Rather, one should be worthy of one's suffering and make meaning of it instead of surrendering to nihilism, bitterness and despair. He uses poetic, moving anecdotes from the concentration camps to illustrate those souls who find a deeper humanity from their suffering or who become animals relegated to nothing more than teeth-clenched self-preservation. Though not specifically religious, this masterpiece has a religious purpose--to help us find meaning. This book succeeds immeasurably.

*** Why no voting buttons? We do
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254 of 263 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This book could change your life January 8, 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Dr. Frankl's logotherapy is straightforward and easy to understand. It is also a useful antidote to the rather frightening drift in psychology during the past two decades toward strict biological determinism.

This particular work is one I keep at hand and re-read on a regular basis. I read it for the first time a few months after I started medical treatment and therapy for life-long depression. I get more from it each time I go back to it.

Logotherapy manages an incredible balance. It does not put man himself at the center of the universe, thus avoiding the kind of narcissistic self-reflection common to much of the therapeutic literature today. Yet, it does not sweep man aside as irrelevant. Instead, Frankl argues that we have an incredible power to shape our attitudes and responses to the challenges life presents us and that we inevitably grow thanks to these challenges.

This is a quick read and could conceivably change your life. Man is more than the sum of his biology and his environment. We inevitably choose to be who we are. Frankl's argument is that, if we choose wisely, we can triumph even in tragedy. It's a truth many of us have lost sight of in our cynicism.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Very thought-provoking
This book made me cry & think. I wept for the things that Dr Frankl experienced, but I still found myself thinking about the theory that was forming due to what he was going... Read more
Published 9 hours ago by Tanya
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
This is a book that will inspire and motivate you to live life by loving everything in it. It is the choices we make that determines who we choose to be.
Published 10 hours ago by Kelsey Delacruz
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read
I had never heard of this book, but it was so interesting. We've all heard many, many stories of what the concentration camps were, and if you haven't been, you should visit at... Read more
Published 2 days ago by janice1234
5.0 out of 5 stars A demonstration of "good coming out of evil"
A wonderful book; an easy read yet profound in depth. Can anything good come out of the suffering in a concentration camp without diminishing the suffering, without magnifying the... Read more
Published 2 days ago by B. Holland
4.0 out of 5 stars Many provocative insights.
Out of the life of this holocaust survivor come many insights on the meaning of life . At times it slips into psycho babble yet out of the horrors of the authors life and... Read more
Published 3 days ago by docjack
5.0 out of 5 stars I will read this over and over.
I have a group of books that I read over when I'm struggling with some personal concept and this will be one of them. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Laura Vincent
5.0 out of 5 stars A real thinker
I loved this book it is truly inspirational. Viktor Frankl is a brilliant writer and man I wish that I could have met him. I would recommend this book to everyone.
Published 6 days ago by Alex
5.0 out of 5 stars Life-Changer
Read this book in a few days. I'd heard of it for years, and had it on my list. Getting around to it finally made sense. Read more
Published 7 days ago by John Ellison
5.0 out of 5 stars A Life Reading-
I would recommend for anyone, If you want a reality check in how others can overcome trauma or loss beyond reason. This book gives motivation to be the one who gives life meaning.
Published 7 days ago by earle pion
5.0 out of 5 stars Some books were meant to exist. This one was fate.
This book was suggested to me a while ago by my friend Raul. I was having an existential crisis, you see, and I was wondering how to bring meaning to my life.

Viktor E. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Anabelle Bernard Fournier
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