Prisoners of Our Thoughts: Viktor Frankl's Principles for Discovering Meaning in Life and Work [Paperback]

Alex Pattakos Ph.D. (Author), Stephen R. Covey (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2010

World-renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is one of the most important books of modern times.  Alex Pattakos—who Frankl urged to write this book--applies Frankl’s philosophy and therapeutic approach to life and work in the 21st Century, detailing seven principles for increasing your capacity to deal with life-work challenges, finding meaning in your daily life and work, and achieving your highest potential. This updated and expanded second edition includes new personal stories, new data on meaning, a new chapter on the difference meaning makes in people’s lives, and new exercises to help apply the seven principles.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The late Viktor Frankl's hopeful Man's Search for Meaning emerged from his experience in a Nazi concentration camp. With Frankl's blessing, Pattakos, a cofounder of the Innovation Group consultancy and a former professor of public and business administration, applies Frankl's lessons to corporate America's workplaces. Logotherapy, Frankl's therapeutic approach, says we are free to respond to all aspects of our destiny; Pattakos argues that if we all have a will to meaning, then even if we work for unenlightened companies, we can still "connect meaningfully with others" within the workplace. Finding your sense of humor, giving to others and forgiving, and "de-reflecting" (or shifting your focus of attention) are all strategies for connection; one should consider "ten positive things" when losing a job or taking a pay cut. Pattakos ends each chapter with a "Meaning Moment" and a "Meaning Question," which can seem contrived (how exactly is your work like a "mission"?) and a lot of the advice will feel like familiar workplace etiquette that has been rebranded. Still, Pattakos's is a humane approach that allows for purpose in even the most purposeless-seeming environments, which is surely palliative care—if not a cure—for work ruts. The foreword is by The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People author Stephen R. Covey.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“This landmark book underscores how the search for meaning is intimately related to and positively influences health improvement at all levels. Reading Prisoners of Our Thoughts is an insightful prescription for promoting health and wellness!”

—Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD, Professor, University of Arizona and University of California, San Francisco Schools of Medicine; Chairman, American Health Association; and author of The Best Alternative Medicine.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; Second Edition edition (July 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605095249
• ISBN-13: 978-1605095240
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Psychotherapy, TA & NLP

More About the Author

Alex Pattakos, Ph.D., affectionately nicknamed "Dr. Meaning," is widely respected as a pioneer in transformational thinking. He is the founder of the OPA! Center for Meaning, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, and Rethymnon, Crete, Greece. Alex is passionate about helping people realize their highest potential and find deeper, authentic meaning in their everyday lives and work. His book, Prisoners of Our Thoughts, is based on the wisdom of his mentor, the world-renown psychiatrist, Dr. Viktor Frankl (author of the classic best-seller, Man's Search for Meaning), and includes a Foreword by Dr. Stephen Covey (author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). Prisoners of Our Thoughts is already available in 20 languages and multiple formats.

Alex is a former therapist and mental health administrator, political campaign organizer, community/economic development policy planner, and full-time professor of public and business administration. He's worked closely with several Presidential administrations in the USA on social and economic policy matters, and served as an adviser to the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He was also one of the initial faculty evaluators for the Innovations in American Government Awards Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and has been a faculty member at The Brookings Institution. He is a past president of Renaissance Business Associates (RBA), an international, nonprofit association of people committed to elevating the human spirit in the workplace. During his tenure as president, RBA was active in Australia, Canada, Europe, Nigeria, South Africa, and the USA.

Dr. Pattakos understands the challenges facing people in today's uncertain times. Through his public speaking, work with Fortune 500 companies, public and nonprofit organizations, and university teaching, Alex has helped people at all levels build their capacities for personal and organizational transformation with a focus on and authentic commitment to meaningful value and goals that make a positive difference in the world. A proud Greek-American (of Cretan heritage), Alex ("Aleko") is the co-founder of a new initiative and brand platform, The OPA! Way®--an approach to "Living & Working with Meaning" that is uniquely inspired by and based on Greek culture. Besides being in the process of co-authoring (with Dr. Elaine Dundon) a new book on The OPA! Way, Dr. Pattakos is scheduling client speaking engagements, workshops/seminars, and retreats to introduce and apply (with practical tools & techniques) the nine lessons of The OPA! Way for personal growth, leadership/executive development, and organizational transformation/performance improvement.

For information about this new paradigm and to join the OPA! Village, visit: http://www.theopaway.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

180 of 194 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical path to peace May 2, 2005

By Charles Runels Md VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This book helps make practical a very nebulous but valuable skill. Let me explain:

About 29 years ago, as a teenager, while roaming the Birminham Public Library, I picked up a worn copy of Victor Frankl's book about man's search for meaning. I vividly remember where I was standing, think I could almost go to the spot on the shelf where I found the book; I think the memory lives clearly because as I scanned through the book, I became haunted with the images that came from its pages and moved by the strength of which it testified. I sat down, read more, took the book home, and never forgot the lesson.

When I worked as a janitor in high school at a local gym, I tried to find meaning by framing my work as helping provide a wholesome environment for children. When I worked as a cook at Hardee's, I was helping keep families together by providing a convenient and affordable place to escape and relax. When I worked alone as a chemist on army contracts, I was helping preserve freedom. When I worked as an ER physician, the value of saving lives was plain but then the challenge was to find meaning in the suffering around me.

These examples (from my work life) show what I strove for; but the practical, every-day accomplishment of finding meaning in the pain, drudgery, and short-term injustice that swirls around me and everyone I know has not always been a task at which I've been successful. Sometimes, I left the gym nasty and tired and just angry at how inconsiderate people can be. Sometimes I left the ER angry and confused that innocent people came to me in pain and disease at no fault of their own: how do you hold responsible a child molested, a young mother killed by a drunk driver, the crying child with sickle cell disease, the gasping child with cystic fibrosis?

You don't hold them responsible. And as you wade through the pain of the ER working with nurses and technicians with their own problems, sometimes it feels as if the world is thick with pain and thin with meaning.

In looking for meaning in suffering, I've found some help in Boethius' book "Consolation of Philosophy," in William James' "Pragmatism," in Oswald Chambers' "The Christian Disciplines," in the scriptures of the Holy Bible and the Bagavad Gita as well as in Frankl's writings. This book by Dr. Pattakos belongs on the shelf with those books as a classic about how to find meaning instead of power or pleasure and then uncover joy in meaning.

I write this reverently with the awareness that I'm immature in these matters--I've looked into the face of a quadraplegic man, bed bound for over 20 years, and heard him talk eloquently about how his accident was good fortune because it brought him closer to GOD; I don't know if I could do that. I've had to tell the mother that her child didn't live and watched her accept the news with strength and peace. I've seen this and more and so know that some do find meaning in situations heavy with pain. This is the skill that this book teaches: the skill of finding peace and meaning and the resultant deep joy.

The model used by Dr. Pattakos is the working life: how to find meaning at work. Like swinging two bats before walking to the plate to swing one, Dr. Pattakos draws from Dr. Frankl's writings about severe pain and unbelievable injustice to develop a pattern for finding meaning in the often painful pathways at work. The exercises make practical the every-day application of finding meaning and so uncovering joy and effectiveness. Simple exercises that take only a few minutes help plant each chapter in the fiber of thought and peel back the dirty details to the core meaning of work. Practical, easy exercises to help develop a valuable skill of mind and soul.

--Charles Runels, MD

Author of "Anytime...for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation"

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Innovation Road Map Magazine May 6, 2005

By Paul A. Schumann Jr.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was looking forward to reading this book when I found that Alex Pattakos had written it. I was not disappointed. I looked forward to reading the book because it was based, at least in part, upon Frankl's classic Man's Search for Meaning. I read and studied Frankl's book 25 years ago at a particularly low spot in my life - my younger brother, Bill, had died suddenly of a heart attack when he was only 40. My father was quite ill with heart disease, and I was about to be diagnosed with cancer. What was the meaning of life? Frankl's answer to that question influenced me in many ways, more than I ever realized until I read Pattakos's book. Since I had not read Frankl in over twenty years, I could now see how his teaching had informed my life.

This is a great book - probably one of the best books on work life yet written. I read the book in one sitting (something I've never done before), marking the book and making numerous notes. I intend to give it to my friends as gifts.

Pattakos writes in his preface, " This book deals with the human quest for meaning and, therefore, was written with you in mind. It is grounded firmly in the philosophy and approach of the world-renowned psy-chiatrist, Viktor Frankl, author of the classic bestseller, Man's Search far Meaning (named one of the ten most influential books in America by the Library of Congress). Frankl, a sur-vivor of the Nazi concentration camps during World War II, is the founder of Logotherapy, a meaning-centered and humanistic approach to psychotherapy. His ideas and experi-ences related to the search for meaning have significantly influenced people around the world. In this book, you will find a conceptual foundation, as well as practical guidance, for examining your own questions about meaning in your work and everyday life.

The goal of this book, moreover, is to bring meaning to work-that is, to do for the domain of work what Frankl, as a psychiatrist, was able to do for psychotherapy. Because I am defining the notion of "work" very broadly, the message in this book applies to a very broad audience as well. In fact, it applies to volunteers as well as to paid workers; to people working in all sectors and industries; to retirees; to individuals beginning a job search or career; and to those in "transition." And, because this book demonstrates how Frankl's principles actually work in a generic context, its message can be applied to everyday living too. In this regard, besides introducing you to Frankl's core ideas about life, the book is filled with examples, stories, exercises, and practical tools that can help guide you on your path to finding meaning at work and in your personal life.

It was in a meeting with Frankl at his home in Vienna, Austria, in August 1996, when I first proposed the idea of writing a book that would apply his core principles and approach explicitly to work and the workplace, to the world of business. Frankl was more than encouraging when, in his typically direct and passionate style, he leaned across his desk, grabbed my arm, and said: "Alex, yours is the book that needs to be written!" As you can imagine, I felt that Frankl's words had been branded into the core of my being, and I was determined, from that moment forward, to make this book idea a reality. And so it is."

We are by nature, creatures of habit. We seek to identify and stay within comfort zones. These comfort zones are patterns of thoughts. As we repeat these patterns of thought over and over again. We begin to believe that life happens to us and limit our own potential. We become prisoners of our own thoughts.

"Viewing life as inherently meaningful and literally unlimited in potential requires a shift in consciousness," writes Pattakos. "It also requires responsible actions on our part for, as Frankl points out, the potential meaning that exists in each moment of life can only be searched for and detected by each of us individually. This responsibility he says is 'to be actualized by each of us at any time, even in the most miserable situations and literally up to the last breath of ourselves.'"

We choose how we respond to life. "...life doesn't happen to us. We happen to life; and we make it meaningful."

Pattakos discusses not only personal transformation, but also the transformation of work itself. "The transformation of work in the twenty-first century is, in many respects, a call for humanity - a new consciousness that suggests more than simply trying to strike a balance between our work and our personal life. It is a call to honor our own individuality and fully engage our human spirit at work - wherever that may be."

"The goal of this book is to bring meaning to work...," writes Pattakos. I believe he does an excellent job in this 187-page book full of wisdom and insights. It is a must read.

The book is divided into eleven chapters - Life Doesn't Just Happen to Us, Viktor Frankl's Lifework and Legacy, Labyrinths of Meaning, Exercise the Freedom to Choose Your Attitude, Realize Your Will to Meaning, Detect the Meaning of Life's Moments, Don't Work Against Yourself, Look at Yourself form a Distance, Shift Your Focus of Attention, Extend Beyond Yourself and Living and Working with Meaning.

Pattakos has synthesized more than just Frankl's Search for Meaning. He has read and studied most of Frankl's work and interviewed Frankl himself. He occupies a unique position to write this book.

"All human beings, Frankl would say, ultimately have both the freedom and responsibility to position themselves along two key dimensions of life," writes Pattakos. These two key dimensions are success-failure and despair-meaning. Where are you right now in this continuum? Are you where you want to be?

"There is something in us that can rise above and beyond everything we think possible. Our instinct for meaning, at work and in our daily life, is ours right now, at this very moment. As long as we are not a prisoner of our thoughts," concludes Pattakos.

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Adds little to works of Viktor Frankl. October 21, 2005

By GPK

Format:Hardcover

I bought this book because I was impressed by the books of Viktor Frankl and I thought: if this book contains half the wisdom of the Frankl books then it is worth its price. I was disappointed.

I am convinced that the author had the best intentions, but his book simply depends too much on Frankl's work: first the author takes some quotes from Frankl's book, then proceeds to explain this using a contemporary 'business situation' (just a story) and adds some of his own thoughts. If you have read Frankl's book you constantly realise you already know what you are reading. The author's own thoughts make up perhaps 10% of the book. For any book I think the reason to buy it should be that the author makes an original contribution to the subject, and not because the author is capable of explaining other people's ideas who have already done so extensively.

Bottom line: if you are unfamiliar with the work of Frankl, then this book contains a lot of valuable insight. But in that case I would recommend reading Frankl's books first. And if you have already read Frankl's books, then this book has little added value.