I was not aware of the existence of this classic, but after listening to CNN’s anchor Anderson Cooper recommending it to gain perspective during the 2020 pandemic, I couldn’t help myself and bought a copy with rare pictures and additional speeches by Viktor Frankl.
The book has two parts and they complement each other well. The first part evolves around Frank’s experience during the Holocaust. During his studies of Logotherapy – the area that seeks to understand the meaning of life in relation to the future – Viktor Frankl was sent to a concentration camp with a manuscript of his book. This manuscript was lost and he had to start the project from scratch. However, the Holocaust provided him with a fertile ground to test for himself one of his most provocative hypothesis: A life does have meaning independent of the circumstances, as long as one chooses to focus on a future worth pursuing. The choice of attitude during difficult circumstances is the ultimate freedom that we as humans are endowed. The relation that we have with the future is one of the critical characteristics that define ourselves as humans. Even Jesus had to emphasize that a life worth living goes beyond the daily bread.
The description of the concentration camps is chilling but necessary to understand the depths of Frankl’s experience. For instance, he describes in detail how the mind collapses during hunger and that the only prevalent thought is the desire for food. Even sexual desire disappears. Moreover, I found fascinating Frankl’s recollections on how the Holocaust helped him to encounter a spiritual life without diminishing the horror of the experience. That’s the point: One can find meaning in any situation.
It is deeply shocking to read that Victor Frankl had to promise himself not to commit suicide, but to put that thought aside and move on with the task of surviving. This promise relied heavily on the fact that surviving was worthwhile because keeping oneself alive is the bridge to fulfill a future goal, whether it is to see one’s family one more time or finishing a manuscript. Victor shows how once that future motivation is lost the survival instinct disappears and most people succumbed to the circumstances.
The second part of the book is more scholarly, as it attempts to describe the key tenants of the Logotherapy. It focuses on the relation that a person has with their goals and aspirations in a systematic way and how only they can fulfill these aspirations to create meaning to their life. Frankl argues that one can find meaning in love, work, and suffering, but not suffering itself but into how one responds to suffering. Logotherapy aims to cure the soul by leading it to find meaning. This part of the book is beautiful, as Frankl brings his experience in Auschwitz to work on behalf of his patients, his students, and ultimately ourselves, his readers.
After reading this book, I find very appealing the idea of success as a vain construct, and more importantly, the notion that success – whatever that means – should not be aimed.
If anything, it is a side-effect of the pursuit of a greater cause. Similar to happiness, it is important to let it happen without finding it. I also felt ashamed on how frugal my life has become after more than a few good strikes of luck that I needed a pandemic and this kind of reading experience to realize that the notion of one’s potential is vain as well. The idea of humans endowed with a particular potential really assumes that we are not in control of our destiny, as this “potential” is akin to a gravitational force that will work on your behalf if only one just steps out of the way and allows it to work. That is shallow and dangerous as it brings depression as the only response to failure, as if failing is not a critical part of the process of finding meaning in what one does.
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Man's Search for Meaning - Review by Luke A. Renner
Cre8inator
READ THIS MAN'S INCREDIBLE STORY! It's not long, either!
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2021
The condition was great and the writing was even greater even with it being under 150 pages!Frankl tells of his personal experiences as a Jew in concentration camps during WW2 but focuses on the psychological effects the camp made on him and his fellow prisoners instead of the gross and gruesome details of what he saw.In this he also speaks of Logotherapy, which is a method he used with his patients and his former friends/acquaintances in the camps to help them find their own meaning in life and in what/why they've suffered.An amazing read that I'll definitely return to it for a reread. I genuinely think that the process of Logotherapy will help me with my own problems in my future.
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2021
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Excellent!
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A book to read before you die and a print to keep on your shelf
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