Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Man's Search for Meaning: Gift Edition

by Viktor E. Frankl, Gordon Willard Allport (Preface by)

4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 · rating details · 57,895 ratings · 3,895 reviews

We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life-daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly...more

Hardcover, 165 pages

Published March 30th 2000 by Beacon Press (first published 1946)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Feb 28, 2013 Petra X rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reviews, history, philosophy-religion, psycho-neurology-crime

How is it possible to write dispassionately of life in a concentration camp in such a way as to engender great feeling in the reader? This is how Frankl dealt with his experience of those terrible years. The dispassionate writing makes the horrors of the camp extremely distressing, more so than writing that is more emotionally involved. It is almost reportage. The first half of the book is equal in its telling to The Diary of a Young Girl in furthering our understanding of those dreadful times.

T...more

like 59 likes · see review

Apr 26, 2013 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Emily by: Robert T. Barrett

After the Book of Mormon, this would be my second recommendation to anyone looking for purpose in life.

Here's a poignant excerpt from one of my favorite parts of the book when Frankl has been in Auschwitz and other camps for several years and doesn't know the war is only weeks away from ending. He had decided to escape his camp near Dachau with a friend and was visiting some of his patients for the last time.

"I came to my only countryman, who was almost dying, and whose life it had been my ambi...more After the Book of Mormon, this would be my second recommendation to anyone looking for purpose in life.

Here's a poignant excerpt from one of my favorite parts of the book when Frankl has been in Auschwitz and other camps for several years and doesn't know the war is only weeks away from ending. He had decided to escape his camp near Dachau with a friend and was visiting some of his patients for the last time.

"I came to my only countryman, who was almost dying, and whose life it had been my ambition to save in spite of myself, but my comrade seemed to guess that something was wrong (perhaps I showed a little nervousness). In a tired voice he asked me, 'You too, are getting out?' I denied it, but I found it difficult to avoid his sad look. After my round I returned to him. Again a hopeless look greeted me and somehow I felt it to be an accusation. The unpleasant feeling that had gripped me as soon as I had told my friend I would escape with him became more intense.

Suddenly I decided to take fate into my own hands for once. I ran out of the hut and told my friend that I could not go with him. As soon as I had told him with finality that I had made up my mind to stay with my patients, the unhappy feeling left me. I did not know what the following days would bring, but I had gained an inward peace that I had never experienced before. I returned to the hut, sat down on the boards at my countryman's feet and tried to comfort him..."

I found such strength and wisdom in this book--strength and advice for me as a mother of five young children. While potty training, bending over to clean up a handful of toys for the the thousandth time that day, scraping Play Dough off of a filthy kitchen floor on hands and knees, and preparing the fifth snack of the day for several hungry mouths (directly after doing the dishes from the previous snack) I find the text of this book to give profound meaning to small and simple acts of selflessness, patience, and service. What a profound reminder that "The immediate influence of behavior is always more effective than that of words." I desperately needed to read this book, if only to remember to be calm and kind to my little ones so that they will pass on the favor to their own next generation.

Bravo to Viktor Frankl for bringing human frailty and greatness into perspective.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." -Frankl
(less)

like 35 likes · see review

Dec 01, 2008 Laurel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, non-fiction, classics, psychology, memoir, philosophy, history

I read this book for the first time during my senior year in high school. The year prior, I had gone to Germany for spring break with some fellow classmates. During the trip, we spent a day visiting a former WWII concentration camp in Dachau. As one might expect, this visit had a profound affect on me. I had of course read and knew about the atrocities that occurred under the Nazi regime, but to actually see the gas chambers in person is a deeply haunting and disturbing experience. Perhaps for t...more I read this book for the first time during my senior year in high school. The year prior, I had gone to Germany for spring break with some fellow classmates. During the trip, we spent a day visiting a former WWII concentration camp in Dachau. As one might expect, this visit had a profound affect on me. I had of course read and knew about the atrocities that occurred under the Nazi regime, but to actually see the gas chambers in person is a deeply haunting and disturbing experience. Perhaps for this reason, Frankl's book affected me even more deeply than it otherwise might have.

The book is divided into two parts. The first section recounts in vivid detail Frankl's horrifying experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. Frankl, a former psychiatrist, also describes his observations of other prisoners, and what he felt to be the main way in which people tried to cope with the insurmountable obstacles they faced. He found that those who could find meaning or purpose in their suffering were the ones who also seemed better able to find the strength to go on. As I recall, Frankl personally found his purpose in the hope of someday being able to see his wife again... a hope that was strong enough to get him through the daily horrors he faced.

The second half of this book is devoted to the therapy he developed based on the search for meaning, which he calls logotherapy. The basic premise is that those who can find meaning in their suffering are better able to cope with what would otherwise be a struggle too hard to bear. As one who majored in psychology, I found this section as fascinating as the first.

I have read this book at least 3 times now, and it is one of the few books I can say truly changed my life. I am ever grateful that I have the wisdom of this book to fall back upon when needed.

Several years ago, at a very young age (in my 20’s), I became ill with a disease that left me bedridden and barely able to speak above a whisper. Now 36, I am still bedridden and fighting the same battle. It is Frankl's reminder to find meaning and purpose in suffering (which I found in the love of my fiancé and my hope of recovery) that has helped me to get through each difficult day. As Frankl tells us, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

I highly recommend this book!!(less)

like 19 likes · see review

Nov 01, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: nik

Shelves: essays, non-fiction

The sun is slowly rising up ushering the dawning of a new day. The mother and the father are sipping their first cups of coffee. Their schooling children are rising up from their bed. The mother attends to her children’s daily routine. She bathes, feeds them their breakfast and makes sure that their things are all in their individual school bags. Para Kanino Ka Bumabangon? (translation: Whom Do You Wake Up For?) is heard as a voice over. This is Nestle’s TV ad for Nescafe coffee but it sends a v...more

like 49 likes · see review

Mar 18, 2013 nik rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: real-horrowshow

Have you ever been in a situation wherein unreasonable suffering seems the only task left in your life that suicide seems to be a very reasonable option? Have you ever thought that living only extends the misery and torment you've already took? Have you felt the vacuum of meaningless suffering sucking the life out of you like a black hole? Have you ever thought that breathing is a disease only death can cure? If yes, then you haven't read this book.

The meaning of life … Many people already died...more

like 24 likes · see review

May 24, 2012 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: holocaust, meaning, irony, self-help

If you were offered an opportunity to spend an evening with a man who survived Auschwitz, would you make time in your busy schedule to hear his tale? Would you be surprised to find out that the survivor was happy and well adjusted and still saw the good in people? Would you be even more surprised to know that he found meaning in life, not just after the Holocaust, but while he was still at Auschwitz? Would you consider the possibility of applying his hard-earned insights to your own problems, wh...more

like 65 likes · see review

Sep 21, 2012 Frank rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who want to live a fulfilling life

After I read this book, which I finished many, many years ago, I had become self-critical of any future endeavours which would take up a lot of my time. I would ask myself "is this or will this be meaningful to me?", and if the answer was "no", I wouldn't do it. It was this book that influenced me to consciously live as meaningful a life as possible, to place a great value on the journey and not just the destination, while knowing that "meaningful" doesn't always mean "enjoyable". "Meaningful" s...more

like 40 likes · see review

Apr 16, 2009 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: good-nonfiction, philosophy, psychology, read-in-2009, war, transformative-experience, important-message

Reading about the holocaust awakens me to the varying sides and degrees of human nature.

"Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths we again found only human qualities which in there very nature were a mixture of good and evil? The rift dividing good from evil, which goes through all human beings, reaches into the lowest depths and becomes apparent even on the bottom of the abyss which is laid open by the concentration camp...more

like 33 likes · see review

Mar 11, 2012 Riku Sayuj rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews

For most of the book, I felt as dumbfounded as I would have been if I were browsing through a psychiatric journal. Filled with references and technical terms and statistics, it was mostly a book-long affirmation of the then innovative technique called 'logo-therapy'. I do not understand how this book is still relevant and found in most popular book stores. It might have been that the book was popular in the sixties and seventies as it offered a powerful and logical argument against the reduction...more For most of the book, I felt as dumbfounded as I would have been if I were browsing through a psychiatric journal. Filled with references and technical terms and statistics, it was mostly a book-long affirmation of the then innovative technique called 'logo-therapy'. I do not understand how this book is still relevant and found in most popular book stores. It might have been that the book was popular in the sixties and seventies as it offered a powerful and logical argument against the reductionist approach that leads inevitably to existential nihilism, but is that still relevant today? It also attempts to free psychiatry from the belief that 'eros' was the cause of all neurosis and turns the flashlight on repressed 'logos' - which forms the premise of the book and the title.

But, while the basic premises are powerful and moving, the breadth and scale of repetition of the same ideas and the technical jargon and the constant Freud-bashing ensured that I did not enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. Furthermore, the whole chapter dedicated to the theory that ultimately our basic necessity of 'search for logos' can also be explained as a 'repressed religious drive' and his exhortation to religious people to not look down on irreligious ones (read atheists and agnostics) just because they have achieved a stage that the atheists/agnostics are still aspiring (unconsciously of course) towards rang patently false and too much in line with his argument of psychiatry being a sister to theology.

I wish Frankl had stuck to his original title of 'The Unconscious God' - it would have been more representative of the book as his 'logos' argument directly derives from his postulation of a transcendent unconscious super-ego that trumps Freud's 'Super Ego' and a spiritual cum instinctual subconscious that trumps Freud's 'id'.

Unless you are looking for a historical perspective on the technical aspects of psychiatry and about the origins of 'logo-therapy', I would not recommend this book, especially for general reading. If you pick up this book, like I did, in the hope that it is about Frankl's personal quest for meaning amidst the horrors of Auschwitz with a strong scientific perspective, you will be disappointed to find that you have picked up a medical journal that is pedantic and repetitive, with hardly any reference to Frankl's personal journey or about how he evolved his theory and practices (that did transform many lives) based on his experiences.(less)

like 26 likes · see review

Jul 13, 2012 Michelle Gastulo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010, psychology

I had heard about this book for years prior to stumbling upon it at a local bookstores but despite the wonderful reviews it received, I had always dismissed it as your typical "holocaust" story. In "Man's Search for Meaning", Frankl recounts his years in the concentration camp but he also focuses on the collective experience of the prisoners rather than only on his own tale. Told in an honest and surprisingly courageous tone, this book not only captures the extent/depth of human suffering but th...more I had heard about this book for years prior to stumbling upon it at a local bookstores but despite the wonderful reviews it received, I had always dismissed it as your typical "holocaust" story. In "Man's Search for Meaning", Frankl recounts his years in the concentration camp but he also focuses on the collective experience of the prisoners rather than only on his own tale. Told in an honest and surprisingly courageous tone, this book not only captures the extent/depth of human suffering but the vastness of human resolve.

I appreciated Frankl's almost detached manner in explaining behavior and his description of surprise at the psychological/moral shifts of those around him (and his own) Frankl never tries to place the blame (or praise) on anyone but decides to focus more on the complexity of each individual (he even recounts the acts of kindness that was sometimes offered by the SS guards) I find his story of his years in Auschwitz to be an incredibly humbling story.

In the later chapters, Frankl details the psychological shifts of the prisoners and categorizes them into three phases:

1. Period following immediate admission
2. Period well-entrenched in camp life
3. Period after liberation

Each of these period brings with it an array of psychological tension and inner turmoil and Dr. Frankl delves into each phase with a deep professionalism. He merely describes and explains; others would have embellished to no end but he refrains from excess cliches and self-pity and I believe that therein lies the genius of this book. An extremely emotional event was able to be dealt with in an objective and straight-forward manner, focusing more the psychological results and what could be derived from the whole experience. Others would have just dwelled on the horror of it all.

Dr. Frankl supports the belief that man is not just fate's plaything, he believes that their suffering is not empty but a sort of challenge unique to each individual; it is up to him/her to "rise to the occasion". In such difficult moments, we are jolted from our daily trance and really value even the most menial of things. We are faced with the opportunity to be moral and dignified--for if we aren't ever tested how would we know just how moral and dignified we really are? During these exceptionally difficult moments, we are granted the opportunity to grow spiritually, we are free from trifling things and are able to focus on our bodies and our minds. What I believe Frankl is trying to say is that if we view those difficult moments as a time of trial and not eternal punishment, we shall be able to develop into mature, strong, and loving people; a person who accepts difficulties with grace and strength and sincerely appreciates the moments of peace. If we are able to pass this "life test", we become more secure in our personal worth and inner strength, thus allowing the present situation to seem completely surmountable--and future ones as well. One could make a victory out of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph.

Frankl proposes a new alternative to therapy, logotherapy (logos being the greek word for meaning). In such a therapy, the client is guided into finding their own personal goal, their reason to withstand the current suffering. In contrast with the theory of "will to pleasure" (Freud's theory) and "will to power" (Adler's) Logotherapy posits that a man is driven to live by finding a meaning in his life, in being driven toward this goal, he will try and "solve" any issues preventing him from reaching it. Instead of conflicts between desires and instincts and hidden motives (which do contribute to neuroses) Logotherapy focuses on the conflicts that arise from existential frustration, what a man feels when he is wasting his life or is living his life in direct opposition to his ideals and values.

Logotherapy deviates from psychanalysis in that it considers man a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning, rather than in the mere gratification and satisfaction of drives or in reconciling the conflicts of id, ego, and superego, or in the mere adaptation and adjustment to society's demands. In the Nazi concentration camps, the ones who felt they had a meaning in their lives were more apt to survive and overcome the trauma, albeit slowly. This holds true for most people who are experiencing difficult situations or attempting to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In psychoanalysis, the focus is on symbols and hidden associations which are often found annoying and unhelpful to the client about the conflict at hand. These are then faced with more issues and more neuroses can surface. In logotherapy, this is skipped-in a sense-and the focus is not the cause of the neuroses inasmuch as it is on the possible solutions or alternatives. (less)

like 12 likes · see review

Jul 28, 2011 Stephanie (Stepping out of the Page) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, cover-appeal, historical, adult-fiction, non-fiction, ww2, memoirs-biographies-etc, books-i-own

The three stars are for the first section of this book, which I loved. I was really drawn in by Frankl's descriptions of his experiences and thoughts during the Holocaust. It was interesting to hear his professional thoughts alongside his memories and it was quite a page turner. This was an interesting memoir as it was effective, giving an insight into the horrific happenings and the emotional impact that the Holocaust had, without being extremely personal - it almost had a sense of detachment....more

like 8 likes · see review

Mar 20, 2009 Luann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, biography, holocaust, religion, nonfiction, adult, war, shelf-a-thon1

Powerful. A must-read for those interested in reading about the holocaust. I felt guilty reading while eating my lunch.

This is also a wonderful book for putting your own life experiences and suffering into perspective. I especially liked his theories about responsibility - that we are all responsible for our own choices and for finding meaning in our life.

I wouldn't have been nearly as interested in the second half, "Logotherapy in a Nutshell" and "The Case for a Tragic Optimism," but he made i...more

like 8 likes · see review

Sep 20, 2008 booklady rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, philosophy, psychology, religion, history, spiritual

Throughout history humanity has always been in search of purpose and meaning to our existence on this earth. One of the oldest jokes in the world is the young person asking the ancient one, “What is the meaning of life?” and receiving some sort of reply like, “If you find out, you let me know, okay?!”

Viktor Frankl’s classic work was originally written in 1945 and published in 1959. I own a 1984 paperback edition of the book which had already been through seventy-three editions in English alone,...more

like 14 likes · see review

Apr 14, 2011 Wendyslc rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone over 13

Reading this book in high school changed my life. I grew up in an abusive home and was in constant survival mode. After reading this book I realized that I had a choice. I could let my circumstances dictate my attitude or I could choose my attitude, which could then change my circumstances.

Becoming an adult is the hardest thing we ever do. Being an adult means accepting responsibility for your thoughts, actions and character. I realized that I can choose my thoughts and actions regardless of my...more

like 12 likes · see review

Mar 02, 2009 Yulia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is a life-changing book that I'll be rereading regularly and giving copies to those I hope can benefit from it. The book is divided into two parts, the first describing the typical experience of prisoners in concentration camps and the second introducing the practice of logotherapy.

His experiences in concentration camps showed him three main stages of reaction experienced by the prisoners. First, they went through a period of shock at their situation, followed quickly by a sense of curiosi...more

like 6 likes · see review

Oct 07, 2007 Elyssa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: EVERYONE!!!!

Shelves: existentialism

I have read this book many, many times. These are the words I live by. If I was told that I could only own one book for the rest of my life, this would be it.

Viktor Frankl's harrowing testimony of surviving in a concentration camp seems incomprehensible. Even more unbelievable is the attitude he adopts during his struggle as he remains apart from his family, starving, cold, and forced to perform hard labor with no relief in sight. Through it all, he decides that even though his body is being he...more

like 8 likes · see review

Apr 29, 2011 Khalid Almoghrabi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This book could not be added or compared to any other book. it stood still in its kind. Dr. Frankl gives illumination on human behavior in a way that might surprise many. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in psychology in general.

like 16 likes · see review

Jan 18, 2013 José-contemplates-Saturn's Aurora rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psychotherapy-logotherapy-frankl-s

I’ve been recently struck by this oratory piece by David F. Wallace*; a commencement speech given at Kenyon College. In it, he differentiated two very different attitudes towards life, two ways on how we can derive MEANING: (1) the “default setting” one, the unconscious automatic way,… the worship of power, money or beauty; and (2) the aware way: finding, deep down, love and the mystical union of all things.

Why this digressing from Frankl’s? Because they both agree, in some way, I think. Frank...more

like 2 likes · see review

Apr 20, 2011 Darla rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jewish, classics, nf-history, philosophy, psychology, wwii

I have had this book on my shelves for years- at least a decade, but it wasn’t until my “non-fiction” book group selected it last month that I was finally spurred to read it. What took me so long? I have no idea, though I found so much significant to modern life between its pages, all my dog-earing has made it look a third larger than its one hundred seventy-nine pages.

Dr. Frankl, a trained psychotherapist and contemporary of Freud and Adler in Austria, was a prisoner of the Nazi death camp syst...more I have had this book on my shelves for years- at least a decade, but it wasn’t until my “non-fiction” book group selected it last month that I was finally spurred to read it. What took me so long? I have no idea, though I found so much significant to modern life between its pages, all my dog-earing has made it look a third larger than its one hundred seventy-nine pages.

Dr. Frankl, a trained psychotherapist and contemporary of Freud and Adler in Austria, was a prisoner of the Nazi death camp system from 1942-1945. He was a “guest” at four different camps, including Auschwitz. His training helped spare him a bit of the back breaking labor forced on other prisoners, but not all of it. Fortunately, the Nazi’s found they could use his services in the infirmaries and to calm the more distressed inmates. Combining his knowledge with his experiences in the camps, Dr. Frankl was able to construct a memoir quite different from other such writings. His memoir is not merely a recounting of personal histories, heartbreak, and Nazi brutality, as so many are, instead, Frankl’s writing examines the psyche of victims and victimizers as he strives to give the reader greater insight into how some men survived the depravity of the extermination directive, even as millions of others did not.

With professional detachment, Dr. Frankl explains how the death camp experience helped him to form and shape his own form of psychotherapy, which he refers to as Logotherapy or “meaning” therapy. In the camps it was apparent to Frankl that those inmates who possessed some glimmer of hope were the ones who were most likely to survive. If they could believe their lives, their present suffering, would have some glorious end after release from the camps, the sufferer could hold on a little longer, fight a bit harder to stay well and out of trouble’s way.

Often prisoners would set up artificial dates of reprieve, such as Christmas or New Year’s, with the belief that rescue would come by that day. When no one came to end their pain, it was not uncommon for these prisoners to lose all will to live and begin fading. Love, or rather the memory of it, was a strong motivator for many inmates. As few knew the fate of other family members, dreaming of seeing a lost spouse or children kept many a prisoner from giving up on life in the camps.

In an especially poignant moment in the memoir, while reflecting on relative comforts, Dr. Frankl comments, “The attempt to develop a sense of humor and see things in a humorous light is some kind of trick learned while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent.” 2 The doctor goes on to explain how human suffering is relative to what is known. Things that may not have seemed like a blessing in their previous lives, such as having a nice Capo or a better fitting pair of shoes, working in a factory, not in the snow, a train going in a different direction- away from a camp with a crematoria, extra peas in one’s soup, or a warm spring day, reach all new proportions when placed in the context of a Nazi prison camp. “Tender mercies” might be a good way to describe these bits of light amidst all the darkness. Whatever they are, these tiny specks of comfort made life a little more bearable behind the razor wire.

The thought that stuck with me while reading Frankl’s explanations about the importance of finding meaning in difficult circumstances, despite discomforts, despite physical or emotional pain, is how important those struggles, those peaks and valleys of mortality, are to making us better people.

The Lord has told us the poor will always be with us. “Poor,” in this case, can mean poor in wealth or poor in spirit, but both are guaranteed to always be part of our earthly lives. For all the altruism and desire to alleviate every worldly discomfort from poverty to illness, and don’t misunderstand me, there is good that comes to those who seek to help others or who are helped, I have to consider, “What exactly are those in difficult circumstances to learn?" Is the desire to give a man the proverbial fish rather than teaching and expecting him to fish for himself, robbing that person of some eternal growth opportunity?

The analogy of the child watching a butterfly struggling to exit its cocoon, then inadvertently killing the young butterfly when he assists in its release comes to mind here. That butterfly needed to struggle to get vital fluids to its wings, enabling it to fly away from the shell of its metamorphosis; the child’s well meaning intervention kept the butterfly from achieving its full potential. Frankl says we all need that struggle, and we need to embrace it whole heartedly. We physically and psychologically need to rise above our pains and reach out to others in order to find meaning in our own lives; the poor and the wealthy alike.

The good doctor also makes a strong case in his logotherapy theory for “responsibleness,” even advocating for a Statue of Responsibility on America’s west coast to be a balance to the Statue of Liberty on our east coast. 3 4 Our lives and what they are to become is completely up to us as individuals, despite everything. I recall in “Parenting with Love and Logic,” the writers remind parents that it is important to give children choices, and to remember that not all choice options are “bad” and “good,” many are “not as bad” and “not horrible,” but choices they are. Frankl appears to have the same philosophy. It is up to individuals to determine their own course in life, but to accept that each choice is to be owned, not deflected because the choices to be made weren’t preferred choices. Ultimately, we are more responsible for our lives than the “philosophy of men,” if you will, would make us be. Sounds familiar to me. How about you?

My criticisms of Man’s Search for Meaning are few. The book is divided in to three sections: Experiences in a Concentration Camp, Logotherapy in a Nutshell, and The Case for a Tragic Optimism. The weakest of these three is the middle. Dr. Frankl spends such a small amount of time explaining the tenets of his theories, that it feels rather rushed and only partially complete. He doesn’t lapse into heavy jargon, but his overlapping explanations almost feel like jargon. For the lay reader, it is easy to get bogged down in this area, as the flow from section one is interrupted. But I recommend you work through it, nonetheless, and discover the strength of the philosophy behind Man’s Search for Meaning.

Statue of Responsibility Project (Link) (less)

like 6 likes · see review

Jan 16, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, autobiography, psychology, study-group, memoir, read-and-reread, spiritual

“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance.” - Victor Frankl

I first encountered Frankl's book as a reading assignment for a seminar led by Stephen Covey. I will never forget the first time I read it for it was one of the most inspirational books that I have ever read. And that led to subsequent readings which cemented its place in my own personal reading pantheon....more

like 2 likes · see review

Aug 14, 2008 Cortney rated it 3 of 5 stars

There must be something wrong with me. This is a book that everyone is supposed to love. But I didn't. I didn't even like it. I only gave it three stars because I would have felt like a first class jerk giving it only two stars.

Here's the thing- I love WWII stories- The Hiding Place, Anne Frank, etc. But Man's Search for Meaning had no emotion in it. It was so clinical and frankly quite boring.

The first section- Experiences in a Concentration Camp- was ok, but as I said, contained no emotion.

Th...more

like 11 likes · see review

Apr 15, 2008 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love questions, just for that feeling I get when I find an answer. This is one of those books that answered questions long present in my mind. Even if it doesn't answer things straight out, but leads me on a train of thought where I come to a conclusion.
I was reading about the meaning of life, which is to me to fulfill a life mission God assigned to me, and make choices now that lead me there. Missions are self-sacrificing, giving yourself to the benefit and service of others. In order to com...more

like 4 likes · see review

Oct 19, 2007 Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: autobiography

It seems odd to give only three stars to such a powerful and moving account of life in a concentration camp. In fact, if the book consisted of only the first part (of his account of life in Nazi concentration camps) I would likely give it 5 stars. Unfortunately, his Intro to Logotherapy was less enjoyable. While it adds a necessary spiritual dimension to theoretical discussions of clinical work, I found it lacking as a stand-alone theory. Overall, though, I highly recommend reading it, especiall...more

like 5 likes · see review

Feb 08, 2009 Ed rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone interested in an inspiring story with a valuable lesson

Shelves: memoir, reviewed, non-fiction

I have read this book more than a few times. Reading it this time was like reading it for the first time.

I am now 71 and I believe the last time I read it I was in my early fifties. My outlook has changed considerably in the intervening years so I gained different insights from Frankl's story this time through.

It is an incredible story not only because he survived 3+ years in the Nazi Death Camps but because he was able to learn something from the experience.

The 2006 publication, I read, had an...more

like 3 likes · see review

Feb 07, 2012 Andrew Breslin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Viktor Frankl's entire family was murdered by the Nazis while he himself endured years of abject torment in a concentration camp under conditions so horrible it defies description. This puts in stark perspective the rancorous recriminations I unleash on a hostile and uncaring universe every time I cannot locate my keys.

Life has its ups and downs, but neither I nor anyone reading this will ever find themselves as down as Frankl did. I'm in danger of making a flippant understatement when I observ...more Viktor Frankl's entire family was murdered by the Nazis while he himself endured years of abject torment in a concentration camp under conditions so horrible it defies description. This puts in stark perspective the rancorous recriminations I unleash on a hostile and uncaring universe every time I cannot locate my keys.

Life has its ups and downs, but neither I nor anyone reading this will ever find themselves as down as Frankl did. I'm in danger of making a flippant understatement when I observe that there are many negative things one can say about the Third Reich. But apart from their oft cited success at making the trains run on time, their reign of depravity yielded another positive result: it illustrated just how bad people could be. Never in all of human history was there ever such a clear demonstration of the depth of evil that dwells in the dark and fetid corners of our collective soul. It was the ultimate worst-case scenario. A crash-test of the human spirit, as if some cosmic quality-control inspector had devised the perfect challenge.

The accounts of Frankl and other Holocaust survivors serve as an extraordinary testament to the strength of the human will. If people can endure what he did without succumbing to abject despair, then there is pretty much nothing worse the universe could ever throw at them.

We're pretty amazing creatures, human beings. We are capable of the most horrendous atrocities, and the most astounding kindness and self-sacrifice. We have within us the capacity to endure tremendous hardships and adversity. Life is like an angry chimp: sooner or later it's going to throw some nasty shit at us. Inspiring examples of others standing up and shaking off enormous mounds of that shit make it a lot easier for me to ignore the minuscule traces of clinging feces life has thus far managed to fling my way.

Life is good. It really is. And your keys are probably in the pockets of the pants you were wearing yesterday. See? Hooray! Life is beautiful.(less)

like 3 likes · see review

Aug 02, 2012 Denise Austin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Only someone who has survived the atrocities of the Holocaust could be qualified to write about how it feels to sit in the heart of suffering and in spite of it find meaning and a sense of responsibility to one's own life. He is a testament of the soul's capacity to adapt and thrive in spite of the most horrible circumstances. These are two quotes expressing how his experiences shaped him.

On suffering: "A man who for years had thought he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering n...more

like 1 like · see review

Jul 02, 2012 Bushra Omar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, كتب-غيرتني

" الإنسان يبحث عن المعنى " – مقدمة في العلاج بالمعنى.. التسامي بالنفس

في كل مرة تفتح كتابًا، توقع أن يحصل لك شيئًا عظيمًا! كأن تولد من جديد .. و هذا ما حدث معي بالفعل، و تعتبر هذه ولادتي الثالثة في الحياة، فالانسان يسمو في كل مرة و يرتفع خطوة جديدة وتتبدل قناعته الأولى، فإذا ما كنت وصلت مسبقًا إلى معنى البحث عن النفس و تحقيق الذات، فإنني بعد كتاب "فرانكل" أخرج من سجن فكرة إلى فكرة أعمق!! ، من سجن الهدف و التوتر و السعي للاتزان إلى المعنى
" لا يمكن التوصل إلى تحقيق الذات إذا جعله الشخص كفايه في حد...more

like 19 likes · see review

Apr 26, 2013 Ravi Jha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psychology

This book contains two parts. First one is an account of author's experience in the concentration camp. In telling the stories of prisoners (he was a prisoner too) about their survival in the camp, author has excelled. The detail account of inmates, their psyche under the severely prolonged deprived conditions is really moving. He has given the examples of both, those who survived and those who died in camps. The basic difference between them is the absence or presence of existential vacuum. Dif...more

like 1 like · see review

Aug 16, 2011 Gregory Rothbard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Gregory by: Not Sure

Shelves: cluck-it-big, nonfiction-reads, essential-books

This book is a book of realistic optimism. Victor E. Frankl explores the existential nihilism found in much of the world today, especially in our Post Modern thought. Sophists would claim that there is no meaning in the world. It is easy to buy yourself an existential vaccum, but it sucks up all meaning.

But what then? What would Daryl Hannah do? Atlas holds the world but who holds Atlas? And if Atlas stands on-top of turtles than who is the squashed turtle on the bottom of the pile?

There is pain...more

like 2 likes · see review

Sep 28, 2012 Goran Vlacic rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: philosophy, psychology, favorites

An absolute home run.
Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray was a great narrative to have read just prior to this.
Helps contrast autotelic meaning-seeking concentration camp labour with the consuming of the self that comes with Wilde's New Hedonism.

Love that the book is succinct.
And that Frankl first wanted to publish anonymously.
One point of contention that made me debate on whether to give it 4 or 5 stars is his handling of the classic arguments of Free Will vs. Determinism.
He did so fairly wel...more An absolute home run.
Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray was a great narrative to have read just prior to this.
Helps contrast autotelic meaning-seeking concentration camp labour with the consuming of the self that comes with Wilde's New Hedonism.

Love that the book is succinct.
And that Frankl first wanted to publish anonymously.
One point of contention that made me debate on whether to give it 4 or 5 stars is his handling of the classic arguments of Free Will vs. Determinism.
He did so fairly well (arguably, of course), but he comes to the same conclusions as Gazzaniga's cars in traffic analogy; which is wonderful, except for the fact that it lacks, and will indeterminately lack empirical evidence). Much like Sam Harris' Deterministic arguments, this Free Will argument is about as good as it gets for the respective side of the debate.

Something that really hit me that Frankl addresses throughout the book is "not having the choice of circumstances that we find ourselves in, but being able to chose our attitude towards them".
May seem obvious at first, but upon further thought it adds so much to the FW vs. D debate!
It's as if Frankl is saying that given the ineffable complexity of human existence in an unpredictable universe, we must relieve ourselves of madly attempting to create our own destiny (enter determinism), yet not give up our sense of hope and result to fatalism, for despite the fact that free will is an afterthought and an illusion, we still have mental control of our thoughts, attitudes, and post-hoc rationalizations of events in life. Unlike the classic free will that empirical determinism argue against with their experimental evidence, Frankl's 'attitude towards an uncontrollable fate', is beyond the realm of current research and cannot be falsified ... yet.
#metafreewill
So now we must ask the question "why did you take that attitude towards your past circumstances", "what made you do it" and "was that a choice at all" or just an artefact of Frankl having survived 1/20 odds of making it through alive.
The few things that are certain are:
- When people have the feeling that they made a choice that influenced their well being, they're happier, albeit blind and wrong.
- When they feel like they have no control of their fate, they're much sadder, albeit right.
- When they accept they have no control of their fate YET maintain that they have control of their current thoughts (and therein "control of their attitude towards their uncontrollable fate") they can be happy, and be neither right nor wrong, but merely, currently scientifically inconclusive.

So here I am, living out my days, happy and perceiving volition of my own thoughts, feeling in control. Hoping that many years from now an older version of myself can wait for death's arrival in my master's garden, never feeling the slightest urge to flee to Tehran, simply thanks to the happenstance of my friend recommending this book to me.(less)

like 3 likes · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Mrs. Meyer Bell 6: What motivated Victor?	4	8	May 16, 2013 10:31am
Possible read?	26	179	May 10, 2013 03:43pm
صالون الجمعة: الإنسان يبحث عن المعنى \| 4-2013	107	201	May 02, 2013 04:23am
12th Ward Book Club: October/November Book CLub	4	6	Oct 23, 2012 06:28pm
انسان در جستجوي معنا	1	93	Sep 22, 2009 11:40pm

combine
Other Editions (97)

More editions...

Genres

Non Fiction

978 users

Psychology

830 users

Philosophy

678 users

History

247 users

Autobiography > Memoir

194 users

Biography

178 users

Classics

155 users

World War II > Holocaust

150 users

Self Help

141 users

Spirituality

117 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Viktor E. Frankl

Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.

His book Man's Search for Meaning (first published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Originally published in 1946 as Ein Psycholog...more

More about Viktor E. Frankl...

Books by Viktor E. Frankl

The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy

The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Man's Search for ...

3 trivia questions
1 quiz

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Man's Search for Meaning

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — 637 people liked it

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — 457 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Man's Search for Meaning: Gift Edition
avg rating	preview: Man's Search for Meaning: Gift Edition Goodreads rating: 4.31 (57895 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4070.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320448095l/4070.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4070.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Man's Search for Meaning: Gift Edition by Viktor E. Frankl[/url]

Man's Search for Meaning: Gift Edition

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website