A Must Read Book: A Man’s Search for Meaning

After being recommended by one of my colleague, and being equally intrigued by the name, I decided to read A Man’s Search for Meaning. And was it worth it? Sau Pratishat. The book is narrated by Viktor E. Frankl, the survivor of Nazi concentration camp who lived to tell the tale. The book is divided in two parts. First part elaborates the suffering he goes through during the concentration camp. Whereas second part, speaks of the his learning & his theory, Logotherapy.

Talking about the writing style, it is as good as someone holding your hand and taking you through. The story of our author begins from being a laborer in a camp despite of his previous identity, a psychiatrist. Because, in a concentration camp, you’re just a number. The author being in one of the dangerous camps, narrates the different facets of an individual which he witnessed during his stay. Especially, when one confronts death, or when the realization sinks in of loss of their identity, or the vulnerabilities one goes through when bare necessities like food, piece of a clothing and medicines seem like luxury.

Witnessing all this, lead to a ton of learnings for our psychiatrist which lead him to form his own theory, (Logotherapy). One of my favorite quote in which he uses his suffering as a metaphor is:

“Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent. To draw an analogy: a man’s suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the “size” of human suffering is absolutely relative.”

As much as I enjoyed the first part, the second part hit me with quotes which still amaze me when I read.

“Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!” It seems to me that there is nothing which would stimulate a man’s sense of responsibleness more than this maxim, which invites him to imagine first that the present is past and, second, that the past may yet be changed and amended. Such a precept confronts him with life’s finiteness as well as the finality of what he makes out of both his life and himself.“

Apart from the struggle of keeping your mind distracted in the camp when giving up on life is just a mere thought away, the author mentions how strongly, ’Love’ played a part in his survival, despite being alone throughout.

In context of strength which came through imagining conversations with his beloved:- "Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”

I wouldn’t say this book changed my life, but it definitely redefined few things for me. And lastly, a quote which reverberates in hills & in my tiny heart, too.