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Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl,

Harold S. Kushner (Foreword),

William J. Winslade (Afterword),

Isle Lasch (Translator)

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Jan 10, 2019 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: holocaust, true-crime, memoir, non-fiction, sociology, psychology, social_science, world-war-2, philosophy

This book was written before I was born and I can't believe that it has escaped my notice for sixty-some odd years! For those who don't know (as I did not), Frankl was a psychologist in Vienna prior to the outbreak of WWII. Although he could have escaped, he chose to stay behind to be with his parents. The result was predictable...he ended up enduring the privations of several concentration/extermination camps.

The first two-thirds of this book had me entranced. I was so impressed by his refusal ...more

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Apr 18, 2022 Ra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, german, büchereien-wien

The subject of the book is grim but the message is an uplifting and empowering one. Life is suffering and the best thing for us to do in our transient existence is to be worthy of our suffering. Our goal is not to win but to set an example for humanity whether our life is long or short, whatever we do we can be that model of humanity, and never lose our humanity whether we are prisoners or prison wardens. We can always decide to remain human.

The German version is different from Man's Search for ...more

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Jan 11, 2020 AGB rated it it was amazing

This is a great book. This is a book that can be (and perhaps should be) read again and again. There is so much there. The first part deals with and recounts, in amazing detail, his time in four Nazi death camps including Auschwitz, his separation from his family, the grim and horrific events, and trying to find a way to make sense of it all.

The second part of the book is about Frankl’s theory - known as Logotherapy - which deals with the meaning of life and the pursuit of what we find meaningfu ...more

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