Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

A Ukrainian friend recommended this book, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, and I am so happy she did. I found it so interesting and worth reading. Published soon after WWII ended, it is a partly autobiographical account of Frankl’s experience in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. I did not categorise the book as an autobiography though, because he included his views on logotherapy in the second part of the book. For me the first part, of his lived experience, seems very similar to an observational study of human nature. The book is great and I’m happy I bought it, because I want to read it again at some point.

“Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life,… This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning.”

The book is very short, only 160 pages in total, so it is worth getting and reading. It offers an important insight into how people behave in extreme situations and offers also a view of how people cope better in those cases.
As it is a classic but old book, it can be found cheaply online and some libraries might have it too.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

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My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes!
Published by: Rider
Year it was published: 2004 (first published in 1946)
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): Psychology
Pages: 160

About the author: Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life’s meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part of existential and humanistic psychology theories. Logotherapy was promoted as the third school of Viennese Psychotherapy, after those established by Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. Frankl published 39 books.
The autobiographical Man’s Search for Meaning, a best-selling book, is based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps.
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