Ratings360
Average rating4.2
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.
Reviews with the most likes.
The book is interesting it's a good 6/10. I like how it focuses more on the psychological part of his time in the contrac camp and not so much complaining about the horrible behavior of the guards. I was very annoyed how 45% of the book is things that are not the book itself but about the author and about people who wrote their opinions.
The last book I read during this year (2015) and the one with the most impact on me. A long time since a book made me think, feel and reflect so deeply on life. Truly a a masterpiece and a gem of a book!
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that 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.”
Even if I had only read this one beautiful sentence from Man's Search for Meaning, this would have been a worthwhile read.
To experience terrible event after terrible event during Viktor Frankl's time in the concentration camps...to feel moments of wonder at small miracles during his time there...to see times where, despite the horrors of the camps, humans rise up to be their best selves...this is the reason so many people have read and loved this book.
“The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.”
This reminds us all that we all have a choice every minute of our lives to add a deeper meaning to our lives even in the midst of suffering.
“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”
And the power of Love.
Suffering. The nature of it, how we deal with it, and move beyond it.
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