Man's Search for Meaning

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!

Obviously any account of the horrors of the holocaust is so tragic and moving as to demand nothing short of 5* which I certainly give the first half of this book. This account is all the more humbling and astonishing due to the matter-of-fact narration. It's almost impossible to imagine living in conditions like this, let alone surviving it. Perhaps our minds just don't want to imagine it, and resist. I suppose every survivor story is a mixture of luck and tenacity and Frankl's is no different. There is certainly a lot to learn from these account, if nothing more than giving one gratitude for how easy and wonderful our lives are, in comparison to how bad they could be.

This edition had two further parts which went into greater detail about Frankl's resulting psychotherapeutic methods called ‘logotherapy'. I was not particularly interested in any of this and it was quite a demanding read, and it's only because of this that the whole book gets marked down to an average of 3*.

Wow, this was such a deep and meaningful book. I think I'd have to review it several times to really understand it.

“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.

It is a sad, horrific life described in these pages. It is also a tale of man's undying spirit and courage in the face of unspeakable evil. A big salute to the brave souls who kept their souls untainted during these challenging times.

I think that's the single absolutely painful books to read, that I haven't abandoned and read till the end.

There's plentiful of reviews saying “may there's something in me, because I don't like it”, as well as “I'm giving it 3* as it will look bad if I give it only 2*”.

The book is a mess. The first part is supposed to be autobiographical, but it has tons of issues. It's lacking cohesiveness (story doesn't match in a few places). Then there's the constant repetition (how bad the soup was, how hard the walking in the snow was). I get it, I am sure it was unbelievable awful and painful. But the more times the author needs to repeat himself, the weaker the book becomes, as he wasn't able to express his feelings and make you re-experience them. Not to mention how weird it seems if you read about his real life, like he spent 4 days on Auschwitz and total 5 months on those camps (not three years as he writes). I am not saying his suffering is a lie or something like that. I'm just saying I don't understand how such a slow, messed up and non-engaging “autobiography” might be liked by many.

Second part was just excruciating to read. Extremely disconnected, repeatable, full of semi-explained thoughts. He's constantly repeating how people's suffer CAN BE and IS something they can find meaning in. How? Doesn't say. Why just a handful of people manage to achieve this? Doesn't say (besides “it's hard”). There's his new system that can help people - well great, here's a long list of fancy words that you cannot even read, that he partially invented himself, and surely this means it all makes sense.

He wrote it himself - this short book cannot give you an explanation on what my theory is. I don't see any reason as why anyone should read a faulty and dull “almost autobiography”, followed by “almost explanation” of a theory.

The book has some great ideas in it, I must admit. But they're buried in an immense pile of hard to swallow nonsense. And at the end, it's mostly quotations from other people.

I wish I read a 5-10 page summary, instead of spending time on this book. Or maybe I'm just extremely disappointed why one of the most marketed books turned out to be such a pain to read...

I didn't expect to enjoy this, but I just did, without really understanding why. I wanted to keep reading, so that must've meant something.

Compelling description of life in WWII concentration camp. Didn't find the psychological analysis all that compelling, though it's not something I'm knowledgeable about. I liked the idea that meaning is more important than happiness, though it seems to me a matter of opinion.

I honestly do not know how to think about this book. I love it, of course. It is very important, of course. And now I can say I have read it. It was not quite the book I was expecting, though I am not able to say precisely how it differs from what I thought it would be, and from what I wish it had been.

I very much appreciate Frankl's logotherapy, with its insistence that the will to meaning is foundational. I suspect one gets a better picture of humans if one combines the drives for pleasure, power, and meaning into one picture, and so I am loathe to say that Frankl is right and Freude and Adler were wrong. But if I were forced to pick one model from which to view myself and others, it would have to be Frankl's.

Inspiring

So far, this is a happy little book by a psychologist who spent some time in concentration camps in Poland during WWII. It's a wacky joy-fest. I'm hoping to get to the inspiring parts soon, because so far it's making me see the negative sides of humanity, not the meaningfulness of life.

——-
I can't seem to finish this. After he gets done talking about his time in the concentration camp, he gets into “logotherapy”–his invention which brings into psychotherapy the idea that we need to make meaning in our lives.

Turns out that this pretty much reads like a more accessible Schopenhauer–it's a religious existentialism. I like the existentialism, and some of what he has to say resonates deeply. But then he digresses into religiosity and it gets...less interesting for me.

I was in Krakow a few years ago with a dear friend, and we spent one morning touring Auschwitz and Birkenau. I cannot imagine I am likely to ever find myself in another place with similarly eerie energy. It is, of course, both sobering and horrifying to contemplate the Holocaust, let alone to attach a now beautiful spot in the Polish countryside to the genocide that took place there. Beyond that, though, the remains of Auschwitz and Birkenau have gravitas. I think that feeling (and it sounds a little woo-woo to say, but it's the perfect word) of gravitas just might stem from the dignity of the individuals who lived (and the many who died) there. Frankl spent four years in concentration camps, including these two, and emerged the sole surviving member of his family. He then went on to dedicate his career to found and then practice existential psychology–the idea that, counter to everything Freud ever said, it's not food, sex, and power that make us tick. It's our ability to create meaning out of our own lives, whatever the circumstances may be. When we lose sight of our own personal meaning, nearly every modern psychological malady has fertile ground to grow. Frankl found that not even concentration camps, however, can make a person lose sight of their purpose if they don't let them. If the idea that our humanity lies in our ability to make our own choices and create our own meaning sounds interesting to you, do not miss this book (and if you're a psychologist, just do not miss this book). It is an extraordinary memoir of an extraordinary man, and the foundational text of existential psychology. I hesitate to quote Frankl, although I found much of his writing deeply moving. He's just so quotable that his thoughts can come across as pithy at a glance, although they often made me teary-eyed with their power in the rich and nuanced context the book as a whole provides. So, a few favorites:

“If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering.”

“I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in the freedom of space.”

“After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”

a truly life-affirming book

A unique approach to having survived WWII concentration camps from an Austrian Jew psychiatrist. Highly recommended to anyone interested in self-determination theory, freedom/responsibility issues, and psychological effects of torture and abuse.

Témoignage d'un survivant des camps de concentration nazi, ce livre est d'une rare force. Ce qui m'a le plus marqué c'est la force qui a animé cet homme à travers son calvaire et la profondeur des apprentissages tirés qu'il retransmet dans ce livre. Frankl insiste que l'objectif principal d'un homme dans sa vie est d'y trouver un sens et le déploie à travers tout son livre par la force de son expérience. Un livre qui peut être très difficile par moments mais essentiel et marquant.

“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”

It is a constant stream of suffering.

Vicktor does the impossible: he walks us through what kept him going at a place where everything was taken away, all purpose stripped, all previous achievements gone. It didn't matter if you were a doctor, everyone was worth nothing. He saw people give up hope, die before their actual death. However; because of his own experience, he studies what made him survive and others like him. Ultimately, for him, it was the thought of seeing his wife again, of completing a scientific paper... things he could live for, beyond his immediate suffering.

If a man can crawl out from such a pit, and push through his challenges, it makes you put in perspective our own challenges and our own limits of what we think is possible and what we are actually capable of doing.

“There are only two races - the decent and the indecent”
Harrowing story but filled with wisdom.

Humbling. Powerful. I wonder who I'd be if I'd read this thirty years ago? This feels like the sort of book that has a small window of opportunity for affecting a life: read it too young, and it won't really make sense. Too old, and by then you've found your own answers (if you're lucky) or still not get it and never will.

I recommend erring on the read-it-young side. It seems like a useful part of one's growing-up toolkit.

I feel bad rating a holocaust book, 3 stars. How dare I. But I'd like to be honest.

The first half of the book is about the author's experiences in the concentration camp. If you have read at least 2 or 3 other holocaust literature, there is nothing new. It is short and to the point.

The second part focuses on Logotherapy. Which essentially is a psychiatric tool, which asks patients to find meaning in life for a more fulfilling existence - which could be by 1) doing something 2)experiencing something/ meeting someone 3)unavoidable suffering.
The third point seems like it was forced to be with the other two, and doesn't feel like it belongs there.

One other reason why I rated this 3, is because of the clash between this books ideas and my opinion. I don't think there's a meaning. The whole thing is random. And this meaning is only something we attribute. Can someone capable of thinking, actually fool themselves with this? I envy people who can find make meaning, where there isn't any. Of course in a concentration camp, one is only trying to survive the day, and prayers and meaning fulfilment would work. Is it same for the mundane life the majority of us lead though?

???Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.??????Those who have a ‘why' to live, can bear with almost any ‘how'.???

Rating this book from 5 stars doesn't seem right.

Sometimes I wonder how some books you read, are perfectly suited to your mental state or your surroundings. In a weird way, they are just what you needed at that point in time.

This book found me, not the other way around.

As I mentioned in the book thief review, for a while now, I've been looking for a first-hand account of a Holocaust survivor, but in a novel, not just a paragraph.

The atrocities that were carried out on millions of innocent people, while their fellow citizens slept peacefully, largely unaware of the injustice, haunts me.

Re-reading this for sure, every time there's an obstacle in life that I can't get through.
Just thinking about those millions who suffered, through no fault of their own, makes your problems seem insignificant.

A must-read for all those who live on this speck we call Earth.

P.S.
Reading this book lead me to deep dive into WWII and its aftermath.
Stumbled upon the Nuremberg Trials's Wikipedia page.

If you wish to see the extent of devastation and pain, watch the one hour video (from concentration camps, immediately after liberation ) that was provided as evidence during the trial.
Very graphic, watch at your own risk.Absolutely horrific.

Man's Search for Meaning is one of those books that you see recommended over and over again. I'm naturally skeptical of work like that, the point I put off reading this for several years. This year I picked it up and wow, Frankl gives a masterclass. This is a heartbreaking and captivating true story of overcoming the worst tragedy in modern times. Frankl is intelligent, moving, and inspiring in the face of such abhorrent acts. This book will break you, but Frankl is excellent at building you back up again afterwards.

The past year has been fraught with the search for meaning. And while the experience of living through a global pandemic don't compare to Frankl's experience surviving a concentration camp, the lessons that he brought out of it are still important and relevant to our modern experience.

I truly understand where the praise of this book comes from, but for me personally I didn't find it as satisfying as I thought it would be. For the latter half of the book, I already have heard all the advice Frankl describes as “logotherapy” from my own personal experiences unrelated to the book; it felt like I was reading an echo chamber of my beliefs, something that didn't really change my perspective from where it already was before about what a meaningful life was.

However, what did impress me was how Frankl describes what it means to suffer but with a purpose - to not cling onto false hope, but to find meaning within the suffering that makes survival more rewarding. That was truly impressive, and I only wish there was more of that in the book.

The most interesting part of the book was Frankl's memoir about his experiences in the concentration camp, where his best writing was found. How he describes the situation, his thoughts, and how it revolves around a central theme of trying to find a purpose in all of this was captivating.