Book Review: Man’s Search for Meaning

I received Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning as a Christmas gift. I cannot think of a better book to start the new year off. Even though I read this book in January, it is now March as I write this review. The globe is being held hostage by the COVID-19 virus. I underlined a phrase in the book that is helping me put things in perspective.

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. ~ Howard Kushner, Foreward to Man’s Search for Meaning

Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist who had to endure the atrocities of the Nazi death camps including Auschwitz. In his book, he shares his experiences in the camps as well as the lessons learned.

Man’s Search for Meaning is 165 pages. The book is arranged into two primary sections but also contains some additions since the first edition. Frankl first wrote Man’s Search for Meaning in 1946 in German. The first English edition came out in 1959. The major sections include:

• Experiences in a Concentration Camp
• Logotherapy in a Nutshell
• Postscript 1984: The Case for a Tragic Optimism

Experiences in a Concentration Camp

As Frankl noted at the beginning of this 90-page chapter, this was not a day-to-day accounting of his experiences as a Jewish laborer in the infamous concentration camps. Rather it is a summation of the experiences. I walked away from reading this book by seeing a spectrum of mankind’s character. On one end, man can be extremely cruel and selfish. On the other end, man can be extremely generous and selfless.

One of the points of discussion that stood out to me centered around the Capos. Capos were prisoners who did the dirty work of discipline for the Nazis. They did horrible things in order to improve their lot in prison life. According to Frankl, the Capos were often crueler than the SS. I find it hard to fathom because the SS were terrible cruel SOBs.

I found it fascinating what man would do for personal survival. The accounts that Frankl shared were troubling. During this COVID-19 virus, we are gaining superficial glimpses of such behavior. I cite the massive hoarding and price gouging as an example to put one’s personal needs above the needs of others. What will happen when the situation becomes direr?

Man’s Search for Meaning also highlighted what one can endure. Prisoners released from captivity were shells of their former selves. They all lost considerable weight due to malnutrition and exhausting work schedules. Many more did not survive. They were starved or worked to death. Frankl noted that the survivors had a reason to live for. They had a purpose or meaning. One of the purposes that Frankl lived for was the research that he had started prior to becoming a prisoner. Those who did not have a meaning perished quite rapidly.

As Frankl explained, the hardest part of the ordeal was not knowing when it would end. Many prisoners died due to false hope. They had a vision that they would be released on a certain day. When the day came and went, they simply died heartbroken.

Logotherapy in a Nutshell

Frankl summarized the lessons of his ordeal in the second part of the book. He developed a theory called Logotherapy. As summarized in Wikipedia,

The notion of Logotherapy was created with the Greek word logos (“reason”). Frankl’s concept is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. The following list of tenets represents basic principles of logotherapy:

• Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
• Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
• We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stance we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.

Frankl shared that life can be meaningful even under oppressive conditions. He listed three ways to achieving meaning of life (pp. 145-146):

• creating work or doing something significant
• encountering someone or something
• turning a tragedy into a triumph

This has been a very impactful book for me. I have already gifted Man’s Search for Meaning to another person and recommended it to many others. We have choices in how we live our lives. In times of hardship, the choices become more important. Frankl survived the worst ordeal imaginable. He did it by serving others. He did it by helping others recognize their meaning in life. Be a person of character. Be selfless rather than selfish.

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