Man's Search for Meaning
- mfellbom
- Jun 23, 2025
- 1 min read
Having spoken to two friends recently about this book, that I read some years ago, I thought I would take the opportunity to present it in this forum.
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir on one hand belongs to the number of important testimonies of life in Nazi death camps and on the other hand, it adds 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.
Frankl spent three years in four different concentration camps, where his parents, brother and wife died. As for the more well-known writers on the holocaust such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi or Jorge Semprun, the mere act of surviving came nor only from determination, but also from action. 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 a very influential book in America; it inspires to find significance in the very act of living.
Below you will find the link to the “Philosophy”’ section of “Main Themes” with excerpts of the book and Frankl’s views on several aspects and features of life.
Comments