About this title: Psychiatrist Victor Frankl tells the story of the three years he spent as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, where he discovered that the will to find meaning in life motivates human existence. One of the 10 most influential books in the Library of Congress/Book-of-the-Month Club's 1991 "Survey of Lifetime Readers."
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780671667368ISBN:067166736X
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Wear to edges of soft cover. Page taning from age. Text in English, German. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: 6th Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780671667368ISBN:067166736X
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Underlining throughout. Creasing to wraps. Solid reading copy. read more
Edition: Revised Edition
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780671667368ISBN:067166736X
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Large tear to front cover at spine. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"Powerful. A must-read for those interested in reading about the holocaust. I felt guilty reading while eating my lunch.
This is also a wonderful book for putting your own life experiences and suffering into perspective. I especially liked his theories about responsibility - that we are all responsible for our own choices and for finding meaning in our life.
I wouldn't have been nearly as interested in the second half, "Logotherapy in a Nutshell" and "The Case for a Tragic Optimism," but he made it very readable and interesting by sharing many practical examples and stories. (Although it was this half of the book that brought my rating down to four stars.)
This is the type of book that you could read many times throughout your life and always learn something new, based on whatever you are experiencing in life at the time.
Some favorite quotes: "Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. . . The salvation of man is through love and in love."
"Man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes - within the limits of endowment and environment - he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, . . . we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions."
"If one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude."
"The world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best."
There were many other quotes I liked as well, and if I end up reading this again someday I will add to my list."
"I have read this book more than a few times. Reading it this time was like reading it for the first time.
I am now 71 and I believe the last time I read it I was in my early fifties. My outlook has changed considerably in the intervening years so I gained different insights from Frankl's story this time through.
It is an incredible story not only because he survived 3+ years in the Nazi Death Camps but because he was able to learn something from the experience.
The 2006 publication, I read, had an introduction by Rabbi Kushner an Afterword by William Winslade and a short description of Logotherapy plus a 1984 postscript, "The Case for Tragic Optimism", by Frankl, himself. If you only read his memoir of the camps, pages 1-93, you will learn all you need to know about how searching for meaning is a driving force in humankind.
I cannot over-emphasize how influential this book has been and will continue to be in my daily life. I realize how important it is to continue to work at those things that have meaning for me, no matter how trivial, they might seem to others.
Retirement can be a trap but with the principles Frankl drew out of his horrid experience, I can, not only enjoy whatever time I have left, but also gain meaning and strength from whatever the future holds.
93 pages: two or three or four hours of reading covering a lifetime of meaning. I highly recommend this story to anyone who is looking to enhance the experience of living their own life."
"Reading about the holocaust awakens me to the varying sides and degrees of human nature.
"Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths we again found only human qualities which in there very nature were a mixture of good and evil? The rift dividing good from evil, which goes through all human beings, reaches into the lowest depths and becomes apparent even on the bottom of the abyss which is laid open by the concentration camp."
It is easier than we may think to get controlled by the barbaric aspects that exist within us. It's almost incomprehensible that the holocaust took place in such recent history, at a time -- by relative, historic standards -- that contained comfortable living situations, educational access, and plenty of opportunity. Reading about the holocaust reminds me that we are simple and easily manipulated; that we can easily shut off our conscience and our ability to empathize, and do unimaginably horrible things to fellow, innocent, human beings. This is not a positive testament to human nature.
"From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two - the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of "pure race" - therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.
But then I see that goodness can still exist, even when one has every reason not to act on empathy; even when a simple, helpful act for another can threaten one's own life. Nazi's that showed compassion for prisoners were often killed, yet some men were brave and caring enough to help his fellow man. This gives me hope.
Here's a specific story from the book that highlights this:
"I remember how one day a foreman secretly gave me a piece of bread which I knew he must have saved from his breakfast ration. It was far more than the small piece of bread which moved me to tears at that time. It was the human "something" which this man also gave to me - the word and look which accompanied the gift." This kind of act was not unusual for this specific SS commander, and was not forgotten by the prisoners, either. In fact, the kindness was returned: When Frankl's camp was being liberated, 3 young Hungarian Jews hid this commander in the Bavarian woods as the other SS commanders were being gathered by U.S. troops. The 3 men would only give up the SS commander under the condition that no harm come to him. And, not only was he taken in unharmed, but he was later given the role of supervising the collection and distribution of clothing among the villages. Had this man not acted on compassion, he would have been caught and suffered a difficult fate. But sometimes -- no, not enough -- but sometimes, the good do win out. This is a positive testament to human nature.
Frankl gives an honest, modest account of his holocaust experience. But he helped a lot of people make it through -- he gave people hope through his psychiatric knowledge, insights, and wisdom. Through the process he became a firm believer in logotherapy, which he explains in detail in the second half of the book.
According to logotherapy, one must find meaning in life, and if one finds meaning, he or she can make it through anything. Or, as the Nietzsche quote (which Frankl was fond of), says, "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." In regards to logotherapy, Frankl states, "It is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning."
Again and again those that had meaning were more likely to survive. Frankl was reminded of this at the start of every New Year, when the deaths in the camp drastically increased. According to Frankl, there was one main variable involved with this: loss of meaning. A number of prisoners kept themselves going by imagining themselves out of the camp in time for the holidays, which they hoped to spend with their loved ones. They pictured it in their minds and it kept them going through many grueling days. When the holidays came and went, they no longer had that image to strive for and were crushed. They gave up hope. They gave up meaning. They gave up life.
Reading this book helped give me perspective into my own life, and insight into the power that exists within us all. While reading, I tried my best to fathom the great pain and suffering that those in camps went through, and I tried to understand how they endured it. Starvation, unrelenting work, freezing conditions in the winter, dehydration in the summer; and not just physical pain, but imagine watching neighbors, friends, and family members die. What happens to someone's mind, body, and heart as he or she goes through such drastic, painful, hopeless, and desperate situations? How does one continue to go on? What kind of strength does one tap into and where does it come from? It seems impossible, yet many people survived and went on to live enriching lives.
Reading about, and gaining a grasp of this awesome power within us is inspiring: the capabilities of the human; the depths of our courage and perseverance. "We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation - just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer - we are challenged to change ourselves." Human potential at its best, indeed."
"There must be something wrong with me. This is a book that everyone is supposed to love. But I didn't. I didn't even like it. I only gave it three stars because I would have felt like a first class jerk giving it only two stars.
Here's the thing- I love WWII stories- The Hiding Place, Anne Frank, etc. But Man's Search for Meaning had no emotion in it. It was so clinical and frankly quite boring.
The first section- Experiences in a Concentration Camp- was ok, but as I said, contained no emotion.
The next two sections- Logotherapy in a Nutshell and The Case for Tragic Optimism- were excruciating the muddle through. It's a really good thing that I didn't major in psychology, philosophy, etc because I would have slept through the textbooks and flunked out of college. These last two sections of the book put me to sleep several times.
This was quite a disappointment. I thought Man's Search for Meaning was supposed to be one of "those" books- you know the ones that are super-fabulous and make you see the world in a different way. It wasn't.
But, I have to end on a positive note- so here is a quote that I liked... from pg 116- The Meaning of Love- "Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he see that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.""
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