Image: Man’s Search for Meaning by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 10 out of 10. Man’s Search for Meaning, while written 75 years ago, is startlingly relevant to the world we live in today. It is a superb look at surviving, forgiving and finding meaning and is a reminder and warning of atrocities that we collectively must oppose.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD, author of unJoy / 8.20.2021; No. 45
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Star Rating – 10 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Author
Viktor Frankl
About the author
Dr. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust and went on to author numerous books and develop a form of psychotherapy called logotherapy, which includes aspects of existential and humanistic psychology and is considered to be the “third Viennese school” of psychotherapy.
General description
Man’s Search for Meaning has been listed by many as one of the most influential books written on meaning and purpose in life. It covers some of the experiences that Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist, endured in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. How a person could survive, forgive and find meaning were critical subjects that Dr. Frankl explored in this book. His conclusions were in alignment with logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy that helps people wrestle with the meaning of human existence.
Dr. Frankl’s manuscript for this book, which was reportedly written in 9 days, was first published in Germany in 1946 (its title translated into English was “Saying Yes to Life in Spite of Everything: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp”). In 1959, the first English-language translation was titled From Death-Camp to Existentialism: A Psychiatrist’s Path to a New Therapy. The English-language title was changed to Man’s Search for Meaning in 1962. The edition that I read was published in 2014 by Beacon Press and includes:
Section I: “Experiences in a Concentration Camp”
Section II: “Logotherapy in a Nutshell”
Postscript 1984: “The Case for a Tragic Optimism”
Afterword by William J. Winslade
Selected Letters, Speeches, and Essays
Unique and most important aspects
Man’s Search for Meaning is not an easy book to read. Dr. Frankl provides grisly details of his experiences not to fascinate the reader but rather to illustrate the brutality and inhumanity of the concentration and extermination camps. Through his eyes, the reader can grasp why the odds of surviving a Nazi concentration camp were no better than one in twenty-eight. Man’s Search for Meaning is short and the original section, “Experiences in a Concentration Camp,” is less than 100 pages. There are many published editions of Man’s Search for Meaning, and all of the writings in this 2014 edition are worth reading.
Best quotes
“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.”
“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.”
“The way 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.”
“The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear any more – except his God.”
“But let me make it perfectly clear that in no way is suffering necessary to find meaning.”
“So let us be alert – alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers who are looking for a challenging book on humanity and inhumanity that is thoughtful, reflective and discusses trauma in an unvarnished manner would likely enjoy Man’s Search for Meaning.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers who are looking for a collection of easily digested platitudes are unlikely to enjoy Man’s Search for Meaning.
Conclusion
Man’s Search for Meaning, while written 75 years ago, is startlingly relevant to the world we live in today. It is a superb look at surviving, forgiving and finding meaning and is a reminder and warning of atrocities that we collectively must oppose.