Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust Paperback – 7 Feb. 2008

Viktor E. Frankl is an incredibly impactful and thought-provoking read. This book delves deep into the human psyche, exploring themes of suffering, purpose, and resilience through the lens of Frankl's harrowing experiences as a Holocaust survivor.Pros:- Inspiring and Thought-Provoking: Frankl's insights into finding meaning in the midst of suffering are deeply moving and encourage readers to reflect on their own lives.- Accessible and Engaging: Despite the heavy subject matter, the book is written in a way that is easy to understand and highly engaging.- Timeless Wisdom: The lessons and philosophies presented are timeless, providing valuable guidance for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of life and their place in it.Cons:- Intense Subject Matter: The descriptions of Frankl’s experiences in concentration camps are harrowing and may be difficult for some readers.- Philosophical Depth: Some sections delve deeply into existential philosophy, which may be challenging for readers not accustomed to such material.Overall:Man's Search For Meaning is a must-read for anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, or personal development. Frankl's profound reflections on the human condition and his testament to the power of finding meaning even in the most tragic circumstances offer invaluable lessons in resilience and hope. Highly recommended for those ready to explore the depths of human purpose and perseverance.

A personal opinion - this is one of the finest books ever written.A matter-of-fact description of the experience of living in a concentration camp, and of the personal losses of the author due to the circumstances of this time.A telling of the pain endured, and the subsequent acknowledgement that every human faces their own grief, and sadly, perhaps some more than othersAn understanding of grief and a philosophy of how to live with it, and through it.A unique idea of the meaning of life.

A truly remarkable text that is a classic for a reason. Something to note about this particular edition is that the text is really quite small. Penguin publish other works by the same incredible man and these have a more typical text size. The brevity of this copy is due to the tiny text.The contents of the book have been well reviewed for decades and it remains in high demand for a reason. An incredible personal account of psychological impact of the horrors of Auschwitz, and a fantastic guide to coping with unfathomable challenges. There are plenty reviews of the subject but if you’re going through a tough time and need to believe that you can continue even if the hardship also continues, then turn to this. It’s a book that has changed lives for a reason and it’s written in a fantastically digestible way.The content is worth 5 stars, but this particular edition has an impractical text so I just took off a star for that. Reviewing the actual product, as there are plenty of editions of this text to choose from and this one is a little harder to read than most other books.The cover art is lovely, and the paper is tick and high quality, perfect for annotating… although the writing is so small that if you’re using this for studies and want to educate through annotation then perhaps choose an edition with fewer lines per page so there’s more room to annotate and you can highlight one line at a time.

This was a surprisingly readable book on the holocaust by an inmate of several of the camps. It describes the psychology of survival in the camps. Viktor Frankl became an important psychotherapist in which he implements ideas he developed while in the concentration camp. The book is divided into two parts: part 1 describing what happened to him from 1st impressions until release; the 2nd part describes his implementation of his psychotherapy with different individuals. The book is moving example of what existentialist thought can actually be for in real life, what good it can do, how it can help people. He tells the story of his experience and how you can maintain your inner freedom and your human identity in the face of a situation that is designed to completely destroy and demolish all human dignity. It’s almost impossible to do, and he doesn’t say “This is the recipe for how I did it” — he just explores the ways in which fragments of purpose and of meaning in human life kept him going. He also writes about his experience after the end of the war, when he started to write about psychology and existentialist psychology, which he was one of the founders of. That was equally difficult, finding meaning in a world after all meaning has been destroyed, and all human dignity has been dismantled. In dealing with patients who present with various kinds of depression or a sense of meaninglessness, Frankl concludes that it’s all about looking at the ways in which people construct meaning and purpose in their lives. Again, this reverses the usual way of understanding human existence. We are not just sets of symptoms and conditions. We are thrown into a situation — which might be an absolutely unendurable, impossible situation — but we always have the freedom to make of it what we will, according to our own choices, to impose our own meaning on it.It’s not just a matter of enduring or retreating into an inner realm in which you’re free. In fact, it’s not really about the inner realm at all, because the way you find meaning is not within, but through a purpose in the world, something that’s outside you, something that is greater than you. It could be by creating something, and it could be — and very often is — connections to other human beings, whether it’s comrades, friends, family or the people you come up against in life. And if all else fails — as it tended to in the concentration camps — and all the usual sources of meaning fall apart, there is always the chance of finding a meaning in the suffering itself. This is something that’s very hard to talk about in the abstract, but that was the conclusion that he came to.It’s interesting how optimistic Viktor Frankl’s philosophy is. Existentialism is often characterised as a rather morbid philosophy, dwelling on. That view of existentialism as “Life is terrible and we just have to resign ourselves to it” is a real misrepresentation. Sartre would have said, “No, we can change the circumstances of our lives.” He believed we could do it through revolution, through Marxism, through politics — and potentially through ethics as well, though that is something he never finished working out completely. With Viktor Frankl there’s a sense that we need this philosophy to help us to live. Existentialist philosophy doesn’t bring despair and angst into our lives, it gives us a way of making sense, it’s a way of discovering our own inner freedom. There’s a lot more that’s positive in existentialism than it’s ever given credit for, because it really is about how you live your life, and how you exist, given what you’re presented with. angst and anguish and the difficulty of making choices. It’s a nice foil to that caricature of existentialism. It avoids the pitfalls of Colin Wilson's evangelical approach.