Book Review: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl was a practicing psychotherapist who was sent to Auschwitz during World War II as a prisoner. He took a manuscript for a book which he tried to sneak it in but it was quickly discovered and taken away, presumably destroyed. His wife came in with him, they were separated, and he never saw her again. He became a number, a day laborer, in a system where the odds of survival were bleak. Prisoners were overworked, underfed, never given new clothes (they had to check over dead prisoners to see if they had better shoes or coats and do a quick swap). They were subject to the whims of the capos and SS running the camp. The life, if it could even be called such, was miserable and hopeless. Frankl, in the first part of this book, describes his experiences in excruciating detail. 

His time there had a tremendous impact on Frankl. The crucible of suffering showed how different men reacted in many different ways to the conditions. Out of this, Frankl developed a distinct field of psychotherapy that he calls "Logotherapy." In Logotherapy, the main motivation people have is to find meaning in their lives (as opposed to seeking pleasure or power). In the concentration camps, the only thing left was the hope for something external to oneself. For Frankl, it was preserving the book and the hope of seeing his wife again (though she died in the camps). He had something to live for, a reason to survive the horrible circumstances of his situation. For others, it was family or friends or goals unfulfilled. Happiness is not the object of pursuit, it is the by-product of finding something or someone you have valued, by having a purpose. Frankl quotes Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." Frankl developed his therapeutic practice from these insights.

Being able to reframe suffering from a "woe is me" attitude to a "what is my purpose in this situation" is not just a way to mental health, but to personal wholeness. Guiding people to that point is not easy. The second, smaller part of this book is a brief overview of Logotherapy. It describes various techniques used and provides examples of how they are applied in concrete situations, mostly taken from Frankl's own life and career (with names changed, of course). Therapy is future-focused, taking patients to the point where they can understand their problems better and have ways to minimize or eliminate them altogether.

This book is genuinely great and eye-opening.

Highly recommended.

Sample quote about life in the camps:

What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life--daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. [p. 85]