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Man's Search For Meaning
- ASIN : 1846041244
- Publisher : RHUK; Exported edition (7 February 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 160 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781846041242
- ISBN-13 : 978-1846041242
- Item Weight : 130 g
- Dimensions : 11 x 1 x 17.8 cm
Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust
A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances.
The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph.
Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.
“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for” - Viktor Emil Frankl's Man’s Search for Meaning is an account about all the experiences that he had at the concentration camp during the Second World War. Victor Frankl was a leading psychologist in Vienna when he was arrested for being a Jew during the Nazi regime. He survived holocaust and used his experiences to write this book.
This book describes Frankl’s observations about the various behaviours of his fellow inmates at the camp. His findings have formed a solid ground for psychological analysis, even today. He propounded the theory that it is Mans constant search for meaning that allows him to survive even the most brutal, the most degrading situations in his life.
He said there are only two races in the world, the decent and indecent. They will maintain their innate beliefs, no matter which side they are on. The decent ones will try to help the fellow human beings and the indecent ones will be selfish and serve themselves at the cost to the others.
Frankls views were different from those of the leading psychologist of his times, Freud and Adler. His research was intensely personal and unique. His findings of human behavior were based on the most extenuating circumstances that humans face. He suffered holocaust along with several other inmates and he observed their behavior closely. He found that those with a capability to focus on love were the ones that survived. He based this observation on a long walk he was forced into by his captors. His companion spoke about his wife.
This made Frankl think about his wife and the thought of her took his mind away from his current agony of being hit with rifle butts by his captors for dawdling.
This book is divided into two parts: Experiences in a Concentration Camp and Logotherapy in a Nutshell. This book instils our mind with the hope that even in the most absurd and painful times, we will figure out a way to stay positive and seem hopeful about the future.
Today, as new generations face new challenges and an ever more complex and uncertain world, Frankl’s classic work continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living, in spite of all obstacles.
The book has been listed as one of the 10 most influential books. It has a message of hope that has continued to inspire readers down the years
This seminal book, which has been called “one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought” by Carl Rogers and “one of the great books of our time” by Harold Kushner, has been translated into more than fifty languages and sold over sixteen million copies.
