Man's Search For Meaning

Dr. Frankl was already a psychiatrist at the time that he was a prisoner in Auschwitz, and some other camps, during WWII. It's the most interesting description of concentration life I've heard that I found bearable to listen to. He's very good at describing how being in a concentration camp affected the minds of the prisoners and also the guards and others who were in charge. The prisoners were all different psychologically. Some of them were destroyed mentally by the prison life. I common trait was becoming absorbed in the past to escape the unbearable present. Of course, I've seen this happen in everyday life with people who were not in concentration camps, which I think the main value of this book. His discription of psychology under these horrible conditions, one can recognize in the psychology of men one meets and knows in everyday life. He describes, too, how people acted when they were released, which was for many as difficult or even more so than adjusting to life in the camp. People often seemed indifferent to what the prisoner had just gone through, which affected different released prisoners in different ways. The strong men, like Dr. Frankl, used the concentration camp experience to grow spiritually and psychologically, but those kinds of men are few and far between.

After the War, Dr. Frankl became a practicing psychiatrist, and developed something he calls logotherapy. It's based on his idea that he developed while in the camps that man is searching for meaning in life above everything else. The men who could find some meaning in their concentration camp experience survived the best.

This book is especially wonderful if you are really interested in psychology and how people react under the most sever of circumstances, which, according to Dr. Frankil, is ever which way.

It has been many years since my original read of this book, and I won't let it happen again. This thought provoking book is a must read for everyone interested in the study of human behavior. Exceptionaly insightful!

This is a must read for all those "woe is me" people always complaining about everything. Man's Search for Meaning will enlighten you to what "having a bad day" really means. I applaud Viktor Frankl for his inner strength to survive such an ordeal and come away with such dignity and inner peace.