Book Review Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl
The lessons of spiritual survival and pursuit of meaning in life!
A Brief:
Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph.D, was an Austrian Jewish Psychiatrist and a Holocaust survivor who coined the term “Logotherapy,” which explains the existential analysis to find meaning in life.
A summary:
Viktor was offered a visa to move to the USA by the U.S. embassy in Vienna on the eve of World War II, but he preferred to live with his parents and face the challenges with them. He spent three years in the Auschwitz Dachau concentration camps, and his whole family, including his parents, died there. While living in Nazi camps, he faced extreme hunger, fatal illness, and murderous living conditions. However, besides these brutal circumstances, somehow, he manages to find hope and meaning in living in concentration camps. His book “Man Search for Meaning” is considered the most influential book in the world; Psychologists and philosophers recommend it.
This book covered the most crucial philosophical question, “purpose and meaning of a man’s life,” and split into three sections:
1: Viktor Frankl’s experiences in concentration camps
The first section of the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” delineates the ruthless punishments every prisoner faced, even with “naked existence.” He further describes the three stages experienced by prisoners. In the first stage, prisoners were in extreme shock; the second phase was followed by developing apathy among them, and finally, the third phase was depersonalization when they were liberated.
2: Logotherapy (Introduced by Viktor) in a nutshell
In the second section, Fankl explains the difference between psychoanalysis and Logotherapy. Logotherapy is a therapeutic approach followed by three main concepts: freedom of will, will to meaning, and meaning of life. This concept also caters to the ideas of existential vacuum, the responsibility of survival, and existential frustrations. Frankl explains this therapy with the help of figurative examples and case studies.
3: Postscript: The Case For a Tragic Optimism
The third section of the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” is about applying logotherapy concepts and principles to the self. He deals with various issues people face, such as obsessive behavioural disorders, unemployment neurosis, aggression, depression, and other anxieties that can be cured and handled by applying the principles of Logotherapy.
3 powerful lessons to learn in the book “Man Search for Meaning.”
Lesson 1: Nietzsche's Quote
He who has a “Why” to live for can bear with almost any “How.”
Case 1:
Frankl fellow inmate named “Felix” dreamed he would get freedom by March 30, 1945. But as the days came closer, the war between the countries got worse, and he suddenly became ill and lost consciousness on March 30 and was ultimately found dead on March 31, 1945. Frankl explained that the cause of his inmate’s death was the expected liberation that did not come true, and he became severely disappointed; as a result, he found himself too weak to fight the typhus disease, which led him to death. The death rate of prisoners in the Nazi camps increased near the Christmas event of 1944 because they had a keen hope to return home this year.
Case 2:
Another Case that also represents the narrative of Why and How is:
Two prisoners were going to commit suicide but did not do that! Because they found the meaning of their terrible suffering! For one man, his child was waiting for him in another country, and for the second man, he was a scientist and had to compile the uncompleted scientific books.
Lesson 2: Love is the Ultimate goal a Man can Aspire to.
Frankl describes that a person can aspire to the highest level with love for the task and goal. For Frankl himself, the love of his wife kept him going through all the brutal suffering in the concentration camps.
Lesson 3: When we are no Longer Able to Change A Situation, We are Challenged to Change Ourselves.
Frankl made an essential point by suggesting a man whose wife died two years ago and that man was in severe depression. He changed his attitude to deal with the suffering. “What would have happened if he had died before her wife? And how his wife was suffering from the same condition he is facing? So, by putting that man in this situation, he changed his mindset to perceive the suffering differently.
So, ultimately, we cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to handle it and find meaning in it.
Critical analysis:
The book “ Man’s Search for Meaning” needs to include practices, validity, and presentation of procedures of Logotherapy. The concept of logotherapy applications is a philosophical approach and cannot be applied to everybody in every condition.
Undoubtedly, the ideas and fundamental issues about the meaning of life discussed in the book are noteworthy. I recommend this book to every reader as the first step into existential psychology.
I am Iqra, an enthusiastic blog writer,copywriter and book review writer. I will write SEO blogs and articles on beauty, tourism, technology, parenting, health and wellness, spirituality, and gardening niches with SEO competitor analysis and SEO keywords!
You can contact me through email: iqrayasragc@gmail.com
Thank you!
