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| Source - Higher Education Digest |
“The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life.”
- Viktor Frankl
All human beings require a meaning to be attached with all things they do or need to do in life because it provides a purpose to live and continue. Once individuals have an idea about the world and functioning of various aspects of life, they also go to great strengths to defend their ideas of life and everything it entails.
This observation led many psychologists to propose that people in life are probably motivated to find meaning in their lives and everything. It has now become truly important to find this meaning because it helps satisfy the answers we seek as living beings to - what I am, why I am living or existing, what is important to me, what am I supposed to do with my life, and in life, etc.
Introduction
Book’s Name - Man’s Search for Meaning (1946)
Author’s Name - Viktor Frankl
Genre - Psychology, Self-help, Autobiography
Language - English
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
Man’s Search for Meaning is the book an individual could always look up to and read for ways to seek answers in life and receive a deeper understanding about the same. The book provides an account of an individual’s experiences focusing on love, hope, responsibility, inner freedom, and the beauty to be found in both nature and art as means that help one endure and overcome acute distressing experiences.
The book also entails a part of which can be considered as a biography where Viktor shares the experiences of an individual as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp.
About the Author
Source - WordPress
Viktor Frankl was an Australian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. He was also the founder of psychotherapy called logotherapy which describes a search for life meaning as the central human motivational force.
Logotherapy is a part of existential and humanistic psychology theories recognized as the third school of Viennese Psychotherapy while the first school was created by Sigmund Freud, and the second by Alfred Adler.
Frankl is best recognized for his books Man’s Search for Meaning, The Will to Meaning, and Yes to Life: Despite Everything. He died on 2nd September 1997 in Vienna, Austria.
About the Book
Man’s Search for Meaning is an autobiographical book by Viktor Frankl that had been the best-selling book of its time and for years in succession. The book is based on Viktor’s experiences in various Nazi concentration camps.
The book is divided into two parts: Part one consists of Viktor’s analysis of experiences in concentration camps and Part two introduces his ideas of meaning and his therapy ‘Logotherapy’.
The book had also been said to belong to the list of top ten most influential books in the United States that later started receiving attention worldwide and is now recommended by most people, especially those studying and practicing in the field of psychology and psychiatry.
Man’s Search for Meaning had also sold over ten million copies at the time of Viktor’s death and has been translated into 24 languages.
Personal Opinion
According to me, the emphasis on having a positive attitude which was essential to survive the camps during the Nazi period by Viktor was probably the main highlight of the book in addition to Frankl’s idea of meaning an introduction to logotherapy.
Speaking from a personal perspective, Frankl’s concentration on having a positive attitude did not only apply well to experiences like those at camps but also in similarly distressing situations.
The book is an extraordinary piece by Frankl presenting a remarkable idea of how to seek a purpose or meaning in any situation that acts as an essential motivating factor. Every piece of information provided in the text infuses hope in its readers.
The various pathological terms mentioned by Frankl are also well explained with excellent figurative examples. And, like that for those of its readers not from a psychology background can easily grasp what exactly the author is trying to describe.
Author’s Focus
One of the main focuses lies on the brutality faced by prisoners of the Nazi camps during that period and how as years pass these prisoners pass through various phases in the camp and come to develop various pathologies of mind such as state of shock, depersonalization, developed apathy, etc.
His autobiography in Part one helps establish a smooth foundation on the pathologies discussed and its connection with the importance of the true meaning of life and love.
Famous Quotes
“Those who have a ‘why to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
“An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.”
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
The Bottom Line
I strongly recommend this book to all of you reading this article. It may also help in case any of you find yourself stuck in a Quarter-life or Midlife crisis.
Also read - Research Paper on Search for Meaning in Life
My ratings for this book - 5 on 5
Get your copy from Amazon - Man’s Search for Meaning
Written By - Umme-Aiman
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