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Trade Paperback
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9780807014271
Overview
Overview
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful. At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America. Beacon Press, the original English-language publisher of Man's Search for Meaning, is issuing this new paperback edition with a new Foreword, biographical Afterword, and classroom materials to reach new generations of readers.
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Frankl, Viktor E.
- ISBN: 9780807014271
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 8.04 x 0.52
- Number Of Pages: 192
- Publication Year: 2006
Customer Reviews
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5 ★
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Man's Search for Meaning
Margaret M. - 5 years 2 months agoSometimes tough reading but his experiences are enough to make a person sit up and pay attention. We see man at his best and his worst during the war and especially at a concentration camp.
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Essential reading
Nelda M. - 6 years 2 months agoThought provoking book. I couldn’t believe it was not required ready in my philosophy classes. Victor Frankl uses his incarceration in a concentration camp and translates that experience into his philosophy, logotherapy. This is a more introspective type of analysis rather than the more popular retrospective analysis. This is a must read for any student of philosophy.
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On Reading Man's Search for Meaning
Matthew M. - 6 years 4 months agoIn the silent moments when we are freed from the prison of distraction, primordial questions will surface: What is the purpose of my life? Why does peace never stay? What is the meaning of my suffering? What is the meaning of my life? Is this all there is? Surely, no one else has felt what I feel, right? Why am I plagued by this anxiety, this sorrow, this boredom, this despair? What will make me happy? Who am I? Why does evil exist? What is the Holy Spirit doing in my life? What is God’s will for me? The list goes on. We may answer some of these questions or we may be unaware of their silent presence. Questions break through the noise with striking clarity in the midst of deep suffering. Viktor Frankl’s now famous book Man’s Search for Meaning wrestles with this idea: What is the meaning of my suffering? His first hand account of life in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust are haunting and honest. I was struck by his immense perseverance and the sheer luck—or rather, grace—that saved his life over and over again. The voice of nihilism anesthetized many prisoners. The belief that life is meaningless is precisely the result of the cruel methods employed in the camps. At one point, Frankl shares how he refrained from helping a clearly disturbed but dreaming man. He hesitated because he knew that once awake, the sleeper would again realize the horror of his reality; at least in his dreams he could imagine he was anywhere but the camps. Frankl was able to transcend his suffering and find meaning in a mad world. Despite the chaos and labor and beatings and starvation and stench of death, he chose to see the beautiful things, luxuriating in whatever brief moments of peace he could find. He found meaning in an apparently meaningless environment. He found meaning in imagining the beauty of his wife’s face as his group marched miles and miles to work. These small moments brought consolation and glimmers of hope that one way or another, his present predicament would someday end. The choice is left to each one of us to find the meaning presented to us in our own lives and seek to answer the nagging, but beautiful questions; if only we are able to recognize that they are in fact beautiful, good, and true. Only we can choose what to make of them if we choose to listen to the silence and keep searching. #SummerReading
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Great read
Reed N. - 6 years 4 months agoVery enlightening piece of philosophy expanded with real life stories from a unique period of time. The reader must extrapolate their own meaning from the stories told, very thought provoking.
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Man’s Search For Meaning
Brandy C. - 6 years 5 months agoWonderful Book! This book should be on everyone’s bookshelf.