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. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, 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. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.
(back cover)
Es ist schwer in Worte zu fassen, wie sehr mich dieses Buch berührt hat. Die Art und Weise, wir Frankl das Leid fast wie ein Außenstehender analysieren kann, man aber gleichzeitig weiß dass er selbst betroffen war und auch nur deswegen die Analyse gelingt (wie er selbst zu Anfang direkt schreibt); All das macht dieses Buch einzigartig. Dabei auch seine Peiniger noch als Menschen darzustellen zeigt die Empathie, die dieser Mensch gehabt haben muss. Unglaublich beeindruckend.
This book was by far the most common answer in a thread I saw on Twitter about books on happiness. Based on Frankl's survival of Auschwitz, it's more intense than I had assumed. It's a great book, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
tl;dr: "Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how.'"
Review of "Man's Search for Meaning" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I have to say that this is one of my favorite books of all time. I wish I would have read this book at a younger age, when the world seemed so bleak, and the psychiatry of then (and still of today) reduced ones existential anguish to that of "chemical imbalance."
I am surprised that I had never heard of Logotherapy, and am surprised that even though this book is one of the most recommended books of all time, the messages and thought seem to still be so utterly ignored.
This book was so full of gems, that I read it at a snails pace and collected so many quotes along the way. Read it, and drink it in slowly like a fine wine.
Review of "Man's Search for Meaning" on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Interesting insights on how the magnitude of suffering and joy are independent of the size of the event.
Frankl has a few gems, but his thesis that suffering brings meaning to life and that life is meaningless without suffering is clearly a defensive reaction to living through Auschwitz. His observation that a belief in the meaninglessness of life combined with a focus on sexual pleasure (hedonism) leads to pansexuality is interesting. He advocates that the pleasure is an outgrowth of love, which to me seems like a too easy way of cutting that knot. I feel that Epicurus would have a lot of useful things to say here.
His general remarks on meaning in life were a bit too thin, though he explicitly prefaces his story with an apology that he cannot draw deeper insights from his own experience, and leaves it to others to complete the job.
His philosophy …
Interesting insights on how the magnitude of suffering and joy are independent of the size of the event.
Frankl has a few gems, but his thesis that suffering brings meaning to life and that life is meaningless without suffering is clearly a defensive reaction to living through Auschwitz. His observation that a belief in the meaninglessness of life combined with a focus on sexual pleasure (hedonism) leads to pansexuality is interesting. He advocates that the pleasure is an outgrowth of love, which to me seems like a too easy way of cutting that knot. I feel that Epicurus would have a lot of useful things to say here.
His general remarks on meaning in life were a bit too thin, though he explicitly prefaces his story with an apology that he cannot draw deeper insights from his own experience, and leaves it to others to complete the job.
His philosophy of logotherapy appears to me to be an overfitting activity. Combating depression or other suffering by grasping your situation firmly and shaking it like a snowglobe until meaning falls out. Now that a bad event is found to be meaningful, the pain will fall away. He only presents successes, but the principles are vague: like North Korean Juche or the Matrix, our experts can do it and tell you you're doing it wrong, but no one can be told what it is.
