This classic is worth a look for anyone who is thinking about what their life is about. Frankl makes us think about meaning from the most extreme of perspectives, inside a concentration camp, and in the process helps us to understand that meaning itself is deeply tied to our own survival. Need to engage in some self-reflection, Frankl’s book is one place to start.

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Product Description

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 those he treated 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 by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club 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.

Born in Vienna in 1905 Viktor E. Frankl earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. He published more than thirty books on theoretical and clinical psychology and served as a visiting professor and lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, and elsewhere. In 1977 a fellow survivor, Joseph Fabry, founded the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. Frankl died in 1997.

Harold S. Kushner is rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, and the author of several best-selling books, including When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

William J. Winslade is a philosopher, lawyer, and psychoanalyst at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 165 pages

About the Author
Viktor E. Frankl was professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School until his death in 1997. His twenty-nine books have been translated into twenty-one languages. During World War II, he spent three years in Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps.

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Customer Reviews

A masterpiece of great dignity
While I have never really warmed up to the second part of Frankl's book, the "Experiences in a Concentration Camp" section has to be one of the finest examinations of meaning under terrible circumstances ever written. Frankl is insightful, unpretentious, incisive, elegant, brilliant. The first section is an existential masterpiece.

I guess my difficulty with logotherapy is that meaning as experienced and conveyed by Frankl feels like it gets reduced down when put forth as a psychiatric theory.

But part one is just brilliant beyond any attempt to review it.

A book of hope
"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl I had this book in my home library for a number of years, but had misplaced it somehow. Wanted to keep a copy to read again and to share. It is a "book for the ages." Frankl not only survived the horrible conditions of the Nazi prison work camps,but gives whoever will read his words great hope for the overcoming of whatever evils may beset us as human beings.

This Book is a Pure and True Path to Freedom
Beautifully written. Easy to comprehend. A very meaningful book. The Doctor presents a good mix of his psychological thesis balanced with very moving and sometimes heart chilling personal accounts and testimonials. Written to inspire the best in anyone, it will definitely open the readers mind to all types of new ways of thinking about and looking at the world and especially at mankind. It contains the formula for a great personal philosophy. I would recommend this book to anyone, but particularly those who have been affected by trauma and or suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I have yet to come across a book as inspirational. It is one of my favorites and I have given it as a gift to many whom I love. 5 Stars!